Command Center

My first step towards making 2014 a more organized year, was getting my command center set up. I've used a 3-ring binder for several years and it works the best for me. I can customize the sections and pages, and change things as needed.  

I still need to create a fabulous cover for it, so I won't bore you with the ugly white. Inside I have it broken into sections with page protectors to separate them:

 The first section has a 2013/2014 year at a glance calendars (I use these for homeschool planning), a quick reference holiday page, and monthly calendars. The monthly calendars I found via Google, they were free to print.

The next section houses blog planner pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The pages are printed so that the month layout and that month's notes page are facing each other when the notebook is opened.

Next are weekly goal pages from Money saving Mom. I have a running list of projects that I want to get to, and at the beginning of the week I go through the list and fill in my weekly goals based on what else we have going on. I can also add things in as the week goes along. I don't do well with daily to-do lists, this helps me keep track of what I want to get done in a set number of days, but lets me move things around as I have time.

I also have our homeschool planning pages in this binder, which is actually the largest section. I will go more into detail another time, but the pages are part of a planner from here.

In the very back I've added a holiday planning section to keep track of gift ideas and such. I generally don't take my notebook anywhere. If I'm out and about and need to put something on the calendar I can make a note in my phone and transfer it later.

The second part of my plan is to keep things accessible. At our old house these clipboards were hanging in our hallway to display some of the boys' art. Here they are hanging just to the right of my desk so I decided to put them to good organizational use.

So far I have four of them being used: weekly goals, current month calendar, current month blog planner, menu planning. It's easy to add to them and my to-do list is visible at all times. The clipboards are hanging on small nails so it's easy to take one off if I'm actively using it.

 There are tons of free planner pages on the web, you just have to search around and find something that works for you, or make your own.