Life changing to-do matrix

How I do the to-dos. Did I scaffold my year? 2023 new year intentions in review.

If there ever was a year that I needed to intentionally build scaffolding around, it was this one.

Everything has changed, and it was a tough one. But here we are, about to turn the year again, and I think my effort in scaffolding helped me get here.

This was my 2023 New Year intention, which I wrote about in a newsletter called: Scaffolding vs Hard Goals.

If I set up, or evolve, the systems that support and create ease in my daily life, I should be able to handle unforeseen bumps and potholes in the road ahead and enjoy the journey more.

These systems and structures aren’t about being super-productive or efficient, they are about reducing the amount of dysregulation and shut-downs I have to endure.

When day-to-day things run a tad more smoothly, I cope better and can be a better person for my people.

Image: close-up of my hand holding a black notebook, that holds the things I need to get out of my brain and onto paper.

Scaffolding Systems

Here are various ever-evolving ways I’ve been using to keep my sh1t together this year.

Every system has its place. Some are good for when I’m on the go, others need to be big and visual, and on the fridge.

The Notebook

This houses a few ongoing lists like:

• Substack newsletter ideas

• General to-dos that don’t fit anywhere else

• Our weekly meal plan, which I love. One page is for creating the meal plan, and the next two pages hold a bunch of sticky notes with lots of the easy meals we often cook.

  This is so great because I can see a bunch of meal ideas at a glance without having to conjure up ideas out of my noodle, which I’m not great at.

  So I just move the meal from the cloud of sticky notes to the meal plan page, and then back again at the start of the next week. And it’s ALWAYS eggs on Sunday. Because: easy.

Google Keep + Google Calendar + Gmail

I’m new to Google Keep, and I’m loving it. It’s where we keep lists that Jared and I both need to access when we’re out n’ about. Like:

• Food shopping list

• Town job list

• Plant wish list

• Tip shop manifesting list - you gotta pray to the tip shop gods!

Google Calendar and Gmail are fairly self-explanatory, but I lean on them both heavily. If it isn’t in my calendar, it’s not happening. It’s an absolute rainbow of events in there.

And when I’m on the hoof, I email myself frequently with any and all to-dos that pop into my head, that I’ll later add to the appropriate list when I’m back in the studio.

Image: Our much coveted Home Job Matrix, on our fridge.

The Home Job Matrix

This is something I’m thinking about patenting because I’m so proud of it.

Just joking… I can’t be bothered with the admin. If you like it, use it!

This is a list of jobs that we need to do at home. They are not only categorised, and prioritized, but also colour coded based on the estimated time needed to complete each task.

The first three columns are:

• Life admin

• Inside jobs (reno ideas, maintenance, etc)

• Outside jobs (construction projects, house maintenance, garden jobs)

The second three columns are written in pencil because they are a whole project unto themselves. Like:

• Building a wall in the boys’ bedroom

• Getting solar panels

• Enclosing the carport and getting water tanks

Giving these three projects their own column means that we can order the individual jobs that need to happen in a chain of dependency. As in, some jobs can’t happen before other jobs, so they just have to get in line.

All of the jobs on the matrix are either in a section called ‘urgent’ which means they have to happen toot-sweet for one reason or another. Or we put them under the ‘important’ section which means we’ll get to them, but just later on. This helps the matrix feel less overwhelming than if it were one long never-ending list.

There’s also a section called ‘Potential Purchases’ where household debate rages about various things, various family members want to buy. Like a secondhand coffee machine, a toasty maker, and/or a TV.

It’s loosely in a colour code, where yellow is a quick job, blue is a one-day-ish job, purple is a multi-day job, and pink is jobs for contractors. What’s handy about that is that if we have a free arvo, we can quickly see a yellow job, and hop to it.

The point of the colourful sticky notes is not only to help colour code the matrix but also so that each job can be easily moved from ‘Important’ to ‘Urgent’ to ‘Done’.

We have a ‘Done’ section because what is a to-do list if you can’t get a sense of how much your accomplished by crossing jobs off with much satisfaction?

So nerdy. I love it.

The Home Job Matrix(TM) is an evolution of an epic first iteration we developed to cope with finishing off our renovation, getting our house to market, and then moving house.

I don’t know how I would have coped without a flexible, rewarding, visual shepherd to guide us through that torrent of to-dos.

Other than the list systems, some other organisation has happened this year too. Exhibit A: my mending kit, as seen above. It’s an absolute joy. I can see everything at a glance and it can snap shut and be shoved into my bike pannier and survive the ride to our Repair Cafe without becoming a bird’s nest of threads and needles.

The organisational systems of my dreams are becoming a reality.

All of this might seem a lot. Maybe it is for some neuro-types.

I have a working memory like a leaky sieve, so these systems have all become important daily tools that help me reduce my mental load - and I can confirm that they hugely helped me navigate the ups and downs of 2023.

I suspect I’ll have some intentions for 2024, but I’m not sure what they’ll be yet, it feels too early to be thinking about that. Stay tuned, I’ll jot them into a newsletter in the New Year.

Thanks so much for reading.

PS. Let me know what daily tools + systems get your inner organisational nerd all a twitter. I’d love to hear.