90-Day Life Challenge: The Daily Dozen [Productivity Edition]

Day 14 of the 90-Day Life Challenge is going to bring another Daily Dozen, but this one is a Productivity list. Everybody needs a list like this, and I'm finally creating one for myself that keeps me from being a completely ineffective scatter-brain.

1. Rise before the sun. I have chosen 4:30am as my rise-and-shine time. It seems insane, but I do seem to naturally wake up before the 5am alarm I've always set. So why not push it a little? 
2. My 3 Most Important Tasks [MITs] must be completed/addressed before I do anything else. In the daily planner, this section is indicated by the "Must Do" section.
3. Follow the Pomodoro method of productivity. This one is a personal favorite at the moment because I have a tendency to scatter-and-flounder when working on important tasks. Then my time management and effectiveness suffer and I feel crappy about the amount of time I put into my tasks. A separate post detailed the Pomodoro method will follow, but the basic idea is that for every 25 minutes for focused work, you take a 5 minute "brain break" to boost efficiency and productivity.
4. Get organized. I'm definitely not yet, but I am actively working to improve my organization. Right now, I spent 10-15 minutes every day focusing on a specific area that needs improvement. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, I will be working on our household paperwork.
5. Prioritize my "to do" list. This process is 2-fold. First, I needed to select the perfect set of planning materials--for more information, please read my posts about creating my Daily Planning Binder. Second, I need to prioritize my tasks. This harkens back to my first experience with Franklin Covey when I was in high school, nearly 15 years ago. Basically, tasks receive a lettered priority rating (i.e. A = crucial; B = important; C = flexible). Then, once tasks are given a rating, they are then ranked in order of importance with numbers.
6. Whenever a new task crosses my plate, use the Eisenhower Box. This copy of the Eisenhower Box was retrieved from the Huffington Post (article linked HERE). It is extremely easy to understand, and as long as you follow the guidelines for each task, you will never have more than you can handle at any given time.
   
7. Use the "just one more thing" rule. I made this one up myself, and am a big fan. The idea is that whatever I'm doing, be it scrubbing the toilet, or tidying up the kitchen, I will find one more 2-minute task to complete. For instance, I am scrubbing the toilet, so I will take 2 minutes to spray a rag and wipe down the outside of the toilet or a few spots I see on the tub. Saves time during the weekly cleaning later.
8. "Chunk" my tasks together. Simply put, when I begin to work on emails, I will only work on emails across the board until they are finished. No shifting gears.
9. Set aside time for a "2-minute rush" at the end of the day. Any small tasks that have accumulated through the course of the day, spend 20-30 minutes at the end of the day and knock about 10 off of your to do list.
10. Stop multi-tasking. Turn off your phone, put on some light ambient music, and clear your space of distractions when beginning to work on a task. In the short-term, it might feel better to have the TV on in the background--believe me, I'm there--but it won't help you get the work done any faster. 
11. When you are feeling overwhelmed, smile. I mean it, smile, and say, "I forgive me for struggling, but I'm not done yet." This is a very difficult thing for me to do, but I am slowly learning to allow the bad feelings to happen, and to let them pass through me. I will survive them, and I will complete my goals as planned.
12. Reward yourself for a job well done. Positive reinforcement will always keep you coming back for more. 

I hope you found some of the tips helpful, they have been tested on my end and I am happy to report some success in my personal life. Let me know if you have some suggestions too. I'm all ears :)

Happy reading,

Your Devoted Friend

90-Day Life Challenge: Daily Planning [Creating My Life Binder]

Ah, I am nearly done with my Daily Planner, and now the last step is the finding my perfect daily planning form. I think I did, and it's also by Eliza Ellis Beautiful Organizers (linked HERE). If you are interested in seeing my choices for the Monthly and Weekly planning pages, you can view these posts HERE (Monthly) and HERE (Weekly).

Materials I Am Using For My Daily Planner

From her exquisite set of FREE printables, I have selected the "Oh Happy Day" planner in the color "Happy" (light, sunny yellow). This day planner is a two-page planner that I have printed back-to-back. The two pages have 4 columns of organization:

• Column 1 - Appointments to be scheduled during a 16-hour day
• Column 2 - Gives you space for your 3 most important tasks of the day, plus additional space for notes
• Column 3 - A "To Do" list for whatever I hope to accomplish in a day
• Column 4 - Is entirely about personal care, with spaces for meal-tracking, water intact, workout, daily habits, and groceries to purchase

Basically, it's a little bit of everything, so I always feel like I have a way to organize my thoughts and random items that suddenly appear on my "To Do" list as the day progresses.

Putting The Daily Planner Together

Alright, that pretty much covers the planning components of my Daily Planner, but there are just a few small details to attend to: First, I need binder covers and a spine cover for the planner. And second, I need a few accessories handy so I can stay organized.

The cover was easy. All I did was grab some taupe-y cardstock that I had lying around and go into Microsoft Word to create my cover. I wanted simple, non-specific in terms of date--I am far too lazy to keep remaking a cover annually--, and also something briefly descriptive of the contents. Obviously, I did not go creatively overboard, but I am pleased with the finished product.

