As homemakers, a lot of us grossly underestimate the importance of paper work and other home office chores. Or maybe we don’t underestimate it…but we hate it. So, we think, “Hmmmm, if I ignore that, it will just go away. La, la, la! I can’t see you!”
Has that ever really worked? It doesn’t work for me. If it’s working for you – let me know. Ha! My kids employ this method on occasion when they’ve made a behemoth mess.
I’m such a dork that I actually LOVE Office Day. #dorkalert
What IS Office Day?
Office Day is the day where you handle all your miscellaneous paperwork or planning. You leave everything til this day, unless it’s super important…like, “if you don’t pay this bill today, we will turn off your water.” That should probably be handled now.
But, for the most part, your paperwork can wait until one day every week. And by doing it weekly, you ensure that you don’t live under a pile of HELP ME, I’M SCARED!
If you missed it, you might want to check out how to get rid of your paper clutter once and for all as a helpful reference on this topic as well.
Things to tackle on Office Day
The items you need to take care of on an Office Day will vary based on your household’s needs. What I need to do, you might not need to do, so you’ll have to make your own list. But here are some ideas for you:
- Meal planning (if you need help, see Meal Planning Hacks)
- Updating calendars
- Phone Calls (have one day to do this makes me stress out less, because for me #whycallwhenyoucouldtext
- Letters/notes/emails
- Work (for me, that’s this blog)
- School review and prep for next week
- Chore chart updates
- Budget and bills
Yes, I do try to leave letters and emails for one day. And by “emails” I mean long ones that I need to write that I can’t quickly do during my daily work time. If I can’t answer it in 5 minutes, then it waits until Office Day. I also do thank you notes or other various mail items on this day.
Because, we all know that, “let me just write this one email” turns in to 2 hours later and WHAT’S FOR DINNER?!
Keeping your spouse in mind
When tackling Office Day, it’s really important to keep your spouse in mind. You might have weaknesses in certain areas that they excel in, and vice versa.
As for me, I would rather chew off my toenails than deal with bills. Sorry for that visual image. So, that’s something that Barry handles because he doesn’t mind and he’s GOOD at it.
Budgets should ALWAYS be done together…did you catch that? ALWAYS! It’s not a dictatorship, it’s a committee meeting. Do it together, even if that means you have to do it at night after the kids are asleep – that’s when we do ours.
If your spouse enjoys meal planning, let them do it. It’s okay to divide and conquer when it comes to most home office tasks. The important part is just to get it done instead of letting it pile up. Yup, I’m talking to you. I saw your stack of shame on Instagram.
Beware the internet
Hello, internet hole – I fall into you often when I should be writing emails. Did you see that cute project on Pinterest?! GAH!
Two hours later….uhhhhh, what was I doing?
When it’s time to do internet research or be online, DO IT. Don’t do Facebook. Don’t do email (unless it’s email time). Stay the course.
When to do it
Certain tasks require a lot of concentration. Thus, it helps to do these tasks when you can focus. I like to take snippets during school time when the kids are working independently. I also do some in the morning before everyone wakes up.
Otherwise, it waits until Quiet Time/Nap Time. If you cannot finish, finalize everything after the kiddos are in bed.
Pending Box
You need an area to store all the stuff you have pending so that you can tackle it on Office Day. For me, that’s my desk drawer. You might need a file box or even just a box lid on top of the refrigerator. Just make sure you have ONE place to store these items instead of all over your house.
Also note, if you have a toddler, please put bills and other things out of reach…because for whatever reason, the water bill must look like a coloring book page.
What tasks can you assign to your Office Day?
See other posts in this series:
- Wash on Monday
- Clean on Tuesday
- Bake on Wednesday
- Town on Thursday
- Get Ahead on Saturday
- Chores to do Daily
- Chore FAQ
- Each Day Has Its Own Proper Chores
- What Would Ma Ingalls Do?
- Embracing Your Inner June Clever
Ugh, this one is the hardest for me. My youngest gets up too early for me to want to get up before she does (5am is early enough!), so Quiet Time is my only time during the day to do anything. I have struggled with what to do during this time and have recently decided that I should work out during that time, especially since I usually end up spending an hour on Facebook if I try to use the computer (ha). I like the idea of setting aside one day a week to handle this–I’m tired of getting e-mails from AES telling me that I forgot to schedule a loan payment that month. :-/
Ah yes – the black hole of Facebook. So easy to fall down. Sounds like you have a good plan!
My Mother always did her bills and birthday cards at the first of the month. Of course she put everything except her rent, groceries and church on her credit card, so she could do that. I have kept the birthday system. I check right at the end of the month (don’t want to get surprised with a birthday on the 2nd when doing them on the 1st)…check to see if I have an appropriate card (if not make note to get them) and write message…insert money, gift card or just a note and stamp and address. On the back in tiny numbers I put the date to be mailed. No more “sorry this is late” ?
Those sneaky birthdays at the first of the month!
I’m with you on the texting vs. calling thing!
Yes!
Thank you for this post. I actually cleaned off the office desk today and got more organized in the process. I found a roll of toilet paper. HUH??? Not sure why it was there other than to blow runny noses, but so weird to find TP underneath “stuff” on the desk.
Thank you for this post!
A more organized Momma…for now. 🙂
Ha!!! That is a strange place to store tp!