January 31, 2013

January’s “Routine” Progress

"Nation's busiest secretary. Washington, D.C., Aug. 25. Probably the busiest Secretary in the Capitol these days is Eugenia Pope, Secretary and only employee of Wage-Hour Administrator Elmer F. Andrews. The Bureau will employ 1,000 persons in two months, but in the meantime Miss Pope must keep track of 50,000 applications for jobs, (8/25/1938)." Photograph by Harris & Ewing. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. — “Nation’s busiest secretary. Washington, D.C., Aug. 25. Probably the busiest Secretary in the Capitol these days is Eugenia Pope, Secretary and only employee of Wage-Hour Administrator Elmer F. Andrews. The Bureau will employ 1,000 persons in two months, but in the meantime Miss Pope must keep track of 50,000 applications for jobs, (8/25/1938).” Photograph by Harris & Ewing. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

It’s the end of a month and I can hardly believe it! This month, I began working on instituting new routines, including creating a chart to track my progress.

How did I do this month?

OK for a first month but certainly far from perfect.

Lessons learned this month:

My routines are already bearing fruit!

I didn’t announce to the world exactly what routines and projects I was working on. I wasn’t expecting anyone else to notice any changes. All I wanted was for myself and my family to feel like we are functioning better. It was a pleasant surprise however, to get some unexpected third party positive feedback noticing improvements due to our new routines. It is a great motivation to keep going.

It’s unfortunate that New Year’s coincides with cold and flu season.

The first half of the month was far more successful for me than the second half, mainly due to our family coming down with severe colds that are taking a while to shake. Just as you get fired up about a resolution and starting a new routine, a major disruption, like illness really shakes you off that routine. It is taking me some time to get back to where I was at the beginning of the month. Part of it is physical recovery from the illness and part of it is demotivation from having my new routines disrupted just as I was getting started.

Blogging, cleaning and organizing, exercise, pick any two.

So far, despite my best efforts this month, my attempts to put a routine in place to make at least some progress each day on blogging, cleaning and organizing and exercising, I find that I have not yet been able to get all 3 of those things done in any one day. The best I can do is 2 of 3. I am still hopeful that by the end of the year, I will find a way to figure out how to do all 3 in one day.

If you struggle with time management, a routine checklist is a great visualization tool.

Some people might be able to manage their time perfectly well with nothing other than a calendar and a to do list. For me, a calendar and to do list don’t capture all of the “routine” jobs I want to get done every day. The routine checklist helps me to understand in advance when my routine is going to be disrupted so I set the right expectations. For example, I marked out on my January checklist when we would be on vacation so I knew that we would not be home to accomplish any of the home routines at that time.

A new month is a great time for a new start.

My checklist has been motivating and demotivating. By the end of the month, my checklist shows all the baggage of lazy days, sickness, and all the other reasons why I didn’t get done what I wanted to. It can be a little dispiriting to look at a lot of blank boxes you wish were checked. But it is also great to look forward to a brand new month and a brand new checklist that is fresh and clean and free of all that baggage. If you are playing along, below is a blank form for February.