The only change that I would make to my Daily Planner is to purchase some cute washi tape in 3 different styles for daily, weekly, and monthly pages. I can line the outside of the page to easily access the section I am looking for.

Hope this inspires somebody to plan their day!

Happy reading,

Your Devoted Friend

90-Day Life Challenge: Weekly Planning [Creating My Life Binder]

As promised, I am back today with the Weekly Planning installment of my quest to create my Life Binder. I mentioned this in the previous post about Monthly Planning (linked HERE), but I'll reiterate--I needed to make my planner a more portable and separate item from my all-encompassing Life Binder. I chose a simple 1/2-inch white binder that fits neatly in my satchel.

Materials I Am Using For My Weekly Planner

The "Family Weekly Planner" and the "Weekly Schedule" are both printed from Easy Life Planners (linked HERE), which cost me $19.99. To make this two-sided form, I just print two pages from the "Life Planner" section back-to-back. The second form entitled "This Week" is a FREE printable from Eliza Ellis Beautiful Printables (linked HERE). Luckily, if you are not a fan of the exact style--or the color I've chosen, for that matter--then you can select from 9 styles and 6 color options.

I've chosen these forms from -- for the following reasons:

• As with the Monthly Planning pages, these pages are not date-specific and once owned, can be used indefinitely.
• The "Family Weekly Planner" is used to list the main appointments, events, and work engagements for myself, DH, Wee-One, "Other" (family, etc...), and a final column for notes (babysitter-needed, switch cars, etc...).
• The "Weekly Schedule" allows me to block off the total amount of time I'm spending on these engagements and make time for my family and friends.

I absolutely adore Irma's "This Week" form. I should mention that she has numerous FREE printable weekly and daily planners. "This Week" is a two-page document that I print as another double-sided form. The form acts as a perfect complement to the previously mentioned forms by --:

• The front page is a 2x4 grid blocks for all seven days of the week and an extra notes block. Rather than list appointments/events/work engagements, I list all of the daily events that can't or shouldn't be scheduled, i.e. blogging tasks, special friends/family time, side income tasks, chores, fun things to do with Wee-One or DH.
• The "notes" section allows me to list items that I have not assigned to a day yet.
• The back page has a "To Do" list, weekly dinner planner, and additional notes section.
• "To Do" list items are singular tasks or steps of a project that take no more than 10-20 minutes each. Ideally, I prefer to knock out 3-5 per day.
• The weekly dinner planner is nice because it keeps me from wasting food that I have on hand and time spent trying to figure out what we are going to eat.
• I love the additional notes section that gives me a space to list my successes with goals

*Action: The Weekly Planner will be finalized on the Sunday of the previous week, and reviewed nightly for 2-5 minutes while I am working on my Daily Planner.

Developing The Home Management Binder

The 1/2-inch binder will serve wonderfully for my Daily Planner purposes. I will store the items in order of daily, weekly, and then monthly planning forms. The reasoning being that this will be in order of most-to-least referenced forms. 

Happy reading,

Your Devoted Friend

90-Day Life Challenge: Monthly Planning [Creating My Life Binder]

This is a rather obvious step for a person to take when he/she is trying to achieve peace and organization, so I don't know what has taken me so long. I'm such a micro-managing, OCD person by nature, and I just can't seem to settle on any one design that I like. Since I am not talented enough to create my own printables now, I will use resources that I've gathered and link all the materials I've used.

The "Creating My Life Binder" series will come in multiple parts--hopefully, culminating in a beautiful personal management system that will be completed by the end of my 90-Day Life Challenge.

Today, I am beginning with my Monthly Planning.

Materials I Am Using For My Monthly Planner

The "Month at a Glance" form (linked HERE) was purchased from SecretOwlSociety's Etsy shop. It comes as part of a larger purchase called the Ultimate Life Binder. I really appreciate this printable for several reasons:

• It isn't date-specific. Once purchased, it can be used indefinitely.
• The categories listed are: Top 3 Goals, To Do, Appointments & Events, Bills to Pay, Income and Savings Goals, and an End of Month Review.
• This form is a wonderful complement to a standard monthly calendar, which gives me the dates and perspective, while this form allows me to prepare better for these events and reflect on my successes/failures of the month.

The "Plan Ahead 2016-2017 Monthly Planner" was purchased at CVS for $6.99, and it's well worth the purchase. The blocks on the calendar are large enough to use a small Post-It Note if I need to highlight a specific event. 

*Action: The Monthly Planner will be briefly reviewed daily for 2-5 minutes to remind myself of upcoming events.

Developing The Home Management Binder

Upon further reflection as I was discussing the monthly planning feature I am using, I realized that my Home Management Binder will ultimately be 2 binders: a small 1/2-inch binder for the "Day Planner" that comes with me, and the larger 1 1/2-inch binder that contains the blog planning, home maintenance checklists, etc...

Hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to creating my personal organizational system. My next installment will be introducing the Weekly Planning choices, so stay tuned.

Happy reading,

Your Devoted Friend