"Better do a little well, than a great deal badly." -Socrates

I noticed the  Large Family Logistics site has been closed pending the publication of a new book. While I don’t begrudge her that option, it does leave a void. Since I have linked to her system in the past I wanted to provide some new links and thoughts as I revisit my Home Mgt Binder and flesh out our routine.

Good news is, its still in place and I haven’t actually changed much.  Bad news is, kids are pretty, well, childish for lack of a better word.  Being works in progress means every day you get up and remind them again how things are done. The challenge is to do this cheerfully, as though you hadn’t done the very same thing yesterday…..

Judging by the comment load I would guess there is strong sentiment for the idea that we can’t do it all. So then, how do we do what we must?  Before that, how do we determine what we ought to be doing?   A bare basics list would tell us that we must clean, we must educate (onsite or off), we must eat, we must be a loving helpmeet to our husbands. Those are the must do’s.  When those are done well we can add ‘nice to do’s’ like lessons, meetings, hobbies, outside commitments.

To hit those basics we have divided our house into sections and try to tackle a section each day of the week. LFL called those Focus Rooms or Focus Days. Simply put, we assign part of the house to each day and then try to devote like half an hr to whipping through it – vacuum, dust, wipe, declutter.  If you do this daily your house won’t get away from you ideally.  (please read words like "ideally" carefully ; ))  My focus day lists detail what has to happen in our house to make a room ‘clean’. Don’t assume children will know what ‘clean’ means without such a list. A detailed list keeps everyone nice. Or much nicer than returning to the room with increasing frustration to announce again that no, it isn’t done. You will have to tweak the lists to include things that are in your rooms. They are in word documents so you can do that.  (For personal use, please do not redistribute)

Ok, with that basic framework for the week you then break down the individual day.  Best advice there – ALWAYS get up before the children.  Whatever else happens do not wait until you hear Cheerios hitting bowls or Barney on the tv. The day is already in trouble at that point. Try to get out of bed ahead of your crew and purpose your day. I love Leo Baubata’s site and plan to hash out here in the coming days what I have been reading there. On this page he discusses establishing your MITs – your Most Important Tasks – for the day. He advises you to list no more than 3 major things that must be tackled in a day. You can ‘batch’ little jobs into a half hr slot at some point. An example, yesterday our MIT was getting Colin to the wheelchair fitting. That meant printing mapquest directions, packing the van and baby bag, dinner prep so it would be ready when we returned, and gathering insurance info. 

Begin with the end in mind, to borrow a Covey slogan. Actually this was my Grandma’s slogan long before Stephen Covey thought about time management. She sent everyone off for the day then immediately set about dinner prep and table setting since those things had to happen by the end of the day.  With that in mind, what can you do this morning that will ensure that your day ends well?  Can you prep dinner ahead?  If you are married, your MIT includes being relatively coherent and put together when your see your spouse at the day’s end. Can you rest so you are awake when you see your husband next?  Can you arrange for a late afternoon tidying? Can you schedule quiet time for the children right after?  If you have after school activities is your van clean and packed – this morning?  Do you know where the uniforms or music books etc are? Will you return to a relatively tidy house? What will be the next steps when you return home?  Are they set up now or will you be tired and scrambling?   Bottom line – work backwards.

A point for reflection here – if you do the last things first and the must do’s and there is not much time left then you have just had a wake up call about how much a person can really do.  Time to rethink the in-between commitments.  This is exactly what happened to us. By the time we prepped the must do chores, the evening  stuff, and got school done the day was pretty much full. We have not actually gotten to a bunch of ‘nice to do’s’ because they tend to encroach upon the ‘must do’s’.  That is ok. They are not God’s will for us for right now and if they aren’t then they won’t bring us a lot of peace and happiness if we try to squeeze them in anyway. Being rested for my husband and having the evening run smoothly with the children is more important than anything else I can be doing in the afternoons right now.

While I don’t follow a perfect hourly schedule I do recall a story that is always in my mind when I plan. A woman was sharing how she set up her weekly calendar with color coded postit notes. She had a large family and her calendar was full by the time she laid out her tasks, meals etc. When someone called to ask her to volunteer for something or asked her out her husband pointed to the chart and said well, which of these (postits) can you take off?  Clearly that new activity would have to replace something in their week. It was just a matter of what. Now, I don’t recommend being anal about your time but you do have to be realistic. If you days are full then any new commitments are going to have to replace something already there. Keep that in mind before you say yes and be sure you are willing to make that swap.

Ok more later.  Off to practice what I preach. : )   What are your MITs today?