As we’re gearing up for a fall where we’ll be homeschooling, a lot of people have asked how I get things done. The short answer is, sometimes I don’t get things done, and maybe that’s more okay than I think it is. The longer answer is I use a lot of lists, and I try to be as organized as possible, planning things out ahead of time so I don’t run into problems with decision fatigue.
What Is Decision Fatigue?
If someone is making a lot of decisions, all the time, then the quality of that decision-making process begins to diminish. Moreover, a person with decision fatigue may also begin to become cranky and impatient. That’s not really great news for someone who wants a smooth relationship with their spouse or who needs patience with their kids. It’s especially problematic when you run a business, lead a Girl Scouts Troop, and just in general have a lot of people depending on you a lot of the time.
Everything I do to organize what I will do before I do it is an attempt to avoid this problem.
List-making
Several years ago, when I was a graduate student at Michigan State University, I was looking for ways to manage my time better. I fell into using Microsoft Outlook, and I stumbled upon David Allen’s Getting Things Done. This is also when I was first homeschooling, and I was both a teaching and a research assistant.
So, as you can imagine, it was vital that I was protective of my time and how I used it. I read everything I could get my hands on about productivity – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Time Management Made Simple, Time Management from the Inside Out…
My main takeaway was that list-making is at the core of being able to be productive. Over the years, I’ve found things that work and don’t work for me. All of my lists are now in an app called ClickUp. I use this to manage everything I do. From blog posts to review lists to lists of questions my kids ask to things that need to be done around the house to maintain it – I keep everything in this app.
Planning
It’s not enough to have lists, however. I also need to have plans. I have spreadsheets and documents detailing business plans, blog plans, lesson plans, and even vacation plans (whenever that’s able to happen again).
Over the weekend, I go through all of my lists, my spreadsheets, etc. and I see what needs doing over the coming week. Only then do I put things with deadlines in my planner. Once the things with deadlines are jotted down, then I go through and find what my important-but-not-urgent tasks are and select the most important of those to add to my planner.
Routines & The Giant Whiteboard
In May, I purchased a giant whiteboard and several baskets for our homeschool-er-dining room. I haven’t affixed the whiteboard to the wall, that way, I can easily relocate it when we have a celebration. Eventually, it and the homeschooling things will be moved into our basement media room, but for now, it’s where we gather the most.
The whiteboard is where I write our daily routine. It includes an hour of clean up time, an hour of “morning” (or afternoon) time where we read fun books, play games, or do fun things, and it includes the things we have to accomplish that day.
I put the times for Zooms, virtual meetings, and other scheduled events on the whiteboard. We go over the day’s plan together. This helps keep the kids on task and focused – and excited about the day.
And that is, largely, how I get things done. It also helps that my husband is a true partner and handles meal preparation, child-tending, and home-tending duties as well.
Great tips! I totally am a list person too! I’m gonna check out your app! Good luck homeschooling!
Awesome! Thank you for stopping by. And thank you! It’s been kind of interesting thus far, but you know, we’ll get into a routine with the homeschooling again and all will be well.
I love making lists but I am a terrible planner. I would love to learn more about how you do these plans (particularly the blog plan).
I smell a future blog post. 🙂 I will definitely write about this. It’s definitely a skill I spent time learning.
I’m a get-her-done kind of gal too. Some of us can make ourselves do things. Others can’t. We are all motivated by different things. And isn’t that wonderful?! It was sure fun to read about how you take care of your busy life
Thank you for stopping by! I feel like the busier I am the better because it forces me to be on top of all of the ducks!
I’ve had to set up systems around my house to get stuff done. I use a lot of lists, but now, I’ve asked my hubby to step in and help me create more effective systems to help me get stuff done! LOL
YES. My husband definitely works better if I tell him what needs doing – so having the list makes it easier for me to do that.
As a mom of 4 myself, I totally understand the need for the list. Without that check list, I am not sure where my sanity will go… 🙂
YES! The sanity goes down and the hot-mess-itude (hah!) goes up. WAY up.
We have two kids that I homeschool and we live on a farm. Lists always save my sanity!