A Kinder, Simpler To Do List

Maybe I tried to jump in too fast. Maybe I'm just too tired. I know it would be nice if I had all my routines figured out and I could just use them to clean up the house -- but they're not set yet. I think I need to add each thing in my routine a little more slowly, so I don't just have a list of tasks, I will have a hard-coded series of steps I always perform.

I actually know this, deep down inside. When I was yonger, I know I always forgot something when I was getting ready for school in the morning. I'd forget to brush my teeth, or forget my deoderant, or something equally horrible and embarrassing. So I developed an entire bathroom routine. It took some time to get all the steps in the right order, but I put each one in the easist place for it to go, and for over a decade now, I do the exact same thing every morning. For example, I brush my teeth before my shower, because I hate minty mouth taste, and that way I can use the shower water to rinse my mouth out over and over while I shower. I make sure to brush my hair and put on deoderant before I use lotion, because lotiony hands can't grip anything. ;) But it takes weeks or months to figure out exactly where each step of something even as seemingly simple as a morning shower routine should go to make everything run as smoothly as possible. And I think I tried to take on too many steps at once.

So we're going to try for a more simpler routine. I'm having a lot of trouble not making this a much longer list! I think partly because at one point I was doing a much longer list. :(

Morning:
1. Get up and get dressed right after breakfast.
2. Empty dishwasher.

Afternoon:
1. Five minute room resuce.
2. Make dinner.
3. Laundry.

Evening:
1. Do dishes and shine sink and take dirty cups downstairs.
2. Lay out clothes for tomorrow and take dirty clothes downstairs.
3. Plan tomorrow's dinner.