February Daily Focus

I said last week that I liked the idea of having a "focus" for each day -- so I spent some time thinking about all the types of things that I consider part of my job. I'm listing them below.

There's enough for TWO weeks here obviously. Plus, some of them need to be done more frequently than others. Some of them have to be done to some degree almost daily. But it's helping me just to have them listed. I can choose one or two per day to particularly concentrate on. This is how my husband manages his work -- he disappears into his office saying something like "today is for taxes" or "this is the day I dig out my closet". I've often wished I could order my days around a goal like that but really, there is no reason I can't to some degree.

So here's my list -- things I have to do fairly often but that can benefit sometimes from a concentrated part of the day (realistically, in my family, "concentrated" is a bit euphemistic -- it only means that I can work it in between various other things that are going on in the course of a day)

1. Cleaning (that's obvious and ever-ongoing)
   
2. Lesson Plan (I try to plan weekly and do a bigger planning session occasionally)
   
3. Teach (implement the planning; Montessori has a word "presentations" for things that are outside of the ordinary "do the next thing" type routine)
   
4. Errands (usually we have an appointment or some type of trip into town required at least once a week)
   
5. Inventory (that is, go through a closet or cupboard or shelf trying to decide what to straighten, what to replace, what to discard and what to use)
   
6. Call (phone calls to do with friends or business)
   
7. Family, Friends (just hanging-around time or doing things with loved ones)
   
8. Write (a favorite activity of mine -- validating it may help me keep it in bounds?)
   
9. Read (ditto)
   
10. Pray (I try to have a mini-retreat occasionally where I try to devote extra time and energy to praying and spiritual reading, especially when I'm struggling for some reason)
    
11. Program (trying to teach myself programming, as I've mentioned before)
    
12. Goals (looking at the big picture -- where we ought to be going and how to get there)
    
13. Memories (out of the ordinary things -- trips, expeditions, parties -- activities big and small, but different from the routine)
    
14. Rest (once in a while it's nice to just put the feet up and nap or just do nothing)
15. Kitchen (I have to cook every day but sometimes it's nice to spend a day in the kitchen just for fun, or to make lists of things I'd like to try cooking sometime).
    

I have been checking these off on a piece of paper. I made a very simple chart in doc form (the visual is on the right there, but in jpg form it loses some of its lines):
February Focus

I think that looking these over, some will naturally fall into niches during different days; some won't really need a whole lot of planning; while sometimes, having the list will help me see if something is getting ignored too much. I hope so, anyway.