Intentionally Left Blank: 15 Minutes Weekend Spurts

Monday, August 14, 2006

15 Minutes Weekend Spurts

I'm not one to let religious bias get in the way of a good idea. Emilie Barnes's mission is to make Christian housewives more organized because what time do you have for God and your family if your constantly working on housework? Lots of quoting from Proverbs throughout her books, but that's one of the books of the Bible I don't have issues with.

So add "everything else in my life" to "spirituality," and I need all the organizing
help I can get. What first concerned me was the emphasis on "housewife" using this
system. It's not for feminist reasons; I'm juggled housework, paying job, writing
career, school, and AMF career. I don't spend much time at my house to tidy it.

Her system as far as chores go is to break the chores into time periods: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannual, and annual chores. Where you see the difference is the monthly, you have all week to clean the fridge. Quarterly may end up being done all in one day, but you don't have to worry about them until the next quarter. No more doing the whole house at once. If you miss a chore in the weekly rotation, you don't do it again until that day rolls around next week.

She recommends notecards to flip through and shuffle, but I've been having success with just a check list. And moving chore time to the morning has been fantastic. I'm not driving sleepy, everything is usually done when I get home so I don't feel guilty for the computer time. I do need to make some tweaks to the checklist, like breaking things like yardworkd into proper seasons. Otherwise, O can't say enough good things about how this system has gotten me on track.

Prune camillas: winthin one month after finish blooming
Prune crepe myrtles: January
Prune oak: January
Plant trees: January - March
Prune gardenias: after finish flowering May or June
Prune hydgreneas: as soon as the flowers fade

Barnes's second suggestion is to work like mad at a task for 15 minutes then break.
This weekend was a big test for that: Saturday was spent between my office and the
Resource Guide, Sunday between the back porch and Resource Guide. Granted, I was typing what had already been composed; I don't know how well this method will work when I'm having to think about the words more. But I finished my monthly goal for the Resource Guide in roughly five and half hours of writing time, down to one box of papers and one box of supplies in the office, and only have the shelves next to the washing machine to do on the back porch. Oh and getting rid of the rusted out hunk of junk that was a gas refrigerator 40 years ago, but that has to wait for help. (FYI, not my fault it's still there. I've been trying to get rid of it for six years, but my father is stupidly sentimental about it and his mother is delusional that it still works.)

With a few bumps, the new schedule appears to be working out just as I need. Now we just have to see how it survives classes.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

2007 AMF Resource Guide Started with 27,709 words