How to Make the Most Out of Your Week

How to get organized by making the most out of your week…

A Weekly Routine Is Like a Dance Routine – Only Way More Boring and Also There’s No Dancing

I hate the word “routine.” I balked at scheduling my week. For years.

I’d like to say it’s because I’m a free spirit, but my spirit feels a lot freer when it’s not paying credit card late charges, using Kleenex to dry dishes (don’t worry, it wasn’t the lotion kind – that would just be gross), or calling the township to see why we have no water.

No, it’s not a city water outage. Did you not get the shutoff notice after the second late bill?

Plus one day I realized I was already doing certain things on certain days anyway. Because it was efficient. So why not make the whole week efficient?

Same Results, Less Effort? Yes Please!

Sometimes I do things back-ass-ward but in my heart of hearts, I do prefer efficiency.

I consider my weekly routine a suggested framework for my week. Like Captain Balboa, I prefer to think of it as a guideline more than an actual rule. I use it to figure out the best way to get as much done as I can.

Or at least as much done as I feel like doing.

Yes, there are weeks like that.

Not only that, but if I only have to do something I hate one time during the week because I efficiency-ified it, that’s way better than doing it twice.

It’s so calming to know I have a handle on everything. Makes me almost feel like an adult.

Yum, a “Greasy Pork Sandwich Served Up On a Dirty Ashtray”*

Having the suggested activities for each week written out gives me a pretty good idea of what tasks work most effectively on which days (errands when I’m on that side of town, laundry when I’m usually home anyway, etc.).

That means I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every week.

I rearrange the order all the time, but I do it looking at the big picture so I don’t screw myself up and end up “housework hungover” the following week.

Even when I self-destruct, the routine is always waiting to help me back on my feet.

In my head, Routine Man, vaguely resembling the Bill from Schoolhouse Rock, reaches out to me, softly crooning “Lean On Me.”

I feel so loved.

Way More Nauseating Than a Merry-Go-Round

Here’s my current plan. It’s evolved over the years. It’s not everything I do in a week, just the never-ending-over-and-over-stop-this-merry-go-round-I-want-to-get-off routine stuff. The stuff that keeps life oily. Or well-oiled. Or something like that.

It doesn’t include my specific cleaning tasks. I’m doing a separate post on that. Nor does it show any of the smaller tasks I include as reminders to myself.

I will attach a photo of my actual routine checklist at the end of this post that has everything on it in all its warty glory.

You’re welcome.

SUNDAY:

Laundry/hand washables
Weekly paperwork review
Pillboxes

MONDAY:

Work
Weekly cleaning task of the day
Leftover paperwork-related tasks / calendar / phone calls
Volunteer stuff

TUESDAY:

Work
Weekly cleaning task of the day
Clean out, wipe down, vacuum car

WEDNESDAY:

Work
Errands (except big grocery shopping)
Weekly cleaning task of the day
Weed (pull, not smoke)

THURSDAY:

Work
Grocery shop / put away
Weekly cleaning task of the day
Make sure son cleaned room (clean is a relative term)

FRIDAY:

Underdog projects (the ones that get picked last for dodgeball)

SATURDAY:

Work
Mow / trim
Wash car
Guinea pig cage / claws / heiney check (the heiney check didn’t need to be on here because I just automatically do it, but it totally cracks me up that I have to check their little poopers)

Enough Already – We Get It -Routines Rock! Now Go Away, We’re Trying to Watch Ozark

When I do skip chores, it’s by choice. Not accidentally because I forgot.

They’re my chores and I can skip them if I want to (pouty face here). As long as I’m okay with the consequences. That is freeing. And that freedom actually makes me want to stick to the routine.

Then when the inevitable week comes where everyone has the stomach flu or I’m responsible for a Cub Scout Banquet and hosting two birthday parties in the same week, I don’t also have to deal with a buildup of undone chores.

Chances are, my bathrooms will have all been deep-cleaned the week before, the bed sheets are fresh (enough), there are at least staple groceries in the house, and we have underwear.

Never Say Neveralmostever

I can’t even tell you how many times in the chaotic pre-routine past when three big things have hit all at once the very week after I’ve let the house go, forgot that bills were piling up, and hadn’t grocery shopped in weeks. Hello fetal position.

That doesn’t happen to me anymore. Neveralmostever.

Adulting might not be a pretty princess party with ponies and a bounce castle, but it does have its upside.

*Dean Winchester’s cure for a hangover in Supernatural