Time Management

I am taking classes for Seminary Wives while we are here at Southern Seminary and one of them is called Essentials 1. This particular class is sort of a smorgasbord of the elements needed to be a godly wife, mother, and "keeper of the home". One of the classes was on “Time Management” recently and boy, did it hit a nerve. In fact I came to that class having come off of a whirlwind week of running around like a chicken with its head cut off. At one point during the class we were supposed to take a few minutes to discuss a helpful tip for managing our time and I told my partner that I didn't have one because I was an awful time manager and needed to be taught everything they were teaching us. My partner happened to have a great one, so I was blessed by her experience and giftedness in this very important area.

Anyways, part of our practical application assignment was to start using a home planner/organizer if we don't already (which we learned how to effectively use during class). I really appreciated Mrs. Mohler's advice for making the home planner truly effective. She said,"...for an organization notebook to work for you and your family, you have to do two things: First you have to write in it and store information in it... and second you have to look at it (in order to process and act upon that information). If you don't do those two things, it will never work." I thought that was very practical and truthful advice. So now I own a lovely, red, size 4 organizer that I both write in and read. I must be doing it right! (Right?)

Here are some helpful things that a home organizer can be used for:

· Keep a family calendar in which you have all of the appointments/commitments of everyone in your household.

· Keep a daily record of your own general schedule/appointments/deadlines, etc.

· Keep a record of phone numbers of friends, family, acquaintances from church, etc. (goodbye old church directories!)

· Keep a copy of your budget in it

· Keep receipts to track your spending

· Keep an ongoing “to-do” list of things that are necessary but don’t necessarily have a pressing deadline. Ie: buy birthday gifts, sign up kids for soccer, etc.

· Keep a homeschooling schedule/ goal sheet in it

· Keep a verse memorization goal sheet/plan in it so that you can stay on track with your memorization.

· Keep a list of upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

· Keep gift receipts in it.

· Keep homeschooling schedules in it.

· Keep monthly meal schedules in it.

· Keep personal goal sheets in it ie. For exercise/diet, or book reading, or bible study, etc.

· Keep home-improvement planning sheets in it.

· Keep Monthly/ Yearly chore sheets in it. (for those seasonal or infrequent types of housework that need to get done, eventually.

There are so many awesome ways to benefit from using a home organizer notebook. Can you think of other things that it can be useful for?

For those of you who would like to have one, but don’t want to go out and buy one; you can do a search online and find lots of good free materials for it. I know that I (and hopefully my family) will be better off for having learned so much about time management.