As a stay at home mom and also working from home, it can be a challenge and a bit overwhelming to remember all appointments, daily “To Do” lists, meals for the week, and work priorities. I used to carry my agenda book, a binder for my business, and a separate calendar but that felt very inefficient. I’m a bit old fashioned in that I like to write everything down and see it visually (in one place) instead of in my technology or smartphone.
Start with finding an adorable binder that you are proud to carry and look at everyday.
Then figure out what categories most fit into your life. For me I chose:
- My Daily Goals
- Calendar
- Menu
- Blog
- Gifts
- Self
- Finances
- Work
- Notes
The Martha Stewart line at Staples has some really cute binders along with these page dividers and teal paper sleeves. I put the paper sleeves in the far back of my binder to hold coupons, magazine cut outs, and bills that I need to pay.
- My Daily Goals – What I want to accomplish each day. But do not stress yourself out about this one. If it doesn’t get checked off the list, just add it to the next day. If there are things that I want to get done within the week then I write it in the box “upcoming week”. Some days only one thing gets checked of my list. But to see it visually feels like you accomplished something – especially on those days you ask yourself “What in the World did I do all day?”
- Calendar – A look book for planning our vacations, appointments, play dates, work deadlines.
- Menu – This one is great for organizing your grocery list and planning for each meal during the week. We all do this – go to the store and grab a ton of extra stuff you did not plan on getting. Having a week ahead menu saves time, money and keeps healthy eating manageable!
- Blog – What I want to document in my life, recipes and organizing tips to remember.
- Gifts – This is where I add a birthday list (download found below).
- Self – I like to write down personal goals such as fitness, places to travel, and ways to grow my life and be a grounded person.
- Finances – Excel spread sheet with ALL of our expenses and income. Seeing is believing:-)
- Work/PEP – I write down my design business ideas and client projects in this section. I am also a volunteer with PEP so I have all my information in this section too.
- Notes – If you are like me, my mind is always running. I like to have the extra notes space for ideas that continually pop into my head.
I created this DAILY GOALS sheet as the first page in my binder. Every night before bed I write down what needs to get done the next day. This helps to clear my mind for better sleep. When I wake up – it tells me what to do:-) Feel free to print it out and add to your book!
Plan your weekly meals ahead of time! What can this do for you? Frees time and helps food not to be wasted plus there is area for writing down your shopping list.
Birthdays are another thing I seem to forget. Thanks to Facebook I can remember most of my friends by the reminders, but I like to keep my
closets family members written in my binder along with what gift I got them that year.
I was finding it gets expensive to continue to get booklet calendars (and I kept misplacing it), so I decided to just print one out and add it to the book.
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