rou*tine : a regular, more or less unvarying procedure {New World Dictionary – second edition}

A good launching point for organization in your life is to establish some routine. Now those of you who prefer spontaneity, just keep reading. You get up in the morning and go to work or school and at some point during the day you even eat a meal or two. These are routines that everyone does as a part of daily living. So why not just add one or two more routines to your day and you have the rest of your waking hours to be spontaneous and carefree!

Life can be less stressful when certain things are done daily by rote, or with routine. Probably the easiest routines to begin to follow are morning and evening routines. Your routine may differ from others but here is a basic routine that can be adjusted to your needs:

Morning ~ after getting up, getting dressed, etc.
Eat breakfast
Make bed and tidy up the bedroom
Review planner, calendar, or computer for today’s tasks & appointments
Pack up items, phone numbers, and notes needed for today’s events to take with you
If you menu plan, take meat out of freezer
If you don’t menu plan, decide what’s for dinner and pull it out
Finish packing lunch and off you go!

Evening ~ sometime after dinner
Review your day and add tasks or additional notes to your planner, if necessary
Decide on tomorrow’s wardrobe
Clear off kitchen counters
Pick up clutter in the main area of your home (only taking a max. of 5 minutes to do this)
Pack some items for tomorrow’s lunch (I usually pack everything but the sandwich and refrigerate if necessary)
Spend at least 10 minutes on YOU, whether is meditation, reading or just relaxing before bed

You should adjust these morning and evening routines to fit your specific needs. Write them down and do them for 2 weeks. It will begin to be a habit and you will find your day off to a much easier start! I usually spend no more than 1/2 hour with each of these routines.

For more ideas click on the FlyLady link on this page. Warning! That site can be a bit overwhelming but the point is to take what you need from it and leave!