Under Control

My life and the disorganization that surrounds it has been in a spiral for quite some time. One moment the spiral may be spinning upwards and the next it may be spiraling downwards out of of control. My home is often chaotic, I have a difficult time planning for meal preparation, and I have a hard time getting caught up on everyday jobs like laundry and dishes. These are just a few of the areas and aspects of my life I would like to get under control.

Despite my spiraling, I am a person who loves and thrives on organization and loves organizational tools of all kinds. Unfortunately I have a very difficult time developing a plan and making it work for me. There has always been something that causes me to deviate from my plan of action and I get caught up on that one aspect. I guess it is part of my nature that I want something to be absolutely, without a doubt, perfect before I am able to move forward and continue. So I need a plan, I need a plan that will work for me!

Fortunately my life is soon about to take on a very organized schedule. My schedule will not alter from one week to the next and I should be able to create a system that works well for me and for my household. In the past I was introduced to Flylady and some of her concepts seem very efficient and very well thought out, though she has a few that just drive me nuts - who needs to shine their sink every day? However, I have decided I am going to jump back onto her bandwagon, at least in part. I am going to develop my control journal that will fit my needs, incorporate some of her concepts, and others that I have discovered work well for me.

My control journal will most importantly contain my daily and weekly routines. This will consist of my chores and such that need to be done based on importance. For example: Monday will be my day of grocery shopping and for cleaning one particular area of my home. I will create a system for each day of the week. I will also have a list of monthly duties that need to be accomplished, but not necessarily every single week. This control journal will include my weekly menu plan, my weekly grocery list, my coupons, it will hold my budget as we begin to get serious about where our money is going, it will hold my receipts and other important items like an exercise plan when I can get one started. It will be an important tool to help me succeed in many areas I have yet to get organized enough to start doing something about.

This may sound overwhelming, but luckily I do not feel so. I already have some of these items started, and just need to get them finished and placed into this system for reference. I really do believe a control journal is what I need to keep myself in order and keep my spiral from plummeting.

Do you have a system that works well for you? What have you found that does not work?