Organization to get your life back in order

Well I am sure you are here because your life is so crazy between work, sports, blog and maybe event if you home school like us. There are so many different ways to do it all. I am going to share with you some of the items I use to keep it all straight lately even with the craziness. The biggest one for our home school is the planner. I searched for hours at big box stores for a planner that didn't have pre-written words and that I could do myself. After hours of looking and downloading and so much more on systems that didn't work for our home school I found this wonderful planner Blue Sky Today's Teacher "Dots" Create Your Own Cover Academic Year 16/17 Weekly/Monthly 8.5 x 11 Planner (aff link) I love this one there are blank spots and enough that I filled in as follows Math, Reading, Writing, Language Arts/Reading Comp, Social studies, Science, Art/Music, Health/Phy Ed and electives (only with electives because I have a children moving into high school grades next year and preparing this year). In this book I have a record or everything completed for the year in the planner part, sources used, paperwork slots were I keep test scores and reporting forms. Also for each child I have enough space to make notes for each child. I have three and just put their initial and what they need to complete for the day. When they get their work done I use a highlighter to mark what they have done (only because I got sick of going back through the hand in bin after the first 2 weeks going back through everything to make sure they have it done.) For reading and writing I just write K, N, E and then highlight when I have seen what they did because with daily writing prompts I have the same subject but my youngest child only has to write 3 good sentence but my older children have to write more. Laying it out what works for your family but this has been the best way that I have found to get the school part under control. Now for personal planners there are also so many out there and have seen them. Personally I use a dollar store planner from Dollar Tree. They have for $1 and they have some cute hard cover ones. Soft cover seem to always get bent in my purse. Make sure to get one as there is many kinds. Most to make for sure that each day has a large area to write and the hard cover ones they just came out with have very large areas for writing. First I schedule in Dr. appointments (which there is always so many), events (family kinds), work hours (if you work outside or inside the home and if you have a blog/fan page to plan out a basic idea of what your are going to talk about. There are many printable pages to plan out longer and more detailed of what you plan for your posts. Then after all of that I plan out my direct sales business Usborne Books and More with Ann  which to keep invitations, parties, and business calls straight is so much easier. Then if I might be sitting somewhere with down time that I can see all my other tasks that need to be done for that day and begin working on each task. I have to be very type A personality on this part because I have fibro and brain fog is a big problem. The only way I sadly remember to do somethings to make sure I have them wrote down. The next thing that I use in my house to keep my family tied together knowing what is going on it 9 piece Chalkboard calendar set (aff link) this calendar set is great because you don't waist paper with a pull off one and all it takes is a wet rag to clean it all off. I use a little glass cleaner to get off the lighter colors but that is all with chalk markers the lighter ones seem harder to get off all chalkboards. When putting it up take is slow like putting up wallpaper making sure there are no bubbles but if you do don't worry you can take it off and reapply it on the area a number of times. I used a squeegee that we use for our shower walls and in no time I had it up and ready to go. With all paper style ones many don't state but take a piece of regular chalk and rub it all over it to prep the surface then take a dry towel and wipe it down. This fills in any pours in the chalkboard paper and will make it a lot easier for the marker to come back off. Make sure to do this once a month for the first couple of months and then after that you will not have to do it and will all come off when you clean it each month. I had slipped a few months ago after a lot happened and now getting back in. These may not work for everyone but it is a great start for anyone that has no idea where to go right now and need something. I am really hoping that with bringing this part to you will be very helpful as it has for me. Let me know in the comments if you need anything else or have any questions. Have a great day and happy planning and getting organized again.