Help for Disorganized People

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not the world's most organized person.  (Someone recently suggested I might truly have ADD.  Who knows?  But hey, maybe I can use that as an excuse, right?)

My super-organized (and extremely patient) husband has taught me a thing or two about how to keep things organized.  I'm sure I would be 10 times worse without his help.

So for the next few weeks, I'll be running a series on Time Management and Organization for the Disorganized Procrastinator.  I'll be sharing some of the things I have learned from my husband as well as personal obstacles that I have overcome.

Ready for part 1?  Let's dig in…

Do you have piles of paper surrounding your desk? Do you have boxes of paperwork to go through in the attic, inside closets, or in the corner of your office that need to be organized? Are your computer files a disorganized jumble of text files and Word documents full of ideas that you will never find again? Do you have many plans and ideas that you just never get to? Does the idea of getting organized make you uncomfortable and a little bit nervous? If so, then this guide is for you!

Week One:

Identifying Your Organizing Style

The first thing you need to do is figure out your organizational style. Even as a disorganized person you have an organizational style. Trust me. Knowing your own personal organizational style will help you avoid choosing methods that won't work for you.

• Neat Nelly — She puts everything away out of sight; however, the term neat can be questioned. She feels neat because it's all out of sight and out of mind.
• Piles Polly — She puts everything out where everyone can see it, usually in piles all over the place. She cannot find anything when she needs it.
• Basket Betty — She puts everything into baskets so that they look neat and out of sight, but they are anything but neat (and maybe not even out of sight).

Understanding your organizational style will help you move forward with creating a system of organization that works for you. Working with your personality, instead of against it, will make becoming more organized a lot simpler. So, it doesn't matter whether or not you pile everything up, stuff everything out of sight, or have lots of baskets and bins with all your work in them. You can work with your natural inclinations to create a plan and develop a system that works for you.

If you're still not sure about your organizational style, think for a moment about what you do when you receive a monthly bill. Do you throw it on a “bill pile”, file it away, or throw it in a basket (or drawer)? Some people just prefer to be able to see everything because they're afraid they'll forget something. Other people feel more accomplished if it's all out of sight (and out of mind), while others do a mixture of the two. Which one are you?

Week one challenge:  Identify your organizational style and tell me in the comments.

(If you're the organized type, none of us naturally disorganized people will mind a bit if you chime in with your helpful suggestions during this series!)

Printable Daily Planner for Disorganized People

Organized bloggers talk about their tried-and-true methods for keeping your house clean and being productive.  Most of them center on the concept of routine.  But what if you're like me and routine makes you bored?  Chances are you jump in to this system that is “guaranteed to work”, and it works great…for a few weeks.  Then you get tired of being locked in to vacuuming on Monday, cleaning the bathroom on Tuesday, etc.  You want to do what you want, when you feel like it — all without your house falling apart.  Me too!
I am not naturally organized, and I hate routine.  But instead of letting that defeat me, I have tried to find ways to work with my personality to create a system that works for me.

I noticed that the days I was most productive were the days when I was scribbling down everything I needed to do in a notebook.

Over time I noticed that without thinking I would always list “like” items together – for example, anything I had to do on the computer, any phone calls I needed to make, etc.  I had unintentionally created a system that was working pretty well for my personality.

I made a printable version to make my method look a little prettier.

How to use this printable:

Although this planner is intended to be used daily, you only need to print one copy.

Attach 6 standard sized sticky notes to the squares (I prefer Post-it Brand since they stick the best.)  Then label each section whatever you want it to be.

My labels are:

1. Basics – I write down everything that I have to do, even no-brainer stuff like “make supper”, “make the bed”, etc.  With a personality like mine, I really do forget if I don't write it down!

2. Extra – this is extra housework that does not get done every day, like mopping or cleaning the bathroom.

3. Shopping list – self-explanatory

4. Computer – this is anything I need to do on the computer, such as working on my blog or ordering grocery items from Amazon. (aff. link.)  That way when the kids are napping I can quickly work through what needs to be done, and I can easily see it on my list.

