Organize & Simplify Daily Things to Do

“Worry never robs tomorrow of it’s sorrow – It only saps today of it’s joy.”

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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.

 

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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.

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