Managing your home in the middle of life’s busyness is easier with the help of a to-do list.

I’m a list maker. I make lists for everyday.  I make lists for what needs done around my house. I make lists for long-term goals. And I make lists with small action steps to accomplish these goals. You can find these lists – always made on paper – all around my house.

You see, as I try to manage my home (and life!) in the middle of everyday busyness, I’ve found the only way I can stay on track is with the help of to-do lists.

I need to write down my chores and commitments – or I’ll forget about them.

I’ve tried to go through my days without a list, but I forget what I need to do. Even when I have a good routine in place and a workable housekeeping strategy, if something as basic as laundry isn’t written down, I’ll unintentionally skip it.

Instead of being frustrated with my forgetfulness, I try to give myself grace. I realize I’m busy. I realize everyday life – and parenting! – distracts me from basic chores. So I compensate for my reality with lists.

If you could use some help in creating or fine-tuning your own to-do lists, here’s what has worked really well for me:

When do I make a list?

On weekends, I try to map out my coming week with daily to-do lists:

• I check my calendar for meetings, appointments and other commitments. I add them to my daily lists.
• Then I think about what I need to do in the week. I add it to my daily lists.
• Then I think about what I’d like to try to fit in – and add it.

Every night, I look at my list for the next day. Sometimes it needs completely changed. Sometimes I need to add things I didn’t finish. And sometimes, it looks just fine.

By taking the time to make your list – and then tweaking it when you need to – you can have a good idea of what your day might look like ahead of time. At the very least, you’ll have a basic direction for your day.

How I structure my lists

Depending on my day, my list may be fairly unstructured – I think of a basic order of when I should do things, and write them down.

For example, a typical day’s basic to-do list might look like:

• Time with God
• Write blog post
• Dishes and laundry
• Homeschooling
• Put away etc. around teh house

But on a really, really busy day – if I’m preparing for company, planning a deep cleaning day, trying to purge to create more of a haven, or preparing for vacation, I’ll break up my day’s chores into morning afternoon and evening chores like this:

Morning

• Time with God
• Call doctor
• Dishes
• Laundry
• Clean bathroom
• Clean fridge

Afternoon

• Weed garden
• Drop off recycling
• Pay bills
• More laundry

Evening

• Return texts and respond to e-mails
• Clean up the house
• Put laundry away

I’ve noticed that some days my plans are much more ambitious than they should be – and I’d need about 40 hours in a day to get everything done. Unless I’m miraculously having a Superwoman kind of day and somehow manage to fit everything in, I need to try to do my tasks on a different day. It’s OK.

The point of a to-do list, though, is to serve as a reminder of what we want to try to do. It’s not a rigid checklist – just a helpful reminder. If you don’t accomplish everything in a day, simply move your goals to another day later in the week.

When you do complete a task, enjoy the huge feeling of accomplishment when you cross it off. On some days, that accomplishment’s enough to add a little pep and encouragement to keep going.

How often do you use a to-do list? Are you overly ambitious with your lists … or fairly realistic?