system

I love this quote from Dr. Seuss - (lifted from my sister's website):

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

One of my biggest troubles is organization. And I know this. So here are my "bats":


Here's the place where (theoretically) everything works. I have a big white board to catch my thoughts, lists, things I need to tell Jess, etc. I have the calendar laboriously marked with all appointments and weekly plans. There's a bigol clock, key hanger, and the weather guy there on the right. All you have to do is see what he's wearing and dress likewise.

And this:My binder has the same list on the left hand side of every day, and a list unique to the day on the right. And a lot of space for all the things I come up with every day for myself to do. It's printed on cardstock and laminated (contact paper, actually, since I couldn't write with a wet-erase pen on laminated). It's got pages to record my expenditures, permanent and variable shopping list, projects to do, notes to write, books to read, gift ideas, and so on.

Knowing I've got a complete lack of inherent organizational skills, I've tried all the commercial planners over the years, but this year I made my own and hey! It actually works a lot better. Those two things above, coupled with a timer that goes on my waistband to tell me when to change the laundry, when the bread's risen, when it's time to go, pretty much make up my system for getting things done.

I'm reminded of one Sunday when I and a missionary were sitting up in front of the church waiting to give our talks. I was probably 16 or so. I had written my talk, cut and pasted quotes, taped the talk together, cut it apart and redone it, and had this sloppy mess of a talk in my hand. Every single word I was going to say was on that paper. He turned to me and said "Man, I'm glad I don't have to do it that way." (Whether or not his mother is to blame is not up for discussion here...)

The point is, he had no notes, and I had a billion, and both of us got up and gave decent talks. The same goes for my organization. I have no internal organization, so mine's all external. Still works most of the time.

But what I really mean to say is, what's your system? How do you make sense of the workings of your life and/or family? How do you keep from forgetting things? Or are you, (like my beloved husband) able to keep it "all in your head"?