How to plan for home + work, all at once!
Hey friends! Stephanie here, excited to chat with you about planning for work AND home, all at once!
For many years, I kept my work and home planning separate. However, when I started working from home and the nature of my work shifted, I found myself wanting to see everything that needed to be done in any given day – both work and home related – at a glance.
To do this, I love using the One Page Bullet Journal spread with Categories from our S.O.S. Planner. It allows me to see everything in one place without feeling overly crowded.
Ready? Let’s dive in!
Getting Started
I start by writing down my meals for the week. SO much of my life seems to revolve around what I am going to feed the people.
I usually make a list of favorite meals at the beginning of the month and then base my grocery shopping for the week on that list. From there, I plan out my meals for the week based on the ingredients that I know I have on hand.
My next step is a brain dump. I like to use the tasks section on the left-hand side of the spread for this. I don’t filter or categorize my tasks at this point – the goal is to get all of the things out of my brain and onto the paper.
Setting Up My Week for Success
Now I get into the real magic of planning for the week! I make sure to set my priorities first. Much like the Filter Question in our Prioritized Planning Method, knowing what my priority is for the week will help me to keep what matters most front and center, saying yes to things that serve me this week and no to things that don’t.
For example, my priority could be (and often is) to spend more time connecting with my people. If this is my main goal for the week, it doesn’t make sense for me to commit to a bunch of outside activities that will take me away from home.
You could also use this “Priorities” space to set separate work and home goals. Your priority for work might be to focus on one area at a time. This might help you streamline your workflow and resist the temptation to multitask, which can sometimes feel productive but is often less efficient.
Moving forward, I take a look at the habits section. You can use this section to help you solidify a new habit or to keep track of work or home tasks that need to be done on a regular basis. If I am tracking habits, I try to focus on just a few at a time. After a while, it will become second nature, but especially when new habits are forming, it can take a lot of our emotional energy. A few at a time is all we need.
Divide and Clarify
I have my meals planned, my priorities set, and my habits written down! Now it’s time to tackle that task list.
I like to enlist the help of my handy-dandy mildliners as I sort the list into work and home tasks. Going through and highlighting each task in either my designated work or home color helps me to see clearly what needs to get migrated where.
I use the category boxes on the right side of the spread to further divide my tasks, using my priority for the week as a filter to divide them into urgent and non-urgent in both home and work. This sorting makes sense for me, but you could use these boxes in many different ways. You might want to make a category for tasks that can be delegated, one for to-dos, housework, or people to contact. I have even changed my categories from week to week. I love this spread for its flexibility – use it for whatever best serves you at the moment.
Filter and Schedule
Once I have a clearer vision of what needs to get done when, then and only then do I put things on the schedule. I go through and add any events or activities that might be happening that week, and then I add the tasks that I have determined are a priority. You could also use this space to designate or track work hours or to record important deadlines.
Planning your work and home life in one place might not work for every season of life, but seeing everything that is on your plate all at once can give you a more realistic over-all view, and help you prioritize what really matters!
I hope that was helpful! Be sure to watch the video here so you can really see this planning process in action!
Share with us in the comments below – what do YOU do to stay on top of all your home + work tasks?!
Stephanie is a writer, creator, and social butterfly. She is also a wife to a pretty cool husband and homeschool mom of three spunky girls. She loves to learn and talk about ALL THE THINGS, especially homeschooling, theology, and reading. You can often find her in our Anchored Women Mighty Networks community, asking life changing questions (coffee or tea?) or hosting our monthly book club discussions.