Organized Living: Weekly Planner

In the New Year effort to get organized I decided to reinstate the planning printables that I created. I previously posted about the Weekly Dumplist and have given it an update. Now called the Weekly Planner, I think it's better suited for its real use. The Weekly Planner is an itemized to-do list that helps you see all the tasks for the week and organize them per day. It's a great tool for a designer like me or anyone else that just has a lot of things to do!

Click here to download the printable PDF to-do list.

In the top right you can write down your project and the date followed by a brief overview for the week. Take a minute and write down any appointments or other items that are already scheduled. There's a box for each day giving you plenty of room to make notes. This is a great place to add doctor visits, birthdays, or even family dinner here in this section.

On the left is the big list. Start at the top line and add a task, then another one. Get all of the things you need to do out of your brain and on to this piece of paper. As you start writing you'll start to remember more things that you need to do so keep writing. Write EVERYTHING you need to do on this list. It might not all get done this week but by writing everything down you won't forget something.

Now you can break up the week into days. Read down your list. Are any of the items urgent? If they are then put an X on the corresponding line in the Urgent column. Read through your list again and think about which items need to be done first and which can be accomplished later in the week. Assign a day to them in the Date Assigned column, I use M, T, W, Th, F as my shorthand. Take into consideration how long a task will take you to complete and maybe put one longer project on each day. Also be sure to space out your tasks throughout the week, not everything needs to be done on Monday.

The next step is to get to work! After you've completed each task on the list then put an X in the Complete box. I scratch out the whole line, too! By Friday you should have everything done!

Click here to download the printable PDF to-do list.

I've also included it in the righthand column of the blog if you need to come back and grab some fresh prints! -->

New day, new year, new thoughts

I'm happy to welcome a new year. 2012 was hard and it will be good to have a new start. I'm not into resolutions but there are some things I'd like to change so today is a good day to make personal goals.

I perpetually struggle with organization and knowing myself I am not going to resolve to be more organized because I won't. I will set myself some achievable, specific goals that could turn into long-term habits. For example, about halfway through 2012 I decided to knit daily. It took a little time for me to ramp up to that but now I am more productive than ever. I even managed to knit a couple of Christmas gifts (and mail them!) by Christmas along with knitting new samples for my Ewe Ewe and Heather Ink pattern lines. Knitting daily has become a good part of my routine rather than a stressful, rushed burden. I'm taking this goal-turned-productive-habit as inspiration for this new set of goals. Here are my ideas for three simple goals:

1. Make something every week. I am always up to something. There's always a new project, recipe or tutorial that I've got my hands in and I think it would be a good idea to keep track of them. I love to cook, knit and design and making new things usually involves learning something new. I want to remember, share and reference those somethings. I'll try to post a project each week!

2. Take time to plan. The day, the week, the month. At work I can easily get caught up in the "putting out fires" methodology. That doesn't serve anyone well. I hate being rushed and why should I be, I work for myself! Taking the time to plan the day, planning out the course of a new project, and maybe putting deadlines on a monthly calendar could really improve my workflow and in turn positively affect my creativity. I also don't want to get thrown off course if my plan doesn't work out for a day or two. I need to just realign and get back on track. I have some good tools for this and I will write more blog posts about time management and project planning. If you have any good ideas please share them! I love to learn how other people work and organize.

3. Keep the common area clean. My husband and I both work from home and we do a good job of working during work hours and stopping work as if we were at an office. We have seperate offices that are set up with the tools we use to work. Neither of us are good at keeping these areas tidy. We work in a flurry, we always have and we always will. But when we leave work I want the flurry to stop. I want to keep the living room, kitchen island and dining room table free of chaos. I'm not sure how to manage this other than to start today with my already tidied home. This is the hardest and most daunting goal for me. One day at a time says Fly Lady: I am not behind! I will not try to catch up; I will jump in today.

What are your goals? Is today the day you're going to start one? It's ok if it isn't, just think about it until you feel inspired to make a change because then the change will last.

Pleaseeeeee!!!!

Working from home gives you the opportunity to really get to know your pets and all their quirks. When I worked out of the house I was certain that the dogs would sleep all day and then be ready to play by the time I got home. Being home means they don't sleep as often and they're ready to play, bark at the mailman or pathetically beg for a tiny morsel of my lunch. Lola was laying on the floor with her neck stretched as far as it would go just so she could rest her chin on the edge of my chair. It looked really uncomfortable and entirely hilarious. 

