My To Do List!

Where do you find the time for all those hobbies?

 all those kiddos?

all that cleaning?

I seriously get asked this on a daily basis. I'd love to tell them some awesome story about how perfect I am with time management. That none of my kids lack attention, my laundry is always folded and put away, and my photos are edited the day I take them, but that's really not the case. Some days, I'm hanging by a thread to get everything done in time. I've left clean dishes in the dishwasher for days. We've ate delivery twice in one week. And we've forgot to do Skywalker's homework before bed. ( There were many mornings this past year that we spent rushing to get him ready for school, fed, AND do his homework. )  

I really do not think I am an expert on time management and I probably have no room to be talking about it, but...

How I do it, I use to do lists. 

Every night, I sit down after my shower and nightly chores and think about what I need to get done tomorrow. I organize the chores by importance and time. If I finish something before the allotted time then... I have FREE TIME! for my hobbies. 

I, also, do a weekly to do list and a monthly to do list. 

My days are still hectic and overwhelming and of course using to do lists can't possibly save me from those days where an emergency comes up or those days when nothing seems to be going right. I have yet to come up with a fail proof way to manage my time, but my to do lists do help me keep track of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how long it should take, which helps tremendously with keeping me on track. 

I like to keep my to do list in a page protector, so I can use dry erase markers on it. Saves on printer paper and ink! I write my tasks on the lines and use the boxes next to them to check them off as the tasks are completed. The big box on the right I use to keep track of other things, like whats for dinner or a phone number to an important call I have to make. 

If you would like a copy of my to do list, you can download a copy here. Just add your name to the top to personalize it!