What’s Your Next Queue?

While savoring our first or second cup of morning coffee or tea, maybe at our local coffee shop, we may be thinking of our long "To Do" list for the day after the kids are safely delivered to school. Funny how yesterday we thought that list was going to get shorter. But somehow, it’s right back again today with twenty different things to handle. Will it ever go away so we can have time for ourselves? Depends.

Grrr! It’s endless. So we may be asking ourselves how in the world other women get all the chores and errands done in a 24-hour day. Certainly, there are women out there that are experts at organizing and planning. In fact, many have made careers out of becoming professional organizers and it’s fascinating, especially if we are not gifted in that particular area.

Your Queue: First Things First

There are companies who pride themselves on teaching their employees how to organize themselves. In fact, one such company (which will go unnamed) bases the annual review of an employee on that exact subject. Years ago (most likely before all the personal tech items were available) this company held mandatory classes in maintaining a personal and work-related Day Planner and they were quite serious about it. The employee was required to bring the Planner with them to the review. Their annual salary was based on that Day Planner! That’s how important the whole organizing and planning aspect was to them.

Having personal skills to stay organized is a valuable life lesson for sure. This is why there are so many tech tools, programs, apps, classes, etc to help us all out of our daily chaos. It’s a big business. And getting organized can help us to get those errands and projects in our lives done. If “tech” isn’t your thing, go the “old school” way and figure out first things first--your queue--on paper.  

Priorities are what it is all about. A great way to do this is list everything that needs to be done in the next 24 hours as you think of them, including big and little things. Don’t forget to include doctor appointments, network meetings, dog grooming, and your child's science project! Next, assign a letter to each item, like A for All-important, B for Bite (as it will come back and bite you), and C for Cramp (too many things pushed until tomorrow will cramp your style). If you are more visual, color coding works too. It might look like this (don’t go crazy, they don’t have to be in order):

C - Clean out the pantry.

A - Annual Doctor visit today.

B - Get tires rotated on the car.

A - Pick up daughter after dance lesson.

B - Drop off library books.

A - Type up a draft for the meeting.

C - Plant fall flowers in the garden.

B - Get to the gym.

A - College accounting exam this evening.

O.k., you’ve got this. Now tackle all the urgent “A” items first, then “B” if you possibly can, and finally “C,” or they can be pushed to tomorrow if needed. Whether it’s a printed Day Planner or a digital device calendar, once you get the hang of this, your days will go much smoother from here on out.

Only One AA Item

There is only one category that is considered an AA item, and it’s not a battery. The rest of the A, B, C list will never work out as planned without first making Quiet Time with God each morning. This is your AA item. Don’t ignore it or push it to the C list because you’ll be left wondering how you went in circles and arrived right back at a state of chaos and confusion.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” John 15:5 NLT.