Yesterday I described how I came to the realization that I needed to do my daily work each day before I added “projects.” I truly credit this understanding (and application of it) to helping me become the “beastly work machine” (my daughter’s term…LOL!) that I am! Seriously, this practice of doing “dailies” before anything else has helped me in my housework; cooking; writing; ministry; parenting; homeschooling; and even hobbies, such as ballroom dancing and scrapbooking.
One way that I carried out this “dailies before others” lifestyle was in my list of “constances” that I try to complete each day and week. I developed a daily and weekly list that has changed and grown with the seasons of life (see prioritizing posts) and the size/needs/ages of my family. Whether it is written in the margin of my calendar, typed on the computer and printed on parchment that matches my planner binder (!), or tucked away in the corners of my mind, it is such a part of my life—and our home—that we seldom have difficulty getting daily work done. (And, because I have developed this in my life, I have been able to teach this to my children who all practice this same approach to their days.)
My “daily and weekly list” is one in which I listed all of the tasks that I needed to do each weekday—housework, personal, devotional, school, kids, etc. Then I had a “constant” (as in constances that repeat themselves over and over) weekly list, things that I would move over to one of the weekdays when I finished that day’s daily list.
For many years, I toiled away at my daily list, adding weekly things as I could—and adding anything that absolutely had to be done that wasn’t on my “constant” list. I learned time management, prioritizing, diligence, efficiency, and more through this method of working. I was able to give my children a daily routine in which they could count on certain things taking place; and I have been able to provide them with quality education as I prioritized their schooling above other things that I wanted (but could not do simply because I never got around to them)—the dailies and weeklies took plenty of time each week for many, many years.
And here I am, some twenty-five years after I learned these lessons. Now I get to do more projects than I ever dreamed of doing through our publishing company and Training for Triumph Family Ministries; through raising teens and young adults and all the busy-ness that goes with those stages of life; writing curriculum and materials for parents; and homeschooling.
Join us tomorrow to see what one of these “dailies” and “weeklies” might look like for a young mom (back when I was one!).
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