The Price of Excellence (or Organizing My Life)

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." 
Proverbs 31:27

In Proverbs 31 (and throughout scripture), we are called to use our time wisely to advance His kingdom, avoiding time wasted in "idleness".  Also, 1 Corinthians commands us to glorify God in everything we do.  ("So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31)  I believe, in part, this means doing everything to the best of our ability. 

As I examine my daily activites over the past few months, I see a good bit of time wasted in "idleness", not out of laziness or apathy but out of failure to plan or prepare.  During the disruption of days that necessarily follows the introduction of a newborn to the home, my world has fallen into disorganization.  Many of the things I do are not being done well (certainly not excellently), and not because God has failed to equip me for the tasks.  I desire to use my time wisely and to do everything to the best of my ability for the glory of God.  In order to do this, I must approach everything in my life purposefully and with discipline.  As William Arthur Ward said, "The price of excellence is discipline.  The cost of mediocrity is disappointment."  He also laid out four steps to acievement: "Plan purposefully.  Prepare Prayerfully.  Proceed Positively.  Pursue Persistently."  This may be my new life mantra.

In order to "plan purposefully", I must first organize all areas of my life and make it easy to plan my time for each area.  This has inspired my Habit 2:  Create and Keep "Organize My Life" Binders.  You most likely have heard about (or may even have your own) Homekeeping Binder.  I prefer entitling them "Organize My Life" Binders, because it makes me laugh and because I need organization both inside and outside the home. I have created two binders.  My "Homekeeping Binder" holds all that I need at home.  My "Professional Planning Binder" holds all that I need as a "professional" outside the home.
 

I.  THE HOMEKEEPING BINDER

A Homekeeping Binder simply creates a place to organize all of your homekeeping activities, and gets all those scattered papers off of your counters and into a single organized space.  My binder has 4 tabs:  (1) Cleaning, (2) Meal Planning, (3) Couponing and (4) Baby Info.  (My binders are not perfectly beautiful like others you may find online, because I did not purchase a single item for them.  I used recycled materials that I found around the house, but they did the job for me.)

 

I used a brightly colored notebook for my Homekeeping Binder, because the colors make me happy.  It can be playful, because it stays in the home.

I also used pocketed dividers, to give myself somewhere to stash papers that don't need to be hole punched.

(1) CLEANING

In my "Cleaning" section, I have several cleaning lists and schedules.  I inserted most schedules in plastic sheet protectors, so I can use a dry erase marker to check off lists.  This way the lists are reusable.  (Next week, I will start using a daily cleaning schedule.)

Free printable (and oh, so cute) cleaning schedules can be found here:
http://www.cleanmama.net/free-printables





(2) MEAL PLANNING

 

 

In my "Meal Planning" section, I once again have a printed calendar in clear plastic sheet protectors to allow the calendar to be used again and again thanks to the magic of a dry erase marker.  I intend to plan meals 2 weeks in advance, but I have four weekly calendars so that I can go 4 weeks without erasing.

In the back of the Meal Planning section, I've included clear sheet protectors for Delivery and Take-Out Menus.  (Goodbye Junk Drawer!!)

Wonderful calendars and meal planners can be found here.  (These forms may not be as colorful as the ones at cleanmamma.net, but they are incredibly functional.)

www.donnayoung.org

(3) COUPONING

In my "Couponing" section, I've inserted business card protectors to hold my coupons.  I've also included a list to keep track of online deals, such as Groupons.

(4) BABY INFO

Lastly, I don't have pictures of it, but in my "Baby Info" section, I've included my 6 month old's daily schedule (easy access for babysitters) along with our emergency contact sheet and our pediatrician's handouts for this stage. 

Here is a good Emergency Contact Form:

http://www.babycenter.com/emergency-contact-worksheet

II. THE PROFESSIONAL PLANNING BINDER

My Professional Planning Binder has 5 tabs:
(1) Daily Planner, (2) Job Search, (3) Entrepreneur, (4) Civic/Church and (5) Blogging.

Because I may carry this binder with me to professional engagements, it is solid black in color to look more polished and executive.  The cover sheet in this binder is my daily To-Do List.  It is laminated, so I may reuse it with a wet-erase marker.

The above "To-Do" list was found here:

http://www.cleanmama.net/free-printables

Less colorful, but more detailed planners and lists can be found here:

http://donnayoung.org/index.htm

In my "Daily Schedule" tab, I keep an hour-by-hour planner for each day.  In it I record both planned use of time, as well as actual use of time.  This way I can see when time is used productively and when time is wasted.  The other tabs are pretty self-explanatory. 

I'm new to  this idea, so if you already use similar binders, please share what works for you and your family.  Day One and I'm already beginning to feel like a new, more productive, woman.