“Worry never robs tomorrow of it’s sorrow – It only saps today of it’s joy.”
I wish I knew who said that, so I could give the proper credit. I just love that quote and it goes along very well with today’s post.
I don’t know about you, but I dread doing paperwork and daily mundane things to do. It just bogs down my day – so much so – that it was zapping my energy to complete other projects. So I’ve come up with a system recently, that I wanted to share with you.
First I had to figure out what about my daily “things to do” was slowing me down. What I came up with is, I noticed when items that were very time-consuming piled up in my things to do stack, I tended to avoid and dread going through and completing it. Hence, the stack gets bigger and bigger. For example, when you have to deal with an incorrect charge on a phone bill, that can sometimes take 30-40 minutes to resolve. I’m sure you can relate. So to avoid the pile up and to keep my life moving forward, here is what has helped me. I found an accordion file – I had one not being used in my office. It had handles on it, making it easy to take with me if necessary. Now when I get things I have to do, I can put it either in its proper day of the week it needs to get done, or another category that would apply, like upcoming travel or bills. This way I can evenly spread out my things to do and calls to make, in order of priority. What I discovered in using this system, is that when I sit down at my desk, I just have to reach into whatever day it is, and I don’t feel so overwhelmed. If there is a big task to complete – I will put it on a day where I have no other paperwork scheduled. This has helped tremendously!!! I find I no longer get discouraged or frustrated, because I’m not wasting any energy dreading, worrying, or procrastinating.
This system works for every thing I have on my to do list. When I have something to take with me to my daughters music lesson – that goes in the Wednesday file. My daughter wants to learn how to ice skate, so I put the brochure from our local skating pavilion, under Autumn’s Activities until I’ve scheduled it. If I have an idea for this blog – that goes under Blog Ideas. Another example is when I’m planning my meals for the week, I can pull recipes that I either want to try or something I tore out of a magazine and throw it under menu planning. I have one file for my shopping list, along with coordinating coupons I’m using that week. You get the idea. You can customize your filing system to your life. Now that I have my system in place, I can purchase a new accordion file – my old one was a little used and didn’t have accessible tabs to easily write on. I think it’s always best to try out a system first anyways, on something you might already have, before spending money on something new. I would love to hear other ideas or if you applied this idea to your life, how it worked for you.
Great ideas. Well done
That is so much easier and a lot more organized. Thank you for the inspiration.