Plan Away

I love to plan. My planner is a personal friend that has down all sorts of information - things to look forward to, things to not forget, birthdays of people I love, appointments I should make, appointments I should keep....and so forth. Outside of my planner I like to make lists. It helps me think about what I am going to do for the next day - you know, get focused and prepared. So my list of things to do today was as follows:

Mon. July 28th

6:00 am run 5 miles

start laundry
clean my room
clean my bathroom
vacuum
make car appt. - oil change, safety and emissions inspection
make Jason dermatologist
make periodontic appt. for me
clean kids bathroom
shower
clean and dust front room
clean and dust tv room
clean wood floor
vacuum
vacuum stairs
eat breakfast / print VT message
vacuum basement
basement bathroom

10:30 am VT Jenn

balance checkbook / pay bills

go to the bank
buy school supplies
go to UVU - pay tuition, buy physiology book and parking pass

That is a copy of the real list I wrote last night. Not asking too much, right? Notice that all the stuff before 10:30 am was to be finished BY 10:30 am. OK, so I am not very realistic. I do have helpers in the form of children - they were each assigned to clean their rooms, including dusting and vacuuming, along with two of the chores listed above. They do a fairly good job when reminded!

Funny enough, it isn't all done yet, and it is nearly 3:00 pm. What happened? Well, here's the thing. I didn't include time for important things such as gazing off into space after I get back from running, because I am still tired and need to stretch. I didn't include sorting laundry, which is now in my bedroom, making it impossible to completely finish the bedroom chore. I didn't write down time to get on the computer, check emails, write emails, and check out other peoples blog. I didn't even have in the plan to write a new blog of my own. Therein lies the problem. There are many things that get done that just can't be planned for! There is the obvious time needed to get dressed and ready for the day that gets added on to the "shower" spot, and the "plan" didn't allow for helping the children get their breakfast, coming girls hair, answering the phone and chatting with my husband for a few minutes, and unloading and loading the dishwasher so I can clean up after breakfast - not to mention that each job includes other parts of the job, like wiping down walls, cleaning blinds, and working on general order before getting into the full cleaning mode. Every job is really like three jobs put into one. :-)

I guess I love lists for another reason - I get to cross things off when I finish them, and, even more fun, I can write extra stuff I did on the list and cross it off immediately. It feels very productive.

One great thing about a list is that it can leak over to tomorrow! And it usually does. Here is to making a new list!! :-)