5. Projects – This area is for things like crafts that I want to make or fun activities I want to do with my kids.

6. Notes – I use this for stuff that's not necessarily to-do but that I still need to remember.  For example – “Tell hubby he has an email he needs to check.”

I love this system!  I can switch around what housework I do on what days, without forgetting about it altogether.  I make my schedule be a slave to me, instead of being a slave to a schedule.

I like using the Post-it notes because I don't have to print a new to-do list every day.  If I've completed the stuff on one square, I can remove just that sticky note and replace it.  If I still need to work on some of the stuff, I can leave that list right where it is.

Are you the “creative” type who gets too bored with a routine, but forgets to do things otherwise?  I'd love for you to try out this daily planner and let me know if it helps!

DIY Valentine’s Day Vases

Since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I decided to turn my winter vase into a collection of Valentine's Day Vases.

I took 4 of these vases from Dollar Tree and applied fabric glue with a paint brush.  Then I wrapped some brown yarn around them until they were covered.

I used various white or off-white items from around the house to spell out the word “LOVE” – a piece of lace, a felt rosette (here's a tutorial), buttons, and a piece of white yarn.

And there you have it.

And now, my dear readers.  Here's a question I have for you.

I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to filling vases.  And, to further add to my problem, my decorating budget is $0.  I have to use what I have around the house.  And in this case, these are the only flowers I had that were white or pink, or any sort of Valentine-y colors.  So, do you have any ideas for how to fill the vases using only these flowers or things I could find outside?  I'm no good at this.  Help!

Project Simplify: Turning Goals into Reality

If you have not already printed these free goal-setting printables, you can do that now and work on determining the goals that you would like to reach this year.

Since the theme this year is “Project Simplify”, I thought it would be pretty silly to make some kind of complicated worksheet to help me determine how to reach my goals.

Instead, I am using a simple calendar.

If you care to use my simple method, read on and I'll explain how to make your goals become reality.

• Re-read your list of goals and determine how they can broken up into actionable items.  For example, if you wrote that you want to memorize more scripture, you should decide  which specific verses you want to memorize and by what date you want to have them memorized.  Add that to your calendar.  I want to memorize Colossians chapter 3, and I am planning to memorize one verse each week.  So I have added “Colossians 3:1” to the first week of the calendar, “Colossians 3:2” to the second week, and so on.

• If you have long-term goals, break them down into steps and determine a deadline for each step.  Add each step to your calendar.  For example, let's say you want to re-decorate your bedroom.  Give yourself a couple weeks to decide on the colors you want.  Mark that deadline on your calendar and focus the next couple weeks on browsing Pinterest and magazines until you're sure you know what you want.  The next deadline could be when you want to have it painted by.  Then when you want to have the new curtains made (or bought).  And so on.

• Make sure your goals are reasonable.  I know many people suggest to aim high, but I'm going to suggest the opposite.  You can always add more if you easily reach one goal.  My tendency in years past has been to be all starry-eyed about the things I'm going to accomplish.  Then when it's too much to keep up with I end up getting discouraged and scrapping everything.  I'd rather choose a couple simple things and do a good job keeping up with them than to end up aiming too high and ending up accomplishing nothing.

See how simple this is?  I bet I  could sum up this whole post in one sentence.  Let me try:

After assuring that your goals are reasonable, turn them into specific actions and add them to your calendar in the appropriate places.

In a few days I'll be sharing my daily planner (if you can even call it that -it's so easy!) and how I translate what's on my calendar into daily actions. But for now, go ahead and print your 12 calendar pages and work on translating your goals into specific actions you can put onto the calendar.

