Creative Organisation

I'm one of those people who, when doing a professional development course and they spring a personality test on me, well, always end up in the extreme depths of the 'Creative' sector.

Being organised is not a natural thing for me but a few years ago, I started working on it. Slowly I've become better at getting my life into some working order, instead of the random, creative chaos it was.

Last year I went on a health kick and started following a strict eating and exercise plan. This included pre-organised shopping lists and menus. After following the plan for a few months, I realised I liked the ease of having everything pre-arranged! I started feeling more energenic as a result of healthy eating and discovered the Japanese Bento style of lunches.

I recently took up crochet and this is an upcycled Ferrero box set I made... complete with a lunch salad inside!

NOW an organised world was opening up to me! I started using the extra energy I had to organise all aspects of my life. My freezer and pantry databases were created (so I could track what was used which makes shopping easier). I separated freezer contents into cheap stripey bags from the $2 shop and labelled the bags so that there would be no more rummaging in there... or digging everything out to clean the freezer! I began making up a week's worth of lunches and dinners on a Sunday. This left the weeknights open for my treadmill and homework, as well as some time with the family!  

 

Winter bulk dinner preparation. SOUPARAMA!
 

 

Spring/summer salad preparation.
 

 

Bento lunches are the cutest things. Lots of care is put into presenting the food and packing it into your little lunchbox. I skip the carb portion and limit my protein... so, salads are my staple for lunch.

 

 All done! Lunches, dinners and some veggie sticks for snacks, for the week!

 

I started wondering how else I could arrange my life to make it more simple and easy. I labelled an expanding file for warranties and instruction booklets, sectioned tax papers into yearly manilla envelopes and put white envelopes inside for different receipts, adding totals of deductions of the outside, as I collected them. I pinned push pins into my wardrobe doors to hang necklaces from, used egg cartons in drawers for earring organisation and asked my husband to help me make some other 'organising stuff' like shelving to hide the toaster and microwave in the kitchen cupboards.

 

 Thanks hubby! Now I can see all of the different polishes I have.

(There will be a post about these to come. Yes, it does have a little link with teaching!)

 

Then I discovered Pintrest.

Oh, MY!

 

Pintrest is so fabulous. I love it. The fact that I can go to a section about education and pick ideas and file them into organised little folders, for easy and quick recall when I need them, just blows my mind.  

 

So, what does all of this have to do with being a better teacher? Well, it makes me feel good I have some control of the clutter and madness which used to fill lots of my day and now have time for things I want and need to do. I'm not feeling like I have no time of an evening to do things I want (hang out with family/hubby and have a treadmill romp evening and  morning) as well as get the planning/reporting/extra school activities done!

 

I beg of you... try it... do something to get yourself more organised today! (Do a search on Pintrest for 'organisation' but be warned... it is addictive!)