Organize Your Day – Plan the Night Before
It’s a pretty good chance that at one point or another you’ve forgotten an appointment, arrived at the wrong time, or even on the wrong day. You may have thought, right then and there, that you needed to organize your day by planning the night before.
Why do you want to organize your day by planning it the night before?
There are several reasons for doing so: you’ll have a better idea of what to expect during the day, you can be proactive rather than reactive when something comes up, and knowing what to expect ahead of time will actually allow you to sleep better.
One way to know what’s ahead is to have a large, central calendar that everyone in the family can put their appointments on. I have a calendar hanging in my kitchen command center, and both hubby and I depend on it! You can color-code the calendar by assigning each member a color and writing their appointments in that so they can easily see what they have coming up. When anyone in the family has something to add to the calendar, write it on there immediately. This will also allow you to see what everyone in the family is scheduled for and lets you know if something has to be passed on because of a conflict.
Besides having a large, central calendar, you may also like to keep a smaller copy with you so you know when your family busy and when they are free. This will help you plan future appointments when you’re at the doctor’s office or just out and about. The key is to keep your small calendar up to date with any additions that are made.
After your day is over, take a few minutes to look at your calendar and any notes you took while at work. If you can, do like activities at the same time in scheduled blocks. This will keep you focused and help you to not forget to do something important. Returning telephone calls, answering emails, and running errands can all be done in blocks of time so you’re not jumping from one activity to another.
Don’t schedule every moment of your day.
Leave room in your schedule for last minute interruptions, changes, or emergencies. If you have an appointment during the day, don’t forget to include the time it takes for you to travel to and from your appointment when scheduling your day. And ALWAYS leave room for toddler-tantrums, lost shoes and potty breaks! You also want to leave some time to spend on yourself each day or at least once a week.
Finally, don’t kick yourself if you don’t accomplish everything you want to each day. Having your day planned makes it more likely you’ll be productive than if you hadn’t planned your day at all. You can organize your day by planning the night before in just a little bit of time, and the benefits will definitely be worth it.
Filed under Time Management
This sounds like such a sound plan, and at the end of the day, it is all about time management and having a plan at hand. I do really like this idea that you have done and you are so right everyone can be color coded and you know what everyone is up to and how it fit in important dates, like the dentist and doctors appointments, without there been an over lap, but in order for this to work out everyone has to play their role and make sure that they have put down everything.