Operation: Organization Time Management

Hi everyone! We had a schedule change, and Samantha from Simply Organized will share her project with us later in our series so today I thought I would take the opportunity to share some thoughts about organizing from a time management perspective and a bit more about the tool that really keeps our family on track.

Last fall we launched our organizational tool, The Calendar Pad. While there are an abundance of great printable time management tools available on the web, including some awesome ones from our Operation: Organization guests, in some situations I find having a pre-printed pad to be more useful. No running out of ink or paper, and I admit I love writing on thick, quality paper–it’s a small luxury that makes the day planning process more enjoyable.

I am fairly meticulous about organizing my day and our family schedule. I find the simple task of downloading everything from head to paper makes my stress level go down, as having less to remember makes life just easier.  I take a few minutes in the morning while I drink my coffee and list out what needs to be done during the day, then I can refer to it to keep me on task as the day progresses.

The beauty of The Calendar Pad is that it keeps all your daily and weekly tasks in one place–not only is it a daily plan but it also has a section for your grocery list, your errands, your daily to-do’s, bills, and on-going projects. The best part is you simply can SNAP A PICTURE OF IT WITH YOUR PHONE–so you always have it with you! I love this system because we pretty much always have our phones with us as we run around all week, right? No more forgetting my grocery list when I run out the door!

This keeps me on track so I don’t forget to run by the post office while doing errands or to pick up milk for breakfast and saves time because I can grab a birthday gift when I stop in Target for a party later in the week. It’s been a life-changing tool, freeing up my time and creating much less stress for our whole family. My husband also likes seeing what’s planned for the family, something that he can’t do when I only use my written day planner.

If you missed it, here’s my video on how the calendar pad works…

All that being said, I find that many of the available printables focus on getting as much done in the day as you can–while I am a big fan of productivity, I find over-scheduling myself can make me feel like I am accomplishing nothing, or worse, leave me doing a poor job at everything because I have too much on my plate. You can read this post here on why I think it’s important to be good stewards of the time we have, but I find looking at my week as a whole helps me recognize when I need to set limits.

Operation: Organization is all about organizing our spaces so we get our year off to the best possible start. I find that focusing on task and time management is just as crucial to keeping me sane and things flowing smoothly as are our home organizational systems.

We’ll be back tomorrow with another guest in our Operation: Organization series.  Have a great day everyone!

XO,