Browse: Home » Blog » Routines

Routines

Too many bricks on the lounge floor (or Why it’s easier to tidy up at playgroup than at home))

Published by Rosie on July 13, 2012

Twice a week I take my rambunctious boy-toddler to a local playgroup hosted in a church hall. It runs from 9:30 till 11:30, there is instant coffee and chocolate cookies, interesting toys and a sloping path for the kids to hurtle up and down riding on plastic tricycles. It is also securely fenced in, so I can take my eyes off him to make a cuppa without him making a run for the hills or the main road.

Around 11am, a mysterious force calls us and all the parents there begin to pack up and clean up.  There’s no great rush, no list of tasks pinned to the wall, but we all just pick a job and finish it, then look around for another one to do.  By 11:30, someone’s vacuumed the hall and we’re ready to lock up and leave.

I was wondering why I found it so much easier to tidy up after playgroup than at home, and I realised there are several reasons.

  • Working together is easier
    Many hands make light work and so on, but it’s much more encouraging when there are other people working companionably alongside you.  You can still chat, and ask someone else if you’re not sure where something goes. Furthermore, you can’t exactly sit on your bum fiddling with your phone while everyone else tidies up.
  • Everything is part of a set and has its own container
    I don’t like toys with bits at home, but here the Weebles come out of the Weeble box, and then at the end of playgroup they go back in the Weeble box and the Weeble box lid goes on top, and then it goes out to the storage shed ’til next time.
  • It’s someone else’s system
    It’s not my responsibility to justify the quality or quantity of the toys, the storage system, or the number of cups and saucers in the hall kitchen.  I have to focus on the task at hand. Wash the dishes, dry the dishes, turn the dishes over,  hang the tea-towel on the rack, wipe the bench and it’s done.
  • There is a limited number of possible tasks, and they are all correct
    The hall tea towels are magically washed and dried (I guess the church ladies do that?). The lady who runs the playgroup makes sure there is playdough made and that there are sufficient teabags and bickies.  All I can do is choose between stacking chairs, putting toys in containers, washing the dishes, wiping the children’s table, sweeping, and carrying things out to the storage shed.  Any job I choose is the right job.

At home, on the other hand, the possibilities are literally endless:

Right now, I can see that

  • the lounge needs a vacuum, again
  • there is a washing basket with the random socks in it that I hate to pair up
  • I emptied the dishwasher after lunch but didn’t reload it yet
  • It’s nearly time to put some pizza dough in the breadmaker for dinner
  • The shoe rack is overflowing
  • I still haven’t posted that one gift from the baby shower I didn’t go to
  • The cat thinks it is his dinnertime too
  • Someone has dropped playdough on the carpet

… and so on.

But I realised that if I apply my experiences at playgroup tidy-up time to my own home, I can step beyond the anxious overwhelmed feeling, put down Words With Friends and “get off my chuff and do stuff” (as one of the ladies on the Facebook puts it)

  • Working together is easier
    It’s companionable if there is someone else to work with. I find I am energised when Tim and I can work together for an hour on a Saturday morning and do a bit of a housework rampage.  The girls tidy up their rooms at the same time.  Everyone keeps moving and we have a brief moment when the kitchen, bathroom and lounge are all clean and vacuumed and all the rubbish bins are emptied.  Same goes for tidying up after dinner. It’s even better if we’ve invited someone for dinner. There’s nothing that makes you aware of the dust that gathers along the edge of the tiles in the toilet room than a guest going in there.
  • Everything is part of a set and has its own container
    Like I said, I don’t like toys with bits at home, but limiting the toys in the lounge to duplo, books and a big toybox to biff any remainders back into helps keep it manageable.  I know where most things go, I’m just not very good at putting them there.
  • It’s someone else’s system
    OK, this is the one I get hung up on.  But if I focus on getting my daily routine tasks done, that is the priority, with the added sidelines of getting the kids to and from school and wiping sticky faces as required. If I find myself getting distracted by the need to redesign my “system” and organise my entire life right now then that is just an insidious form of perfectionist procrastinating and doesn’t do a damn thing about the dishes.  (That’s pretty much the main reason I designed HomeRoutines, by the way – to get the system that I could use and not get distracted by “tweaking” the whole time and then having to print out again…)
  • There is a limited number of possible tasks, and they are all correct
    This point was the one that was an epiphany for me. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I can set my timer, walk into the kitchen and start working. It’s the starting that is often the difficult thing, rather than sitting on the sofa feeling defeated. Furthermore, as long as I don’t get sidelined into decluttering a closed cupboard rather than facing up to the duplo bricks all over the lounge floor, or digitising CDs instead of making lunch, then whatever I start doing is the right thing.  Especially compared to not doing anything.

