Days of the week are wonderful tools for supporting logistical bliss. They’re free, available to all, and they offer seven opportunities each week to support your version of organizational delight.
I’ve found that assigning a task to a day of the week helps ensure that said task gets accomplished. Over time, as we complete a certain task on the same day of the week every week, it becomes second nature to us. Consistently acc0mplishing these tasks (i.e. folding the laundry; washing the bathroom; vacuuming the rug) leads to order in our houses and a loose, but helpful, sense of structure in our lives. As with everything in life, the key here is to not get so stuck in our routine that we can’t be flexible if needs change. Following are three examples that highlight how linking tasks with days of the week could support your version of logistical bliss:
Municipal trash and recycling pick-up days offer built-in opportunities to declutter your happy abode. Your municipality schedules the trash and recycling pick-up days without consulting you, but no need to fret. From a logistical bliss perspective, this is a situation to be embraced! Over time, routine tasks like taking out the trash become an automatic part of our weekly activities. This has proven to be true in our household. Even though taking out the trash has never made it on to a to do list, we don’t seem to forget to deposit our garbage can on the curb on Wednesday nights. It’s just something we do every week (except, of course, when our pick-up day changes due to a holiday). It’s so automatic that we don’t have to think about it. Assigning routine tasks to days of the week helps ensure that said tasks really do get accomplished!
Washing make-up brushes isn’t a big deal and doesn’t take much time. But for awhile, it’s the kind of task I’d occasionally forget to do. A few months ago, I decided to start washing my make-up brushes toward the end of every week. There was no great reason to do this, but it felt right to me. Now I tend to do this activity on Thursday mornings. The brushes dry throughout that day and overnight, and by Friday morning they’re fully operational again. While I don’t write “wash make-up brushes” on my to do list and there are occasional Thursdays when this cleansing adventure just doesn’t happen, I’ve noticed that while applying my make-up on Wednesday or Thursday mornings, I usually remember that it has been a week or so since I last washed the brushes. The simple act of cleaning them every Thursday has helped me remember to keep tabs on this task so that it gets accomplished. It keeps this activity on my radar, and allows for flexibility so I can complete this task roughly once a week – and at my convenience.
Laundry is manageable for me when it’s done on a weekly basis. “Laundry Day” has migrated to a few different days in our household during the past year. Monday night used to be laundry night…but life happened and other things arose and the hubster and I decided that perhaps it’d be better to do laundry on weekends. That was all well and good for many weekends – until that plan didn’t work for us, and now I do laundry at the end of each week. There’s no rhyme or reason why this new weekly time frame is helpful to us. But it’s what works right now. I should mention here that regardless of the day we’ve assigned for laundry, we’ve found that by doing laundry on a weekly basis, we’re guaranteed to have clean clothes. Major bonus of doing laundry once a week! Our migrating laundry day has been a helpful reminder that routine activities are most helpful when they simultaneously provide structure (read: order) and are accomplished with a sense of freedom (read: the room to change things up if need-be).
If assigning a task to a certain day (or two) of each week resonates with you, try it out for eight weeks. Check-in with yourself every so often to confirm that the routine you’ve established meets your existing needs and supports your version of organizational bliss. There’s no reason to follow a routine that doesn’t lend itself to logistical joy. If assigning one task to a certain day works well for you, consider adding a few more tasks to the mix on a few other weekdays and then see what you think. Over time, you’ll decide if days of the week should just be reserved for supporting a global sense of order or if they can also support a to do list near you.
* Photo by Felipe Wiecheteck