So you would think by now you would know that I am not a organizer-type person. I have been so tempted to buy those planners for blogging — but have resisted because I know that I would probably not use them.
I have become less and less a paper and pencil person as I lose the paper, so I do most things on the computer. What has worked the most for me is utilizing Gmail calendars.
I love how you can have a blogging calendar and a calendar for home activities and whatever else you want to do and then see them individually and all together. I also love the tasks button where I can have a “to do” list on the side. I can click the task when it is done, and it is crossed off. Of course, I could delete the task, but if it is a daily or monthly task, I can leave it there all month and unclick it when it needs to get done. This keeps me on track with many of my blogging duties that have to get done, and it helps to keep the tasks prioritized as I can drag them in the order I want.
So last month I made this great calendar I could print out and put a flexible schedule for my girls and I to keep to every week of the summer HERE, and I printed it out the first week of June . . . and that calendar is still on my refrigerator. You would think I would know now what works for me and what doesn’t!
But that doesn’t mean that the time making that calendar was wasted. It helped me organize in my mind what my priorities for the summer were and what I wanted to get done. And we did some of it. We did well with the afternoon activities of having a reading time/Bible memory time. Since our dishwasher broke last week, the girls will definitely be doing their dishwashing duties! However, we had swimming every morning for over 2 weeks, so that destroyed our morning plans. So for July, I will try to plan a “to do” list that I would like to get done weekly, and we’ll see if that works any better than my calendar idea. (I will do many of those calendar ideas for my schedule for the chores/afternoon activities.)
First Week of July:
Dave’s family comes in town, so will have to be flexible.
Things to get accomplished:
- Clean kids toy cabinets in back of toy room
- Clean Kristi’s room.
- Wash sheets in Kristi’s room, my room, bottom bunk of Joshua.
- Make T-shirt headbands for Kaylin; work on making leggings out of tights.
- Have daily devotions, Bible memory, and book reading unless with family.
- Girls wash dishes/sort laundry/help fold.
- Monday–go to Half Price Books to get reward and help Dave in bookstore.
- Tuesday–go to library.
- Get list together for Sunday night get-together.
- Exercise 3 times.
Second Week of July:
Things to get accomplished:
- The kids have VBS in the morning all week. Do Bible memory, and book reading.
- Girls wash dishes/sort laundry/help fold.
- Clean bottom cabinets in kitchen.
- Sew something with girls.
- Exercise 3 times.
Third Week of July:
Things to get accomplished:
- Kaylin goes to camp. Do devotions, Bible memory, and book reading.
- Girls wash dishes/sort laundry/help fold.
- Scrub/polish floor.
- Clean up bottom floor for people over Sunday night.
- Tuesday–petting zoo with church ladies
- Scrapbooking? or craft with girls?
- Exercise 3 times.
Fourth Week of July:
Things to get accomplished:
- Do devotions, Bible memory, and book reading.
- Girls wash dishes/sort laundry/help fold.
- Girls go to Great America Tuesday or Thursday with dad; I take younger two to smaller park.
- Pack/clean house. Get everything ready for vacation.
- Get all posts up for next week and contributor posts written.
- Exercise 3 times.
Fifth Week of July:
Have fun on vacation!
Of course, the first week has more on its list as I already know what is happening, but I can come back and keep adding more–or just put these main “to do” items over to my calendar and keep adding items there. There are many things that I have to do on my calendar that I did not put on this list. These are more of my priorities listed here. This list includes my spiritual, personal, career, and family priorities. So I’ll come back next month and tell you how I did. Hopefully keeping a simple list is more my speed!
If you write a post on your goals monthly, please feel free to link up below!
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Sounds like you are going to have a very busy July.
Always. I’ve learned to never say it will slow down now. It’s all good though!
I love this idea, Tammy! I make a daily plan, but never a monthly calendar. I really like the way you planned for the month and then broke it down into weekly goals. I’m definitely going to try this!
I hope it works for me too! It has a better chance than other plans, obviously. I want to be more organized. I think I am organized in my head, and trying to write it all down is hard for me.
This is a great idea. I find it so hard to keep it all organized. Thanks for sharing Tammy
You’re welcome! I have a hard time using organizational tools. I wish I were better at it!
My goals are to stay sane and keep blogging. LOL. seriously though, I rely heavily on Google calendar. I love how versatile it is!
Oh, I totally understand–although I think I lost the battle with trying to keep sane!
I love the way you broke down your monthly goals week by week. It looks like you are planning on accomplishing a lot but you’ve made it look attainable instead of overwhelming. I’m inspired to make a goals list for myself now!
I need to go look at that list again 🙂 Make a list and share it with us!
I love how you planned week by week Tammy. I haven’t tried google calendars but now that you talk about it I think I’ll check it out. I am a pencil paper person too…
This Goals linky was a fantastic idea. I didn’t know you had a linky for this too. I am just following up with the other linkies and I am really enjoying reading everyone. It really helps with keeping your blogging spirit alive. Thanks for the opportunity Tammy.
We do enjoy our blogging group. We don’t talk a lot, but it is fun to encourage each other in our goals. Thanks for coming by and being an encouragement.
Sorry about your dishwasher! You have a busy month. Have you ever tried evernote? I’ve heard of some people using it for everything.
I thought I did not mind about the dishwasher, but now I am hoping ours gets fixed or that they give us a new one. It is almost 10 years old. Dave has to write it up. I have downloaded the app for evernote, but haven’t had the time to go figure it out :).