Works for me Wednesday: Simplicity Schedule

I'm thankful for parents who trained me well in time management. From high school thru early marriage I created a schedule each day organized down to each 15 minutes and I stuck to it. (I think my Roommate picked up this habit, too!) That system served me well all those years. THEN something happened around the arrival of baby number two. Suddenly twenty-four hours was not enough no matter how well it was organized. The never ending to-do list was....literally never ending. My organized days were being blown to bits with the urgent stuff always trumping the important stuff.

The remedy for me was to come up with a whole new way of managing the day...The Simplicity Schedule. I sat down and decided what my priorities were and then assigned each item an hour of the day. By giving each task an hour (even if it should only take 15 minutes), I had a plan that allowed for the unexpected. Somehow I could still be organized and the day could flow with messy interruptions, nursing two kids on demand, and diaper changes.

One benefit was that each day I didn't have to expend the mental energy to come up with a schedule, as it was already posted on the fridge. Another benefit, was that each hour that flowed smoothly left some time to tackle something off that on-going to-do list. If, however, it was one of those days and nothing was accomplished beyond the Simplicity Schedule, I had the freedom of knowing the most important things had been accomplished. It wasn't easy to let go the old maximum efficency mindset, but it was rewarding to not feel like I was always "behind." Now, my favorite benefit, is that I can look back at that first Simplicity Schedule and remember what a beautiful time each day with two little bitty ones was.

I learned that each season of each year brings its own set of priorities and I enjoy the process of revamping the Simplicity Schedule every few months.