Work Vs. Homelife

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else out there sooooo much better about organizing their work time and tasks than their personal ones? At work, there seems to be definition. At home….you should see my closet, car and bedroom….uhhhhhggggg! I forgot my daughters Orthodontist appointment today, because I was so hyperfocused on work!!!!! I feel like such a lousy Mom sometimes because I can’t keep up with everything! I feel like I can’t keep my head above water in my personal life! My husband (who I call my Lovedove) is so patient with me.

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[Anonymous]

Better at organizing their work time? For me, I’m very organized at work but it takes me hours and hours to get that way after the kids go home before I’m done there (I teach). All the day’s paperwork needs to be put away and filed and everything for the next day needs to be set up/readied for the next day. I’m a bit of a fanatic about being 100% available to work with the kids during school time so when I’m finished with lesson materials I just throw it all towards my desk to deal with it when the kids are gone. Then I have to pack up my marking and assessment work to take home with me.

I’m told I’m the most organized person on staff? Really? I don’t think so. Would someone who is really organized take that long to get organized?

Home doesn’t get too ‘un’organized but really, how much time am I really here doing anything other than work? Laundry and housework are easy because the machines take care of that. I throw stuff in and voila! It comes out dry and then I get to fold it. Oddly enough, folding is a relaxing activity for me. Scary, eh? (just had to throw that Canadianism in there)

I think the folding thing comes from doing it with my mom when I was just a little kid. I distinctly remember folding dish towels/linens when I was about 5 or 6 years old while talking with ‘mummy’. There were a bunch of us in my family (and I even came with a twin) so just having that alone time was special and made the folding fun for me. So if any of you pop by my place you’ll find neatly folded laundry. The kitchen is clean too but that’s because I hate to cook so I ‘peck’ at things found in the fridge and cupboards. I DID cook for my kids when they were young unable to fend for themselves since I have this thing about good food for growing brains and bodies.

I hyperfocus on anything I do. My dear hubby finally gets it after 35 years and hardly even bats an eyelash now. That’s probably because he’s had them burned off when I’ve turned into Dragon Lady when he’s tried to pry me from my ‘task’. How does that saying go? “Once bitten, twice shy.” Yeah, he’s learned his lesson. When I drop the ball at home, he just picks it up without saying a thing.

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[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have yourself under good control…congrats to you! Glad to hear your hubby understands you, mine is very understanding (at least on the outside) and I am so thankful for that!

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[Anonymous]

OH, YES!!! YESSSS!! My house is a wreck, but my workspace is tidy and well organized. Probably has to do with the limited and defined scope of my responsibilities.

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[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

I was wondering the same thing LionLady! BTW…you should see my purse…it’s laughable! I can never find my phone or anything that I actually need when I need it….LOL!

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[Anonymous]

Just came on to this post… a few months late! But I use to struggle with the same thing. So I created a weekly checklist… of what chores I can do on what days. It sounds crazy, but I have an excel spreadsheet that I update every now and then! For dinner, I try to plan that out on the weekends, because my biggest problem (and time waster) would be coming up with a dinner idea! But I leave one day to order out, one day for left overs, and one day for my easiest meals (speghetti or enchiladas), one day to visit my parents (and they cook!!), so really one 3 days to plan for!

I also try to block things off into 30 min increments so I don’t get to overwhelmed… or too bored with the one task!

The other thing that helps is when you have a really boring dreadful task ahead of you…. make sure you follow it immediately with a fun one. Sad to say, but for me that’s having a really yummy cup of coffee (I limit myself to only 1 per day) while watching my favorite show on DVR! That way I’m excited to get through the task at hand because I have my relaxation time coming up!!

And as far as appointments… I live off my iPhone calander! What do you use to keep track?

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[kc5jck]

From one of my earlier posts elsewhere:

” I have, due to my businesses, about forty different financial transactions to make throughout the month. When it was just a few bills, I could manage. Now, I have a spreadsheet with months across the top and transaction ordered by due date along the side. This has been a great help to me in determining if something has been paid and the amount of the payment. Its an item on my Windows desktop. I also have five or six alarms on my iPhone to cue me to take out the trash Thursday night, make daily bank transfers, etc”

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[Anonymous]

I use a standard calendar. It took a long time for using it to become a habit, but moving house helped, as I could put it next to the fridge where I see it every morning and multiple times throughout the day. I also have a small diary that I carry with me everywhere. I match up the two every time my work roster comes out (monthly), as well as whenever I think of it.

As for work, I am so much more organised at work. That being said, I am a nurse, and it is hard to procrastinate a request for a bedpan!! Routines also work well for me (once I have incorporated them into my life), and my work is based on routines. I think accountability is greater in many workplaces too. I know that rapid feedback/consequences are more effective than slower ones, and the soap scum slowly accumulating in the shower at home is certainly a less effective motivator than the thought of arriving at work to find you have to explain why you didn’t do something at work the day before.

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[Anonymous]

Because my work doesn’t really require much organization unless I get assigned an extra project, I don’t seem to have this issue. But, home organization I master for a minute. I have great plans and buy notebooks, file systems, and spend the time setting up a system for paying bills, and then I don’t follow through. I have great aspirations, and work hard getting it all lined up, and find I’ve wasted a lot of time setting up something so complicated I’ll never use it. I do have to write things down, but if I don’t look at the notebook, or even go online to the website where 90% of my bill websites are located what good is it?

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[Anonymous]

I use a program called “rememberthemilk” and it works wonders to keep me minded on what i have to do. It’s basically a checklist program with due dates, notes, and reminders both on my phone or email.

I have everything on there from my work related task to the simplest house chore, all tagged in different subcategories. It works great if you take the time to overview it ast the end of each day and start your day by going over your things to do. My problem is the latter.

The hardest thin for me is remembering to always start my day by looking at what i have to do and plan things out. If I just go with the flow well the flow is quite lethargic.

I guess both my work and household is the same chaos, or somewhat controlled chaos i like to believe.

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[Anonymous]

Lanakila000

This is spot on my problem, I always carry a notebook with me and have to write things down. My problem is overviewing the input of information.

Same for setting up systems. At some point if you dont keep at it….whats it good for eh? It always frustrates me to see that two weeks in my good intentions of setting up a bill paying system or bill box, that I dont keep at it and am back to my usual chaos.

The only good thing is tha each time I set myself a system or use some new program, I usually keep doing some of it for the long run, let be it 5 or 10%. I figure these little 5% will eventually add up to a system that works 100% for me…lol

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