My To-Do and Shopping List Printables

Holy shmaholy, a 24-hour trip back to the states, reconnecting with everyone and getting baby things in place took a lot out of me.  BUT I'M STILL HERE!!!  So much for that blog-planning binder, huh?  (Actually, it's super-useful in getting me back on track, right now).

Last time I featured 3 of my favorite keep-me-on-top-of-things printables created by other bloggers.  The really remarkable thing about those printables is that they work fantastically for me, without any changes or tweaks.  This hardly ever happens!  Usually even the best printables are almost-but-not-quite what I need.  Or they’re perfect and just waaaaaaaaay too pink and cutesy.  That’s been known to happen as well.  In these cases, I usually just wind up making my own.

So here are a couple of my own recent printables for you to download, use or be inspired by.  I’d be thrilled if these worked well enough for you to adopt seamlessly into your routine.  If not, feel free to riff on the ideas to make your own printables (but give me a shout-out if you do, and maybe I can share your printables back – there’s plenty of love to go around here).  And if these are almost-but-not-quite perfect for you, please let me know!  I can make versions of these available with small tweaks as well, or in different colors, if there’s interest.

First up is my List of Doing (direct PDF download)!  I was inspired by this almost-but-not-quite-perfect-for-me to-do list printable from Mommy Tracked (click for even more great printables).  While it’s a cute, solid printable, I found I didn’t use the “score-card” section much, and I really needed a running list of longer-term to-dos to help me keep track of things.

So my list is divided into three columns – this week, next week and beyond!  I pretty much concentrate on “this week,” tackle some “next weeks” if I find myself with some time to kill and ignore (without losing track of!) “beyond.”  As the weeks tick by, I cross things off of “beyond” and “next week” and move them to the left as needed.  If I complete a recurring task, I’ll immediately jot it down with its next due-date in the appropriate column, to keep things trucking along.

Next up is my List of Shopping and Eating (also a direct PDF download).  Meal planning has been a life-saver for me.  We eat out a LOT less when I’ve got a plan for the week, and we eat better at home too.  Sitting down on a certain day of the week with some cookbooks helps me actually get around to USING the cookbooks and trying out some new recipes, keeping us out of ruts and night after night of hotdogs and frozen spinach (my go-to "screw it, I'm pregnant!" meal).  I put my big, involved meals on the weekends and leftovers or crockpot meals on days I know we’ll have a lot to do.  I also will make-ahead some breakfast and lunch items during the weekend, if I’m feeling on top of things (big pots of oatmeal, things like ants on a log, pre-cut veggies and dips like pesto, sauces to slap on some meat for a quick, easy dinner).  And, of course, I always stay flexible and alter the meal plan to fit our week as it happens, not the other way around.  Kids, I could do a whole post on meal-planning ideas!

I love the idea of having a meal plan and shopping list on one printable.  I typically do my meal planning on Wednesday and my shopping on Thursday, so that’s how the days of the week are laid out here.  I could easily rework this printable to start on different days of the week, though, if there’s interest.

So there ya go!  Two of my most-used printables.  Feel free to use them, share them, make them yours.  I hope you find them as helpful as I do.  And stay tuned for the next and final post in this series of sanity-saving printables – my vacation packing lists!

Other People's Printables!

When I'm on my game, I'm pretty organized.  I'm good with calendars and lists - basically the less I have to keep in my head, the better I function!  This keeps me plugging along in a happy, generally on-top-of-things state until something goes insane, and then I let go of...many things, and first on the list is usually my lists.  But here's the thing:  I find that when I start from a place of being organized and on top of things, then when disaster strikes (pregnancy-induced insomnia, revolution in the streets, the specter and reality of Russian invasion, cancer in the family OR SOME DELIGHTFUL COMBINATION THEREOF) I don't fall as far, I don't crash as hard, I don't actually run out of clean underwear and it's a lot easier to claw my way back to a functional existence!

Home organization binders and whatnot seem to be all the rage on teh homey intarwebz these days, and I find a lot of the printables out there to be extremely helpful.  So over the next few posts, I'm going to share with you some of the printables that are currently helping me wrap my mind back around my life.  Today we're starting with three of my favorite printables-I-didn't-come-up-with (that are, of course, free - disposable income or no, we're still cheap bastards around here when we can get away with it)!

Russia still looms large to the east, but life in Kyiv is, if anything, back to better-than-normal.   And we're trying to get back to normal too.  Hopefully these will help you out as well, whether you're trying to scale Mt. Holy Crap along with me, or just trying to plug along at a sustainable pace.

The Daily Docket

Download here!

First on my list of lists-that-keep-my-life-together is definitely the Daily Docket, from the The Art of Simple.  This is your basic daily planner sheet, and it happens to work an absolute charm for me with no tweaks or alterations (and I can be pretty picky when it comes to these things)!  In particular, I appreciate that the daily schedule and to-do-list are melded into one list.  This keeps me from cramming in more to-dos than I'll have time to accomplish in a day packed with meetings or whatever, and helps me to visualize when I'll be able to get certain things done.  You can download a couple of iterations of the docket at the link just below the photo above, including a pocket-sized version, and also browse the other great printables by The Art of Simple.

Goal-Setting Planner

Download here!

Next up is a neat set of goal-planning worksheets by Dani Schnakenberg Studios. There's a lot I'd like to accomplish in the foreseeable future, and I have a knack for launching forward on something guns blazing either to then run out of steam or...direction, I guess.  Or realize that this OTHER thing I'd been neglecting needs urgent attention and then drop the first ball entirely.  This is a good tool to help you collect your thoughts, plan a roadmap and keep yourself focused.  Find the printable at the link below the photo.

2014 Blog Planner

Download here!

Aaaaaand of course one of my goals is to build up this here blog into something cool and, um...reliable.  So I've started using what I believe is the awesomest blog planner ev4r.  Seriously, I looked at a LOT of blog planners, and while there are a BUNCH of very functional and attractive ones out there, this one won my heart and has been working great.  This one comes in three styles from the eminently talented A Well Crafted Party. You can find all three at the link below the photo.  You do have to sign up for her newsletter to get access to the free downloads, but it's not spammy at all.  You won't regret it!

So there you have it.  I hope you find these as helpful as I hope I find them myself.  :-D  Ok, I'm already finding them to be extremely helpful.  May we all find some peace and quiet by getting things down on paper where we can safely forget about them for a bit, without dropping any balls.