Routine
plays a big part of our lives, it could be no other way. I’ve mentioned this before but it bears
mentioning again – LOML is anal, really anal. Everything we do has some sort of
process, routine or plan attached. Yes sometimes this is too much and there
have been many words spoken, shouted, ignored or thought about routines in our
home. Don’t get me wrong I love a good routine and at work I am known as the
queen of lists but sometimes you need to be spontaneous and I think it is really
important to marry the two and this is the way I do it.
Having a plan,
doing things by routine helps you to be spontaneous. Routines help me free up time so I can be
spontaneous and ensures everything gets done but more importantly ensures
things are done the way we like them done. This is a really important point –
routines will only work if they are complimentary to the people using
them. Don’t have a routine if you know
it won’t work for you or won’t value add to your family. For a routine to be successful it has to be
simple and easy to manage, something that is hard to handle will only add
stress and for me the purpose of finding “my simple” is to reduce the stress in
my life.
There is
always room for improvement and an area I want to work on is a pre made grocery
list. I already have a planning day where
I look forward for a week and month, I plan meals for the week and look at what
we have coming up. With a 16 year old
son who works part time, plays soccer, is participating in Duke of Edinburgh,
has a girlfriend and a social life it gets a bit hectic. So planning is
essential especially when I add in the things I want to do. Luckily we are able
to fit in everything and with a bit of tweaking we have a very smooth life, a
lifestyle that is everything we want it to be.
My shopping
day does change and is planned around Merman’s work – he works at a local
supermarket and I shop when I drop him off for work. As you can see routines aren’t set in stone –
planned but not set in stone. The
routine part comes into play by the way I do it not necessarily when I do it. I look at the week ahead, plan the meals
(taking into account my work – when it is busy I sometimes cook the night
before so the boys can heat up dinner just in case I have to work late). I check
in with both hubby and son to see what is going on. Soccer training day we get home later and it
is not a good idea to plan a meal that takes too long to cook.
Having a
meal plan is a big part of my planning and I always have one so it should be
easy to create a pre made grocery list.
It should be so why haven’t I don’t it yet. The plan for this week is to
develop a pre made grocery list that works for me. As usual I approach this challenge by
producing a list.
Categories
|
What can affect shopping
|
Solution
|
Fruit and Veg, bread, Deli, Meat,
Fridge, Freezer, other, snacks, drinks, bathroom/laundry
|
I shop at different supermarkets so I
can’t put the list in order of the supermarket
|
Have a list for each place I shop or
create the list in categories not the shop
|
Bread
|
When I shop
|
This doesn’t matter
|
Printing the list
|
Do I have to print it can I put it on
my phone
|
Writing this
down has been really helpful for me as I can see there is nothing that is really
stoping me creating a pre made grocery list.
Ok that’s
done, as with anything else it will be a work in progress and I’ll see how it
goes after the first shopping trip.
Another area
I need to address is fitness and fitting it into my day. I need to make a
routine for fitness. Yes I say this all the time but this time I am going to do
it. I am going to keep it simple but I am going to do it. As part of my weekly
planning I am going to incorporate walking at least 3 times a week and then
reassess after a few weeks and see what else I can include in my plan.
My new
routine will be walking 3 days a week at lunch time. Maybe if I write it down I will actually do it.
Thanks Deb
(http://www.homelifesimplified.com.au/simplify-your-life-week-28-cleaning/) another area of my life that is made simpler. 