Scheduling Mnemoncis

There are so many blessings that Trent’s challenge of autism has given our family, but one that maybe easy to overlook is his need for routine.  He seems to have less trauma when we can have some semblance of order in our lives.  He likes a schedule. It has forced me to plan and have back-up plans.  But in a way it has simplified my life.  So, I can balance everything to care for him, I have learned a few things that make my own life easier to manage.

So, applying a benefit of autism to my homemaking tasks, I schedule routine tasks.  Since I need EASY in my life, I use mnemonics, automatic scheduling features of ical, and some silly word association techniques.

Perhaps some of these ideas can help you.  I doubt any of mine will work directly for you, but it might get your own mind thinking of how to tame your own time management grizzlies.

1)    Fix it day.  Since a stitch in time saves nine, on the 9^th of each month I have fix it day. My family knows to stack up shirts with loose buttons, shorts with tears, alterations, etc. for the 9^th of each month.  I then set up the sewing machine, grab different colored threads and have at it.  Since for me so much of mending time is just the set-up, I only do it once a month.  I also heat up the glue gun for those types of repairs. Then after the stack is finished, the equipment goes back up and out of sight until the 9^th of the next month.

2)    My plants were suffering until I set the 17^th of each month as fertilizer day. Here’s how my quirky brain came up with that.  I fertilized one year on St. Pat’s day – theme of green – so it seemed to fit.  My fertilizing is an attempt to “green-up” my plants, so this way I don’t wait too long like 6 weeks or over fertilize after only 3.

3)    This next one definitely only works for me, but it might help you get some ideas for ways to schedule repeat tasks in your own life.  My skin is weird, but after half a century with it, I have found that if I alternate between two different soaps every other day, my skin will tend to cooperate better.  One bar is white, so I use it on odd days.  One bar is tan and I use it on even days. Before I decided on this (and I refused to set up a clipboard next to my shower) I couldn’t remember which one I had used last. The mental calisthenics to get this scheme was this:  albinism in most spiciest is considered an oddity (all white soap = odd days), and I want an even tan on my legs (hence, tan soap on even days).  Ah, one less thing to have to keep track of and waste brain time on. Again, I don’t think there is another human on the planet that could use that scheme, but it might get your brain to think of something with meaning in your life that you could regulate to a regiment – so you can think of sunshine, puppies, and flowers instead of …

4)    Thanksgiving Day falls on a Thursday every year. That helps me organize one of my tasks in a given week and Thursday is my day to write thank you notes.

Rather then continue with my list of automatic reminders of repeated chores, I want to relate to you.  I know that we all have so many responsibilities that we are juggling, that if we can just let some of those squishy balls fly through the air on their own without our having to add them to our to do list, or log in our journal, we would be free to be more creative with the task that are one-timers.

Some task repeat daily, some weekly, a considerable amount monthly, and a few yearly, but when I can relegate the planning to “inked” in subroutine in my brain, I’m less likely to forget the task, more likely to enjoy the task because my time seems more productive (all the sewing at once while the equipment is out), and my family, like my plants, seem to understand the flow and thrive.

Of course, there are emergencies, when all bets are off and I have to sew on a button RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE, or my thank you note writing has to wait for a week because of a doctor’s appointment, but for the most part, scheduling makes my life easier – especially the ones that are “on the tip of my brain” that I don’t even have to write them down.

Now, go forth and conquer that pile of lonely-only socks on the first of each month.

Now if only weeding could be scheduled . . .