Organize Your Life One Step At a Time

So, it may not be of surprise to you but I am not called the “the list mom” by accident. I am known for creating lists on lists on lists. It’s like Pandora’s box in the best form ever! I start a list, (let’s call it the mother list), and then I make a list from one of the action items on that list and then before I know it, this mother list has child lists and those children have children. See how that works? This article will walk you through steps to organize your life one step at a time.

It’s a crazy addiction but the feeling of crossing something off the list is so incredibly satisfying to me. Can you relate? Yes, there are days when I actually put, “take a shower” on my list. I know I will ultimately take a shower every day, but since it’s something I get to cross off, it makes me happy 😊.

With all this said, there is a dirty little secret in all of this. Since I have so many lists, I will never have complete satisfaction because there are always plates spinning. But I hide that secret with risk of going insane and I live in my little perfect world of knocking one thing off at a time, one list at a time. In all honesty, I am the type of person that likes to be productive. I am not the type that likes to sit and Zen if you will. It would be great maybe one day, but for now, there is too much that needs to happen and I am not stopping.

1. Get a List App on Your Phone

This is the first step that will help you organize your life one step at a time. Alright, so to start off, everyone needs to have an app where they can create these said lists. I have Google Keep notes. It is simple to download, easy to use and they have check boxes that allow you to “cross things off” your list. There are many apps out there that do similar things but I just chose this one. You can also color coordinate your lists which is super. I really like this app because you can access your lists anywhere, on any device, at any time.

2. Start Off with Monthly Lists

Let’s talk about your busy month one month at a time and how you can organize your month into weeks and days. Now, there are certain things that happen every month, let’s start there. To start planning your month you will first start by adding in all of the holidays and birthdays to your list. They happen the same date every month so these items will stay static. Think of this as a calendar hidden inside your list. There are also events that happen every year around the same time, i.e. your kids first day of school, last day of school, etc. The reason you will start here first is because there are always prep and action items that come along with each holiday, birthday and event.

Once you have all of those items added to your list you will want to add everything that you will need to do for that particular event. Let’s start with December for example. Below is what my December list might look like:

December

• Christmas Decorations (Activity)
  • Put out all Interior Christmas Decorations
  • Put out all Exterior Christmas Decorations
• Purchase gifts for St. Nick Day (Activity)
  • Set a reminder for kids to put their shoes out
• Elf of the Shelf (Activity)
  • Come up with a list of ideas for the month
  • Add daily reminder to my calendar
• Christmas Gifts (although I typically start this way earlier) (Activity)
  • Make a list of people I need to buy for
  • Set up a budget for each person as well as an overall budget
  • Have my kids write out their Christmas lists
  • Add the items to their Amazon Christmas lists
  • Come up with ideas to purchase for everyone else
  • Purchase Gifts
  • Wrap Gifts
  • Check everyone off the list as I purchase the gifts and wrap them
  • Organize the gifts by family
• Christmas Cards (Activity)
  • Set up an appointment with a professional photographer
  • Pick a backdrop from the options for the professional photographer
  • Pick an available time slot
  • Coordinate all the kid’s outfits with the backdrop
  • Update the mailing list for the Christmas Cards
  • Print all Mailing Labels for the Christmas Cards
  • Choose a Christmas Card and order them
  • Purchase bulk stamps
  • Put together and mail out
• See Santa (Event)
  • Get outfits for the kids
  • Plan a day to see Santa
• Christmas break activities (Event)
  • Find a few things to do for the kids on Christmas break
  • Set up days to do said activities
  • Purchase tickets if necessary
• Ugly Sweater Christmas party (Event)
  • Buy ugly Christmas sweater
  • Ask what I can bring
  • Bake or purchase items I am bringing
• Kids Christmas Program at School (Event)
  • Purchase outfits or find outfits for them to wear
• Christmas Eve (Holiday) Prep (Activity)
  • Pack Diaper bag and Presents in the Car
  • Go over to my mother-in-law’s and help out
  • Participate in Annual tradition of cookie baking
  • Bake Casseroles and refrigerate for Christmas morning
  • Bake for Christmas Day Celebration
• Christmas Day (Holiday)
  • Pack the diaper bag and Presents in the Car
  • Tidy up kids’ gifts from Santa
  • Bring Baked goods

I am sure there are more and things always pop up, but those items seem to be my static December to-dos.

