This is great stuff Susan. Sorry to revive such and old post, but wanted to thank you for the detail. Curios if you are still using MLO and wanted more info on how you set up your AM/PM routine. I have need of something similar, but not sure how to set it up in MLO, or if, in fact, I should do it that way at all.
On Sunday, November 27, 2005 at 1:38:37 AM UTC-5, MomGeek wrote: > > Scoobie: > > I am a little hesitant to give my current outline as an example of > something which "works", I am simply experimenting for the moment... > > I had success w/ "The FlyLady" for awhile, but my constant need to > revise things get the best of me while doing that program, because I > was doing it all on paper and I was constantly going back into Word to > re-do my plans. I have known for quite some time that I needed a > computerized tool which would allow me to make mid-course corrections > with relative ease. I am hoping MLO will give me both the flexibility > and structure I need to keep on top of life's many demands. But I am > still testing the waters, so bear with me! > > With that disclaimer out of the way.... here is my current outline: > > > Tyranny of the Urgent (temporary category - explained below) > Daily > AM Routine > PM Routine > Before Bed Routine > Weekly > Monday - Personal Project Day > Tuesday - Home Blessing Day > Wednesday -Menu&GroceryList+ZoneCleaningDay > Thursday - GroceryShopping/ErrandsDay > Friday - Paperwork & Family Finances Day > Saturday - Family Projects & Fun Day > Sunday - The Lord's Day & Weekly Review > Monthly (Zones) > Z#1 - Entries & Dining Room > Z#2 - Kitchen > Z#3 - Bathrooms & Laundry > Z#4 - Bedrooms > Z#5 - Family/Living Rooms > School > class 1 > class 2 > class 3 > planning beyond this semester > Work > project 1 > project 2 > project 3 > misc work interests/plans > Roles: > Self - Spiritual/Mental > Spouse/Partner > Mom > College Student > Professional Development > Friend/Church Family > Grand-daughter/Daughter/Sister/Aunt > School/Church Volunteer > <inbox> > > The first parent category, "Tyranny of the Urgent", is a concession to > the fact I don't fully understand/trust MLO's todo view algorithm. I > figure I can zoom in on this branch each day, especially because I have > been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off since > starting college classes in August, and consequently have a few things > I *must* attend to this next week. In theory, within a few weeks I > will get caught up enough, and/or grow confident enough in MLO's todo > view algorithm, to no longer be ruled by the "Tyranny of the Urgent". > > I initially tried assigning "places" to my "roles" but that didn't work > out too well, when I scrolled through the places in the todo view, I > rarely had anything show up under these places. > > Consequently, I decided to sort my <someday/maybe> projects by role. > When I do my weekly review I will set priorities for these roles, I > will *try* to make sure there is an acceptable distribution across my > roles in the items I set as high priorities. > > The fact is, many of the items listed under "roles" become "hardscape" > items - for example I am trying to make sure I include two visits to my > grandmother each month, because she's 92 and slipping fast due to > Alzheimers. > > For the past week have been using the "rapid task entry" feature very > heavily, as items enter my "inbox" on my MLO list, I assign them to > either a day of the week, for household maintenance/flylady items, or > to school or work (for the hours I am working at my desk while the kids > are at school, or in the evenings) > > Thoughts, project plans, "someday/maybes" pretty much get sorted under > the "roles" area. > > I am glad the trial period for MLO is as long as it is, since I have > needed a few weeks just to get going with this, and now that I have > most everything entered, it will be an interesting month (especially > being December!) to see if MLO *works* for me. > > I can say this much, so far the daily todo lists seem to be fairly on > target; granted at times the todo list has given me a bit of a jolt, > because my mind was on doing this or that (work projects or school), > while the todo list told me I *really* needed to get x,y&z (unload the > dishwasher/plan dinner) taken care of prior to turning my attention to > school or work. > > This is good - it's EXACTLY what I need! I have left so much of the > housekeeping slide since starting school/career preparation - it's made > me wonder if I am crazy to think I can have a life outside of wife/mom. > With my youngest now in kindergarten, the gameplan has been that I > would start contributing financially in the near future. I need to get > myself/ my family organized if I am going to pull this off! > > My goal is three-fold - to keep up with the stuff which needs to be > done daily, weekly & monthly, to do the school/work stuff I need to do, > and to also not forget about the *important* things in life. > > I have too often hyperfocused in on one aspect of my life while > everything else fell to the wayside. That worked okay when my primary > role was Stay-at-Home-Mom (I was even homeschooling for 5 years, so > just about everything in our lives revolved around homelife, which was > perfect for me.) Now I need to be so many places in a weeks time, and > shift gears so often, that I need to get to get "my life organized" or > else 5 additional lives suffer greatly - my husband and four children! > > Probably much more than you asked for... but I know I always like to > read the rational behind a gameplan... I'll check back in around the > first of the year with a report. ;-) > > The most difficult aspect of placing items in my todo list is to fight > the urge to place everything in "urgent"+"high priority" mode. > Separating household cleaning/maintenance into assigned days makes it > easier for me to set priorities. Then when that day comes some things > might get checked off w/o getting done, but with the "reoccurance" set > for the next week, I know I'll find that item back on my list the next > week. I am trying to set hh chores for urgent/high priority only if > they were skipped the previous week. Daily items are ALWAYS > urgent/high priority. > > Thus, the kitchen floor is spot cleaned daily, but might not, in fact, > get washed every week. If "wash the kitchen floor" shows up as an > "urgent/high priority" on Tuesday (home blessing day) then I *should* > remember that it didn't get washed the week before. Of course if it is > so terribly bad that it is obviously in need of a good mopping ASAP, I > can always set the priority for 'mop kitchen floor' to "urgent/high" > and even (if it's really bad) take it out of the weekly reoccurance > cycle. Since 'wash kitchen floor' is still listed under Tuesday in my > outline, I should remember to reset my reoccurance for washing kitchen > floor back to Tuesdays when I do my next weekly review. > > Writing this all out has taken some time, but it's been a good > exercise. I hope it helps another multi-tasking mom out there in > brainstorming how she's going to structure her outline. I would love > some input from other moms! > > Susan > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/436e9c4c-c0ce-4828-aaff-da4084f9f99e%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
