Task Tuesday

A typical Tuesday generally starts off the same way as a Monday - my personal time and some exercise in the morning - but then goes in another direction entirely. 
Tuesday is my computer/desk/paperwork/office day. Do all those titles cover what this day contains? 

This is the day I schedule things like: 

*Phone calls
*Make appointments
*Emails - cleaning out your email is freeing (you can also color code here)
*Menu planning
*Grocery lists/coupons
*Pulling the pictures off my phone
*Cleaning off any paperwork/lists off the fridge
*Changing calendar (1st of the month)
*Syncing/backing up my phone
*Cleaning out my purse/diaperbag
*Clearing off the desks
*Filing paperwork/Shred private papers
*Writing thank you notes or letters
*Checking the school website - lunch menus, reading logs, calendar information, homework sites
*Request library books for self or children
*Taking pictures of children's artwork (I use an app to store all these pictures - ArtKive)
*Write in kid journals
*Write in my journal (I am in a much more regular schedule now, but this reminder saves me!)
*Budgeting
*Register for sports or swimming 

A small screen shot of the types of folders in my email color coded with the same colors as the rest of my calendars and tasks. 

For me, this is the day to organize and keep on top of all those things I found or thought of while I was cleaning the house that I just didn't have time for the day before. 

I remember when I was a teenager and I would clean my room. This wasn't particularly painful because I like to have things a certain way, so cleaning up my mess was the natural way to achieve that desire. I always had a stack of paperwork, books, lists, etc of things left over. This pile required more than a fleeting thought to take care of. It required more focus and more time to deal with the things in this pile. I would dump everything I still needed to get to in this pile and deal with it at the end. Often, it was either late at night or on another day entirely. But it wasn't until I cleaned up this pile and put everything in order here that I truly felt like things were clean and organized and I could move on. 

Sometimes we try to do all the cleaning and all the organizing on the same day. That's possible for a teenager who only has to take care of one room, but when the whole house is counting on you, it might be time to separate these days. Trying to get to these things while your floor needs swept is distracting and trying to organize a place to put your paperwork is hard when there isn't a space cleared for it. Clean up on one day and take care of the computer/paperwork type tasks on the next. 
While my list is not exhaustive, it is a jumping point to get your brains thinking about all the things that could go on your "computer/paperwork" day. Also, not all of these things would be done every Tuesday. Instead, organize your tasks so that items of this nature fall on a Tuesday AT SOME POINT. I have a rotating task to set up well-checks for my children once a year, but I make sure these tasks fall on Tuesdays.

Tuesdays is the day I am focused in this direction and I feel like I can sit down and take care of things of a like nature at one time.