Organized Living: Weekly Dumplist

Getting organized is a constant struggle for me. Is it for you, too? I always think that once I'm organized I should stay organized but of course that's not the way it works. There's always something new to do, a new project coming in, a phone call with another request and before I know it I have notes spread across my desk on top off all the other things I was supposed to do today. A to-do list is ever-changing and always expanding so it's silly to think that I'll ever be finished getting organized.

I've tried a million different things to help me stay on top of my tasks, everything from paper journals to iPhone calendars that sync to five other apps and various things always fall by the wayside. A project doesn't get done, I'm rushing to meet a deadline or maybe I forget to make a phone call and then I start to stress about when I'm going to fit another task in to my already busy day. The life of a small business owner is a little insane and there's no time add more tasks.

So how do I manage freelance design clients, a new yarn company and a household? I do it with this:

The Weekly Dumplist. Click here to download the PDF.

This is your new master to-do list! I made the Weekly Dumplist a downloadable PDF so you can print off a new page each week because starting with a fresh list each Monday is the key to success. In the top right you can write down your project and the date. I usually have three sheets like this for each week. One for my Heather Ink, my graphic design business, another for my largest freelance client, and the third for Ewe Ewe Yarns. I have enough tasks each week for each business to fill up an individual page so three it is.

On the righthand column is a brief overview for the week, take a minute and write down any appointments or other items that are already scheduled. There's a box for each day giving you plenty of room to make notes. Add doctor visits, birthdays, or even family dinner here in this section.

Then comes the big list, the dumplist. Start at the top line and add a task, then another one. Get all of the things you need to do out of your brain and on to this piece of paper. As you start writing you'll start to remember more things that you need to do so keep writing. Write EVERYTHING you need to do on this list. It might not all get done this week but by writing everything down you won't forget something.

Ok, do you have everything down? There's nothing else floating around in your mind? Yes there is, write it down!

Now let's segment the items up into days. Read down your list. Are any of the items urgent? If they are then put an X on the corresponding line in the Urgent column. Read through your list again and think about which items need to be done first and which can be accomplished later in the week. Assign a day to them in the Date Assigned column, I use M, T, W, Th, F as my shorthand. Take into consideration how long a task will take you to complete and maybe put one longer project on each day. Also be sure to space out your tasks throughout the week, not everything needs to be done on Monday.

The next step is to get your calendar and file the tasks you've labeled M on to Monday in your calendar. It doesn't matter if you use a paper calendar or an electronic one, all that matters is that you transfer each item to its assigned day. After you've assigned the task to the calendar then put an X in the Assigned column, I scratch out the whole line too. When you're done you'll have your week planned out and no task will be left undone.

As the days pass cross off the tasks on your calendar. You're done with the item so it's time to move to the next one and by the Friday you should have everything done!

What about new items for next week? There's always emails coming in and clients calling with new ideas, right? Well I keep my Weekly Dumplist nearby and jot down tasks for next week. Then on Monday morning when I'm making my fresh list I put those items first and then start listing other tasks. Before you know it you'll stop worrying about what needs to be done because things are getting done!

I really hope the Weekly Dumplist can help you with your overcrowded schedule. Just remember that everyone is trying to stay organized and on top of a mountain of work tasks, home projects and family commitments. You're not alone and your work here is never done!

Click here to download the Weekly Dumplist.

A bit of today

It's good for me to take a minute and reflect on my day. Since I have a freelance business and a yarn company my days are usually one big to-do list that spills into the next day and the next day and the next day. This keeps happening until the weekend when I sit around thinking about the list of things that needs to be done. It's not a good cycle and one that I'm trying very hard to break. A good way for me to do that is to stop for a minute and reflect on what I actually HAVE accomplished in a day instead of what still needs to be done.

So here's a look at my day today how I like to think of it. There's my keyboard in the background, my pen tablet for design, my planner, the knitting pattern I designed, wrote and photographed and last by not least, my iPhone which is never more than 3 feet away. I crossed 10 things off my list today! I think what I need to come to terms with is that my list will never get smaller so I just need to embrace the chaos and learn to love it. It's a GOOD thing that the list doesn't get smaller because that means I get to keep working!