(And go ahead and add birthdays and other yearly events now too. )

 Download here

For those of you who indicated on Facebook that you really could use some help in the organizational department, you will not want to miss the post where I share my daily planner! I'm calling it “The Planner for the ADD Personality”, or “A Simple Planning System for People who Hate to Plan” or something like that.  It's working for me, and I've been pretty much hopeless until now.

Be sure you're subscribed to email updates so you won't miss it when it's posted!

Pretty Winter Vase

I just recently found out about the Dollar Tree Value Seeker's Club  through a friend’s blog.  She had done the cutest craft that she found on there. 

After my Christmas decorations came down, I knew I wanted to make something to make my house look pretty for the rest of the winter.  The Dollar Tree Value Seeker's Club was the perfect place to look! The free club has new ideas every month that you can print and take with you to the Dollar Tree as a shopping list.  They had some great ideas for January, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to create one of their projects as part of a sponsored campaign.

I decided to make a pretty winter vase. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard, and I knew I could find some fillers for it out of my backyard.  I headed to Dollar Tree and found this vase that was a nice shape, brought it home, and got to work using the instructions on the Dollar Tree Value Seeker's Club website.

I was so excited that this project went so quickly and easily – I am the queen of finding ways to mess things up and make them take forever!  And all I needed was my vase, white paint, white glue, and Epsom salts. I painted the vase white,

let it dry (sort of – I’m a little impatient), then coated it with glue

and applied the Epsom salts.  So easy, but pretty! The only thing I did differently from the instructions on the website was instead of rolling the vase in the Epsom salt, I ended up sprinkling it on after I applied the glue.  I found that rolling the vase in the salt was scratching the paint off of it.  That may have been because I was too impatient to let it dry well enough.  But sprinkling it on went very fast, and I had complete control over getting it exactly where I wanted it, so I was fine with doing it that way.

I am so happy with how this project turned out, and I’m enjoying having my house a little less dreary for the rest of the winter. 

Be sure to sign up for the Dollar Tree Value Seeker's Club for access to the instructions for this project and lots more like it!  I already bought the supplies for another easy decoration that I plan to make for my bedroom.

What project do you think you would like to try first?

Free Goal-Setting Printables

Have you thought about what you'd like to accomplish in 2014?

More importantly, have you thought about what God wants you to accomplish this year?

My husband and I have a date planned for this Friday night to sit down and make a list of goals that we believe God would have our family to work towards.

I will also be sitting down this evening to work on my personal goals for this year.

You've probably all heard the old saying, “If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time.”  I want to aim for something.  In this season of my life, that may not be anything “big”.  My life is full right now with taking care of my home and children, and there's not much room for many “big” things.  And that's okay.

As you think through your goals for the year, just keep them simple and realistic.  You don't have to come up with specific steps for reaching those goals quite yet – I'll be providing printable worksheets for that within the next few days.  Just start jotting down everything you can think of that you'd like to accomplish, then go back and pray over your list and re-evaluate what you should keep and what you should cross off.  Remember, if you try to focus on doing too much, you'll actually accomplish less.

You can use these free printable goal setting sheets.

Download Here

I've included the following:

Spiritual goals – Do you want to read all the way through the Bible this year?  Memorize a large passage of scripture?  Those things go here.

Personal goals – this is for things like exercising, personal hobbies, home business ventures like blogging or direct sales, etc.

Homemaking goals – this includes anything that has to do with your home and family like menu planning, cleaning and organizing, spending quality time with your husband or children, etc.

Family goals – this is for goals that you set as a family and all work on together.  Maybe you'd like to accomplish some yard or house projects together or participate in some type of ministry as a family.  Work on those goals together and put them here.

You'll probably want to put these printables in a binder as I will be offering many, many printables this year as a part of Project Simplify.  (Get the first one here if you missed it.)

Don't forget to subscribe to email updates so you can keep up with each step of Project Simplify and receive the new printables as they are published.  Simply enter your email address in the form below this post.

What area do you most need to simplify this year?