Simple Living Sunday: Frightfully frugal organising

My Frightfully Frugal Planner

I’m away visiting friends this weekend so I thought I would leave you with a look at the way I keep track of what I'm doing. Here's my "planner"

Pad of planning sheets: $3

washi tape: $2

coloured pens: a gift for a young person that never happened : cost back then/now free on hand

 

I love fussing around, designing weekly planning formats freehand or on the computer. I always reused  A4 paper until I succumbed and bought this pad of weekly planning sheets at a $2-type shop. I actually thought it was a weekly planner but it is, in fact, a monthly planner. It cost me $3. I write up the headings each week and away I go. Headings  include: maybe, definite, meals, to buy, to do, to call, next (next week) and goals.

Maybe: what I need to do on that day, recorded ahead of time
Definite: what I aim to do on that today, recorded and updated on the day

I do use a monthly diary and I usually stick  the weekly planning sheets in there. I reuse bits of paper as shopping lists and I use the back of the sheet when I need more space.

The washi tape is a new addition to my organising palette. And I love it. Yesterday I couldn’t run because I had my nephew’s birthday. Imagine my (ever so simple) delight when I realised I could just lift the tape off Monday and move it ever so easily onto Tuesday. Along with my beautiful markers it all looks bright and colourful.

I love sitting down and planning what I’m going to do. I do have to be careful that I spend at least as much time doing, not just planning and dreaming. Somehow a well-planned week in theory helps me have a well-planned week in practice.

Simple Living Sunday: Frightfully frugal gardening tip

Don't throw away your  banana peels. Give your plants a potassium-fix!

Here is a frightfully frugal tip.

Banana peels soaking in water overnight: free potassium-rich drink for your plants the next day!! (Bananas are a rich source of potassium and  hopefully "chemical-free")

This tip comes from one of my friends who is frightfully knowledgeable about all things botanical.

Happy SAD Tips

Tip: Employ a life coach for free!

The journey along the pot-holed road to happiness can be harrowing at times. I remember years ago, as a young teacher, trying to summon up courage and energy each day to face my eager students and the intimidating,  ever-confident, (so I believed) faces of  colleagues and parents. I was exhausted during those years and, of course, I didn't know why.

One day I came home feeling terribly uncomfortable. I had said something I regretted to a student. I was mortified and riddled with angst. What would the parents say? How would I face the principal over this? They'll tell other parents....    And that night the same thoughts went round and round and round in my head.

I can't remember how it came about but amidst that stress I realised something. My sister is cool, calm and collected. She is super organised and she knows what she is doing. She's the complete opposite of me. It struck me that  she would not be sitting at home worrying like me. Also a teacher, she would just move on after a difficult exchange. I could picture her and how she would react. I also knew she would tire quickly of my unrelenting thoughts which is why I never shared with her!

Somehow I began to see that I could "use" my sister as an instant gauge for indicating when I was overdoing the worrying. I could imagine what she would say and what she would do. She never knew it but there were many days when I would consider her when I needed a perspective different from my own.

Perhaps, like me, you can't employ a life coach to help keep your life on track. You might live by yourself and find it hard to ask others for advice.  So consider a person you respect and know well; someone who makes decisions easily. Use them as a gauge to help you get perspective. Ask yourself: How would  they react if they were in my situation?  


FYI : The next day at work no student, teacher or parent said anything about what I had said. Ever!