So if I am reading The Tiger Who Came to Tea, or straightening the bookshelf, or loading the dishwasher, or wiping the marmite off the face of Captain Sticky, or sorting out the school uniforms for next term, or baking lunchbox muffins, or sweeping, or starting the difficult part of peeling a banana, or putting crayons back in their bucket – or even digitising those CDs or decluttering a few things out of that one cupboard:

all of those are right when compared to playing Where’s My Perry on my phone to distract myself from thinking I don’t know where to start.

And I’m setting my timer now and going to Do Some Stuff.

Filed under: , , , and Tagged:

Gold Star blog posts!

Published by Rosie on September 19, 2011

Here are some relevant blog posts I’ve come across this week.  I usually post cool links straight to the HomeRoutines Facebook page when I find ’em, so Like us there to read them first!

On Routines and Schedules

  • Bookend Your Day: The Power of Morning and Evening Routines at The Art of Manliness
    • Imagine a string with a series of beads on it. The beads represent your goals, relationships, and priorities. Tip the string this way or that way, and the beads easily slide off and onto the floor. But tie a knot on each end of the string, and the beads stay put. Those knots are your morning and evening routines. They keep the priorities of your life from falling apart and thus help you progress and become a better man.
  • Reassess your Schedules and Routines at Productivity Your Way
    • … our daily routines and schedules have a huge impact on not just our productivity, but also our mood and relationships. Being over-committed, wasting time and misprioritizing all lead to stress and chaos.
  • Cleaning: Is it Better to Create a Schedule or Not? at Simplify 101
    • Scheduling tasks like cleaning can give you a tremendous sense of  freedom…and even room for spontonaeity! What works for you? Do you prefer to have a cleaning schedule…or does your life work better with out one?
  • Housekeeping Schedules and Daily Home Management at Home Sanctuary

    • Far and away, my most searched posts are the ones on setting up a housekeeping schedule. I imagine women stumbling across my easy system, and I can hear them saying, “FINALLY! A schedule that doesn’t make me feel like a failure before I even start!”

On Rocking your Timer

Kids’ Stuff

  • Homework without Tears (I mean you, Mom!) at The Happiest Mom
    • One place I’m working on this especially hard right now is establishing a new homework routine at our house.
  • Leafy Crafts at Kids Craft Weekly
    • This week, consider making the time to accompany the kids on a leisurely walk around your local area. Grab the hats, pack some drinks, choose a walking stick and get the kids to carry a basket or bag in which to keep any leaves that happen to take their fancy.
Filed under: , ,

Plan, Do, Review, Revise (or, How’s that routine working out for you?)

Published by Rosie on May 5, 2011 3

Before I was a mum-of-three and an app developer, before the kids (or the app) were even a twinkle in anybody’s eye, I used to design and develop computer based training.  We’d take the staff development goals of businesses, and find which ones could be turned into learning objectives, then design training programmes to run on a CD or the internet. As we designed the programmes we continuously improved them – so many rounds of feedback, so many changes and tweaks.

Sometimes a idea I thought was the best thing since sliced bread didn’t work out in the real world, so I changed it to suit.  And that’s life. Eventually, we delivered the project to the customers and they were happy, of course…  but we were straight onto the next project, taking with us what we had learned from the last one. (Maybe we stopped to walk down to Serious Espresso in between.)

The process looked something like this:

That’s what  life and learning is all about – we can’t stay still.  Circumstances change all the time – children arrive, health issues surprise us, jobs change, roles change, and seasons change.  It’s unreasonable to expect that a plan you made a year or even a month ago would still be totally in synch with your current life.

So that’s why I suggest – have a look at your routines.  See what’s working, and what isn’t.  If you’re getting overwhelmed, drop some tasks that don’t matter as much.  Turn off some reminders.

Coincidentally, Maaike from Life With Flylady posted today about adapting Flylady’s zones to suit your house (with HomeRoutines! yay!), and Ana added an excellent comment:

At first I had too many things in my routines and was constantly not getting to some things, which was stressing me out. Then I reminded myself this is for me. I have no one to impress. I removed the tasks I was not ready for yet and it relieved the stress. I have added some back on when I was ready to do them. I will continue to add tasks as time goes on.

No matter whether you choose a housework system to adapt, or cobble one together, or come up with your own ideas – it has to suit your home.  It’s your home, not the home of some self-proclaimed internet expert, or your in-laws, or your grandmother, or that guy on that one infomercial!

Plan: Look around you. See what needs doing…  add it to your routines and zones.

