Thursday, October 23, 2014

Look At All My Check-Marks, Honey!

When I became a housewife 2 years and 10 months ago, I was really bad at it. Like, really bad! To be fair, I was pregnant with a broken collar bone and off my medication, but after giving birth to my daughter and starting to work part-time, I did not improve much at all.

You see, I have always hated cleaning ever since I was a child. My room was always a mess. I hated chores, especially the dishes! Cleaning sucks. It's not fun to do, it takes a long time, and it's energy I'd rather spend doing something more enjoyable like sitting on my ass in front of a screen. Cleaning is a never ending project that you cannot win at. No matter how often you clean a room or a thing, you will always have to clean it again. I think I despise the repetitive nature of cleaning the most.

So, a couple of years ago, I did some research and came up with my very own personalized weekly chore chart. I posted it on the fridge and never followed it haha. Recently I revamped the chart now that I live in a house instead of an apartment and I have to say, it's working out quite well for me. I've been following it for almost 2 weeks now in conjunction with a daily planner chart. Check it out!
That weird type-o should say Take out recycling lol I don't know what happened there.
The fonts don't match as I adapted this from a free DL from www.thehouseholdplanner.com Great site!

I put them in those plastic sheet covering things, like you use for projects in duo-tangs in school, that way I can use a dry erase marker and save on paper and they're in plain sight on the fridge. Every night I fill in my daily planner for the following day. When I wake up, my day has been roughly planned and I can avoid decision fatigue. As I complete tasks throughout the day, I make a check-mark in the box.

It sounds so juvenile, but those check-marks are incredibly satisfying! I crave check-marks! When Bob comes home from work, I proudly display them like Vana White and say, "Look at all my check-marks, honey!"

The whole concept is that on any given day of the week, at least one area of your house will be clean. The work is pretty evenly spread out, with some days being easier than others. If something doesn't get done for whatever reason, you can leave it and know that in exactly one week you will get to it.

I was reading an article about how you should treat being a stay at home mom as real job. I'm supposed to wake up on time, get dressed, even put on shoes, follow a routine ect. I read another article about decision fatigue that said your will power rises and falls throughout the day, but you have the most will power at the beginning of  the day, and after meals, so plan your most important tasks for after breakfast and after lunch and you will more likely have the will power to achieve them. Spending too much time making too many small decisions eats away at your will power. (Deciding what to eat, what to wear ect) The more you decide ahead of time, the more you will have scheduled, the more will power you will have to spend on more important tasks. Trivial decisions should be made at the end of the day so you can wake up fresh, ready to tackle your most important task, (like exercising or starting a special project, or something career related.) And that's how you accomplish everything you want to in a day.

I believe it to be true! I feel like my chore chart and my daily planner help me avoid decision fatigue in a big way by adding structure to my day. Every day is planned out, I just follow my schedule. For once it feels like I have time to do all that I want to do and I actually get it done on time. It's a great feeling and the proof is in all my check-marks!

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