When you are self-organized, you know what you should do and when.

You eliminate the 'what should I do next?' factor. I will expand on that thought another time, but first let's constructively plan the week.

I use Microsoft Excel for my day, use what you are comfortable with. Put the time in half hour increments down the left side of the form from the time that you get up, to the time that you go to bed.

Across the top, put the days of the week.

This is what you do with it:

1. Put in all of the 'must do at this time' items, such as taking the kids to school at 7 a.m. and picking them up at 2 p.m..

2. Put the items that require the most thought in the time period that you think clearest, morning people in the morning and night people at night.

Never work more than two hours without a break.

3. Multi-task grunt work during times that you don't think well or while you are brainstorming an idea.

Another thing that I do when I'm multi-tasking is listen to an e-book.

The first time that I read it, I read it aloud into a small tape recorder, so when I'm doing my 'chores' I can listen again and perhaps hear something that I missed or didn't need at the time of the recording.

And then-

What?

What do I mean by multi-tasking?

Good question!

An example of multi-tasking would be when I spray tub and tile cleaner in the shower, dump toilet cleaner in -duh- the toilet, gather the dirty towels throw them in the washer, drop the dishes in the dishwasher, the pot roast in the crock pot, fill the bread machine, throw anything that doesn't belong where it is into a laundry basket while vacuuming the carpet. I'm back to the computer in 1/2 hour. =o)

WARNING! WARNING!

Don't ever multi-task important jobs that require your attention! You will do an inferior job. Multi-tasking is strictly for grunt work.

-Back to our itinerary-

4. Be sure to schedule down time, date time, and a special time each day for each one in your home.

If you allow things to stand between you and your relationships, everything falls apart.

Be sure to schedule worship time and to ask for guidance in all that you do.

I filled in my itinerary for the week in about 15 minutes the first time and it requires about 5 minutes at the beginning of the week to fill in appointments.

Stuff Happens.

There will be times when you make plans and God laughs. For whatever reason, you are called away from your schedule.

So what. At least you know what you missed and what you need to make up.