Evening Checklist

So I haven't written on here over the weekend. I suppose that's a bad sign for my habit forming.  Nevertheless I have been doing my housework habits. And I've had so much spare time this weekend that I got a few decluttering jobs done.

I took about 10 bags of clothes and books to the charity shop, I sorted out all the pens in the house and chucked out all the ones that didn't work, I sorted through the DVDs and filled up the black pocket case and chucked away all the unnecessary DVD boxes.  I now have about 200 DVDs in the display cupboard neatly sorted in alphabetical order and then another 208 DVDs in the case.  Between that lot I've got a really good collection of movie classics. I'll never have time to watch them all! The biggest job of all was clearing out under our bed and Emma's bed. There is now nothing under there except some framed photos waiting to be hung up, a light shade for the bathroom we've had forever and one box of clothes that are only worn occasionally but I don't want to get rid of them. They are bulky hoodies so take up too much room in the wardrobe.

I also tidied out the bathroom cabinets.

I did the laundry and ironing and put everything straight away. I changed the bedding.
Dusted and vacuumed upstairs.
Did all the filing, checked finances and paid bills.
Put ink in the printer.
Cleaned out fridge
Put away Tesco delivery

Normal daily jobs have also been done:
Shined sink
Loaded and unloaded the dishwasher
Emptied Robbie the vacuum robot
Swished and swiped the shower room
Swished and swiped the bathroom
Made beds
Tidied up
Made lunches for tomorrow.

Back at Crossfit this week so we'll see how tired that makes me.

Need to decide now on weekly jobs and days for them.
And need to do SAVERS thoroughly!

Evening Checklist

this morning I:

Made breakfast
Made beds
Changed sheets
Put bedding in washing machine
Shined sink & hob
Swished and swiped shower room
Emptied Robbie

This evening:
Chiropractor appointment
Went to the butcher
Labelled and froze meat
Dried and folded bedding
Put dark washing on
Soaked whites in OxyBleach
Made tea
Loaded dishwasher
Tidied
Wiped kitchen surfaces
Shined sink & hob
Put recycling in bin
Emptied Don's bag
Put darks in dryer
Put white washing on
Swished and swiped bathroom
Did some cryptic crosswords

Habits are Easy

Habits are easy for me when I'm not busy.  As always the end of term was manic but because of a virtually free mentoring day the last day of term I managed to have a massive clear out.

Then, for once, we had no plans over Christmas apart from Christmas Day so I managed to get all my marking done early on.  I then spent most of the rest of the holidays cleaning and de-cluttering.  End result, keeping the house clean and tidy is easy.  And I feel so much better for it.

But I'm not going to Crossfit at the moment until Don's shoulder and my hip heal. It will be interesting to see what effect the good habit of going to Crossfit has on my house routines.  Also wonder how they stand up when we start going away caving at weekends or for half term or when I start marking.

Evening Checklist

This morning I:

Did Silence and affirmations and AGO. Did 1 minute plank and 20 sit-ups.

Emptied and loaded dishwasher
Made cooked breakfast
Shined sink
Swished and swiped shower room
Made both beds
Tidied up

This evening:

Loaded and emptied dishwasher
Cooked dinner
Made lunches for tomorrow
Dealt with post
Checked banking
Did Tesco order for Saturday morning
Got meat out of freezer
Shined sink
Swished and swiped bathroom
Made an iMovie tutorial for Y9
Did  a couple of cryptic crosswords
Read a chapter of Open

So I've developed good habits many times before only to let them slip as soon as life gets in the way. I have a tendency to say yes to everything and want to get involved in everything.  I am the opposite of the One Thing philosophy. I have a butterfly mind and I flit from one idea to another.

Trouble is I then tend to start to suffer from overwhelm.  Instead of getting my habits to carry me through the busy times they are the first things to go.

So the habits I am introducing this time are not new to me - I've done them all successfully in the past.  The goal this time is to keep doing them.

The habits I want to really focus on through January are to do with my house.  I have picked up some of these from Flylady but two new blogs I've been following are A Slob Comes Clean by Dana White and Sorted by Gillian Perkins.  You could say these two are complete opposites.  I do fall somewhere in the middle.  I've never had the mess and clutter that Dana gets although I've come close at times, and I'm not totally organised like Gillian although I can do it with a bit of effort.

Going to do my exercises now and then think about gathering together all the chores I need to do to keep my house shipshape as Gillian recommends.

The Habit Habit Evening Checklist.

Haven't got as far as a list to check yet but I have realised just how wonderful it is to come home to a beautifully clean and tidy house.

So today I:

Did 1 min plank, 10 side lifts with band, 10 lunges and 10 squats.

Made both beds

Swished and swiped the shower room
Loaded the Dishwasher
Shined my sink
Got meat out of the freezer

Cooked tea
Vacuumed upstairs and the stairs
Mopped kitchen floor
Made lunches for tomorrow
Put dishwasher on and then emptied it
Emptied the tumble dryer and put away everything from it
Swished and swiped the bathroom
Tidy

Played Trivial Pursuits with Don and Tim

Had a bath and washed hair

Also avoided going to the Co-op and spent zero £s
Checked bank and credit card balance
Filed salary statement

Reading Open by David Price about digital collaborative learning

Getting the Habit Habit

The purpose of this blog is accountability. I intend to keep a record of my struggles and success in getting into habits.  I know that I thrive on routines and habits but also, because of my tendency to take on too much, I often let them slide.

The idea that it takes 28/30 days to make a habit really doesn't work for me.  I can get into a habit quite quickly but then I can lose it or drop it months later for no apparent reason.  Hopefully committing to just writing down how I've done on each of the habits I want to develop each day will let me so what works, what doesn't and why I give up a habit or manage to keep it.

I reckon I've read every book going on habits but I might revisit them and right down the top takeaways from each.

The first step is to decide which habits I want to develop.  I'm going to start with The Miracle Morning from Hal Elrod.  I know if I do my SAVERS every morning everything else goes better.  Getting up at 5.00am is easy - that is a habit that has stuck.  Doing my SAVERs - not so.  It's lovely to get up at 5.00 and spend the time reading or doing cryptic crosswords - I love the me time.  But SAVERS is more structured an useful.

So I'm going to do this blog as a 5-10 minute review of everyday before bed.  But for now I'm off to do my SAVERS.