3. Add in Any Activities That Are on Your Kid’s School Calendar

The next step to help you organize your life one step at a time, is make sure you add any activity that is on your kids’ newsletter or calendar that gets sent home from school. They typically hand out a calendar per month or per year. For example, Mother’s Day Tea Party, Graduation, etc. I add those on my list because under Mother’s Day Tea Party, I know I will need to find a babysitter or make arrangements for my husband to take off work.

4. Add in Other Events That You Have Been Invited to or Are Planning

The other events are the events that come up new every year such as, a Wedding, Baby shower, Wedding shower etc. I obviously put those on my list as well because I know I will need to purchase a gift, find a baby sitter, an outfit etc. If I am the one planning one of those said events then, yep you guessed it, that will have its very own lists as well 😊.

5. Add in Your Standard Appointments

You will also want to add in all your appointments. This will help you get another step closer to being able to organize your life. With three kids, a husband and myself, there is always an appointment of some kind. There are dentist appointments every six months, yearly physicals, and eye doctor appointments before school every year. I also get my yearly physical and blood work done. I have a skin doctor appointment every year because of my fair skin and I see the dentist every six months, eye doctor every year etc. These are standard appointments that happen every year around the same time, so why not add them ahead time for each month.

6. Add in Your Goals

The next step to help organize your life one step at a time is to add in your goals. Goals are also very much incorporated into my lists. Again, I always have a list of the goals I want to accomplish short term and long term. I incorporate what I need to do in order to obtain those goals into my lists. It helps me stay on track. For example, every quarter I do a detox, just to cleanse my body and reset. It’s a seven-day detox and I have specific foods I need to eat on those seven days. Every quarter, I will add my foods and then separate them by day once I get to that month.

7. Add in Cleaning Routines

The other list of items is more of an organization list. Season changes are big. Not only is spring cleaning a must but swapping out my kid’s clothes as well as my own happens every season. Every May I add an item to change out all of my kids’ clothes. Out with the sweaters and pants and in with the shirts and shorts. Now, I am in the Midwest so season changes are often here. Adjust this as needed. I make sure I always keep some long sleeves and pants (solids mostly) for the chilly mornings or nights.

I also have a toy purge session once a quarter. My children are fortunate in that they receive many toys from all of their wonderful relatives. They end up with so many toys that they don’t even know what they have and I swear they can’t focus on any one toy because there is so much. So, every quarter we purge. Whatever they haven’t played with or don’t know they have, gets donated. There are so many unfortunate people in this world and we love to pay it forward and help those in need. It brings me bliss to do this and at the same time clear out the unnecessary items. So yep, you guessed it, toy purge gets put on the list!

8. Add in Everything Else

Once I have established the monthly events and activities and they are all on my list, the last part is just adding everything else. Things are always coming up as a mom of 3 so there are things being added on the daily. It’s at this time where I start organizing by week and then once that week comes, I organize what I need to get done that day. I know this seems exhausting but in all actuality it is not. It is organized, keeps my goals intact, and allows me to always be ahead of the game. I realize I perform much better when things are planned. As you can tell, I am not a procrastinator. I was not designed that way and it gives me anxiety thinking about that.

Summary

To summarize, once you implement these simple ideas, you should be at the point where you can now organize your life one step at a time. You need to start with each month and add the birthdays, anniversaries, holidays etc. to your list. Next, add all of the kid’s activities, sports registration dates, book fairs, etc. to your list.  Then, add in a rough estimate for all of the appointments, doctor, dentist, eye etc. Take a look at your goals and incorporate those into your monthly, weekly and daily lists.

Lastly, add in the organization items you will ultimately need to do every year. The rest is the hundreds of other things that pop up that you will need to add. Always start one month at a time, then break it down by week, then at the beginning of every week, look at what you can accomplish each day! Simple right!?! Get started!

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