Do: Use those routines, work through the zones, see how you go

Review: Have a look back over what you’ve been doing.  Is it working for you? Are you getting overwhelmed or avoiding your lists because they’re too long?

Revise: Add some things, remove some tasks, switch your zones around!

Enjoy your own system in your own place.  You totally deserve it.

Filed under: , ,

Housework systems: The Whole SHEBang

Published by Rosie on March 30, 2011

On The Whole Shebang, SHE stands for Self, Home, Endeavors – a broader, more positive definition of SHE than the Flylady’s “Sidetracked Home Executives.” It was created by Krista, a professional organizer, who is sharing her beautifully designed resources and plans with all of us.

The basics of her plan are on her SheBang 101 page:

  • Creating your own Morning, Afternoon and Evening routines (we like routines 🙂 Krista’s example routines are great too.
  • Creating a special SHE spot of your own in your house – a cozy chair where you can sit and relax with a book for a bit, without looking at the washing basket!
  • And jaunty, informative signs to print out to stick on your baskets and boxes as you declutter – that is, creating your “SHE itt kit” (I see what she did there!)

Her concise Maintaining the SheBang page has great advice on monthly tasks to keep you on track, especially a ritual of reviewing and revising your routines.  I find that with little kids, a routine that used to work no longer does, as naptimes and playtimes shift – and as small boys become ever more enthusiastic to climb into an open dishwasher. (Unloading dishwasher now must occur when he is in his highchair!)

I’m looking forward to her further SHEBang projects – the first one is decluttering the closet. There’s the full-on version with printable resources and checklists – and the fast version where you pick out 5 ugly shirts to donate. Either way – excellent advice, and I’m certainly subscribing to her blog to keep up with the new projects as they come out.

Filed under: ,

Routines and Calendars

Published by Rosie on December 1, 2010 3

Yesterday The Flylady’s Facebook page was all a-flutter because she announced a partnership with Cozi, an online calendar and organiser for families:

I was excited to see the news, because I’m a fan of both Flylady and Cozi, but it reminded me that it was a good time to write about how calendars and routines work best together!

When you’re trying to get organised, it is very tempting to start writing the things that you should do, or intend to do, on your calendar, with the idea that if it’s on the calendar, it will get done.

Life doesn’t often work like that, though, so you may simply end up with a very confusing calendar. and risk missing important events because they are lost amongst the details of your idealised plan for your week.

I just added a few recurring routines to my calendar in Cozi and just about gave myself a panic attack looking at it:

Busy calendar full of routines

I had to delete them really quickly and go have a nice cup of tea and a lie down.

That’s better – I can see more days on my calendar, and it now only shows my recurring events and the things I really need to make sure happen on time. I’m also safe from having my phone ping me with a calendar alarm too often. If you have less important tasks alerting you on your calendar, you risk ignoring an alarm thinking it’s to say “Put some washing on!,” when actually it’s telling you that you are due at the vet in 15 minutes and you need to lure the cat out from the back of the shed.

The HomeRoutines reminder chime can keep you on track, but you know it’s not a reminder for an event… it is its own thing.

David Allen wrote a book a few years ago called Getting Things Done, which has a cult status amongst many business productivity people. In his book, he wrote that there are two sorts of tasks:

Reminders of actions you need to take fall into two categories: those things that have to happen on a specific day or time, and those things that just need to get done as soon as possible. Your calendar handles the first kind of reminder.

Three things go on your calendar:

  • time specific actions;
  • day-specific actions;
  • and day-specific information

Time-specific actions are things that happen at a particular time of a particular day – appointments, in other words, or deadlines. For instance, a playdate for Tuesday afternoon, or a dentist appointment. This includes recurring events, like playgroup every Tuesday morning, because it only happens at that time.

Day-specific actions are tasks that have to be done on a certain day, but not at a certain time of that day. For instance, calling Mum on her birthday, or popping in to your friend’s workplace on Friday to pick up her house key so you can feed her cat while she’s away.

Day-specific information is the kind of details that are associated with an event. For instance, the address of the house you’re visiting for dinner, and a reminder to bring your world-famous apple pie.

If you have a task that you want to remember, and it’s a one-off task, then you can put it in your to-do list. If it’s something you need to do again and again, like washing the dishes, then it belongs in a routine!

Routines, events and one-off todo tasks are all important, so it’s great to have a way to keep them apart so they don’t get confused and muddled. Watch out for the temptation to put things that aren’t time- or date-specific on your calendar, and you’ll reduce the information overload in your life by a fraction – especially good at this time of year. My to-do list is long enough!

Filed under: ,