Ideas on Management

These are a few notes I made recently while reading a homeschooling magazine:

On Order:

"If I could only tell you one thing about order, this is what it would be: In everything you do in your home, ask yourself, 'How could I be better prepared for this event?'" (Donna Otto)

I could easily see myself paralyzed into inaction by doing this too literally, but I do think it's a good idea to reflect on the most frustrating situations that came up during the day and try to think about how to manage them proactively.

I have been doing a daily (well, almost daily) examen as Father Hardon recommends. It is very easy to incorporate a few minutes of reflection on the glitches during the day. I am also trying to jot them down on a piece of paper as they happen.

Another variation of this that I read in a management article somewhere was to write a few notes on what you hope to accomplish during the day -- in the morning. Then in the evening, figure out why you weren't able to get to the things that didn't get checked off, and adjust accordingly.

Tips on house management that seemed useful (by Johannah Barham)

• Divide up the chores among the available workers, then divide up those chores into time periods -- like Before and After Breakfast, Before and After Lunch, Before and After Dinner.
• Rotate the jobs twice a year to accommodate changing circumstances and ages of kids.

I already do a regular re-evaluation of the workload but the idea of "pegging" jobs to regular events makes sense to me. Often I find myself busy with a long list of things to do while the kids are bored waiting for me to get done. It's not that they would mind helping me out -- it's just that I can't seem to work and assign at the same time -- too much multi-tasking for me. So it might be nice to have regular lists centred around the various regular events in the day.