As I mentioned in my previous post, I have entered a new phase of family life...all of my kids are in school.  I recall many a hectic day of trying to keep my youngest entertained while maintaining duties as COO (Chief Operating Officer) of our household, thinking, "wow, when the kids are all in school I will get so much more done."  Well, it has been just under two weeks of school day bliss and I have to say that I am quickly identifying with my friends that warned me of how fast the days blaze by.

In reality, my 3+ year sabbatical from my professional life will be coming to an end sometime in the near future.  So in an effort to maximize this window of opportunity of having all the kids in school while remaining unemployed, I decided I better come up with a strategy.  And of course it involves making lists (my favorite past time).

1. Identifying My Goals:  Instead of my usual MO of writing down every last item I want to accomplish, I decided to start by taking a big step back and really think about my goals.  I decided to frame these in terms of what I want to do over the next few months and tried to specific while paring them down until they were truly achievable.  For example, instead 'get rid of giggle on underside of arms by doing pilates', I reframed this as 'try pilates by taking 4 classes at local recreation center'.  Instead of a general goal of 'read more', I identified 4 books I really want to read.
2. Creating a General To Do List:  This list compromises things that need to get done in the next few weeks.  I jot down things as they come up so not to forget them.
3. Creating Must Do Today List:  As everyone knows, real life seems to get in the way of our goals.  So I created a 'Must Do Today' list.  These items come from the General To Do list.  I try to keep must dos to just 3 or 4 items and to things that really MUST be done today.  If nothing absolutely must get done on a particular day, then nothing gets put on the list.

How I am trying to use these lists:

• Each morning I review my Goals.  I just want to keep these fresh in my mind and keep me from doing things just to feel 'busy' but that don't bring me closer to my goals.  I then decide how much time I can spend on my goals based on what is going on that day.  Each day, I allot no fewer than 15 minutes to my goals.
• Next, I review my General To Do list and determine if there is anything I MUST get done today. 
• Finally, I organize my time into 15-30 minute segments.  So whether it is completing routine household chores like tidying up the house, or working on my Must Do Today List, I work in short increments of time.  After my allotted time is up, I reevaluate to determine if I can move on to a 'goal oriented' task.  Again, this is my way of staying focused on what matters most to me and of preventing getting side tracked with things that 'would be nice to have done' but are not of high enough priority to be classified as one of my Goals.        

(Having trouble defining your goals, check out this post.  Also, here are a couple of posts from Zen Habits that I found helpful when thinking about making the most of my newly found free time (here and here).

P.S. I am still using and loving Google Tasks for all of my list making adventures.