Life Management

I've noticed a growing number of my female friends own a "Home Management Notebook". At first, I attributed it to being just my married friends who have a home to keep up for their family, but recently, I've seen more of my single friends begin to implement this into their lives as well. For those who don't know (because I certainly didn't), inside are schedules for cleaning, cooking, different recipes for food and homemade cleaning agents, decoration ideas, and pretty much anything else you think might belong inside a home organizational binder.

I have NEVER heard of this concept before. My mom never had such a thing, though I can't see her operating on such a system. It seems very confining to "manage" your home by scheduling when to do cleaning and shopping and what to cook each night. In a way, it makes sense, I suppose; if it's on the schedule to clean the bathroom every Saturday, you KNOW the last time the shower was scrubbed and you don't panic when a friend decides to spend the night and you suspect she may venture into the bathroom to shower the next morning before you've had a chance to wipe away that odd dust that accumulates on the corners of the tub. (see, I definitely don't have any specific examples) Ok, I understand the necessity sometimes...

But my life schedule is always different! It's not guaranteed that I'm going to be home on Saturday - I may be traveling for several weekends in a row. I don't feel this burning desire to schedule my life and tasks and meals like a manager over a restaurant either. And I feel like a lot of these weekly tasks could be accomplished without the use of a schedule, if only I could use my time appropriately instead of hitting gmail immediately after getting home from work.

Oddly, I still feel this pull towards it though. Not necessarily because it's how I function best and how I know things will get done if I do it that way. (In reality, the binder will sit in my nightstand where I'll pull it out every few months, stuff papers inside of it that have been floating around/stuffed in the same nightstand as the binder and throw it back into the darkness for the next month. Again, I don't have specific examples on similar binders.) Because so many of my friends are utilizing this management notebook and their lives are so "clean" and organized and simple, I feel like I need to do it this way too in order to have a clean, organized and simple life. The end result appeals to me greatly, but definitely not the means on how to get there.

So while I try to figure out how to accomplish such a smooth life, I'll make do with small steps.

Small step #1: Be intentional. Vague, yes. Working? More yes. It can be as small as doing the dishes in the 10 minutes I have while cooking dinner to setting aside time to read each day and being deliberate about which book I read to even bigger life things that I can't even contemplate right now.

Next, I need to work on making a Dove Dark Chocolate bar last longer. It may not be related to accomplishing an organized and simple life, but I still think it's very important.