I'm new and a question

[lovemykids]

Quick intro-I've been doing Flylady off and on for years. (love her!) I know she based her systems off the SHE sisters. I never read any of their books until recently, and now I'm hooked.

I have my cardfile. I've combined some tasks on a card, while other cards have only one task. Basically, I've adapted this to how I approach my housework.

I read SideTracked Home Executives, Happiness File, and Get Your Act Together-love them all. I want to get the kitchen one next.

Anyway, my question is probably going to sound OCD, and that's because it is.

On page 71 of Get Your Act Together, the "Reason For Living Cards" are discussed. It says, in all, there are 16 cards. However, they only list 14. Am I missing something, like are the other two discussed elsewhere in the book and I missed it? Maybe they just made suggestions? The action cards were also numbered, but they listed them, and everything matched. So if anyone could check out their books and let me know what you found, I'd appreciate it. (neurotic as I must sound)

[Twins' Mom]

Welcome, lovemykids! I have the book and will look at it later and report!

[Nancy]

Welcome love my kids to posted a request for some one with that book to ans. Your question glad to see a response.

[Twins' Mom]

Lovesmykids, I do agree with your analysis. They indicate reason for living cards as follows:
-Daily - s/b eight
-3 x weekly - one card = exercise
-weekly, s/b seven cards

P&P seem to be one card short each on dailies and weeklies.

Dailies
-Time alone
-time together
-indulgence
-Good grooming
-20 second kiss (they mention this twice, which may account for discrepancy in dailies?)
-happy hour
-family matters: daily

Weeklies:
self improvement
home improvement
public service
ck next month
time with a friend
Family matters: Weekly

I'd use the occasion to think about your routine and make up additional cards that suit your lifestyle if it worries you.

Hope this helps - please join us up in Post when you can land.

[lovemykids]

Thank you for the welcome Nancy and Twins' Mom. Also, thank you for your answer and confirmation that it was what I thought. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something.

Yes, I completely agree with your advice. They advise us at the end of that chapter to do the same--adapt it to use the way that works for us. I love this system, so far! I thought I'd try all their suggestions, see what I want to keep doing and see what I won't continue.

Plus I'm going to enjoy hearing what and how others do their card files as well!

For example-another thing I thought was interesting was using the days of the week (in the latter book) versus the 31 days as cited in the original book. I'm using both. I like to file things later in the month in the numbered dividers and not keep every card in the days of the week section. I keep the current day and number in the front of each category. Then I move all the cards from the number divider to today (whatever day that is). So I'm using both sets of dividers and enjoy it this way.

Thanks again for responses.

[Nancy]

It is interesting to see the eveloution of the system as the diff.books and videos came out they had a planner at one point befor handing over the reins to flylady as she developed the on line cards to come in the inbox.

Twins what is s/b cards?

[blessedw2]

hi Welcome!!! so happy to have you here!

[Harriet]

Welcome, lovemykids. Glad Twins' Mom could answer your question so well.

Plus I'm going to enjoy hearing what and how others do their card files as well!

A lot of my personal cardfile posts on this are around this forum and others here, but just to introduce my own cardfile :
I use a days-of-the-week 3x5 cardfile with grouped-task cards, and I group weeklies by area/room. For instance, my weekly Hall/Stairs card has 4 tasks grouped on it : high dusting, wand vacuuming, floor vacuuming, check light fixtures/bulbs. I rotate though my weeklies rather than beating myself up if they aren't constantly done on specific days. This allows me a little more forgiving weekly schedule, but everything is guaranteed to be getting done regularly - I just adjust my cards and immediately forgive myself. Dailies are by time of day, only 3 of them for household : one-hour Morning, 1/2-hour Afternoon and 1/2-hour Evening Daily Cards. Some fairly regular cards, like my Renew Library Books card, stay in the back of the cardfile, waiting until needed.

I think that whether a homemaker wants to group by area/room or by task (vacuuming, dusting etc.) makes the biggest difference in how the cardfile will be set up. I like being an area/room person, but that doesn't mean I'm not flexible with that, too. If I ever want to change things up and group completely by task for a while, for instance, vacuuming the whole house in one weekday and then dusting it all the next, or whatever, I could do that and still have a cardfile that kept me on track.

That's just one of the reasons I love the flexibility and friendliness of the cardfile. You can truly "make it your own" and take charge. Recently I decided I needed a little more help to remember which of our regular laundry loads had been done when. (More of the rotating-so-I-don't-miss-something concept.) Laundry (one load per day) has always been a part of my Morning Daily Card, and I truly adore having that one grouped-task card for my hour of morning dailies, I just needed a little memory jogger with so much laundry going on. I began making monthly overview cards for laundry, with the regular loads printed and space to jot down a date beside them when they're done, like "11/13". Now, of course I realize I didn't have to rely on the cardfile for this, too. I could do monthly overview record-keeping in another way. But if it's in the cardfile, it's always at my fingertips, never lost, and "user friendly" so I figured why not make a card for it?

[lovemykids]

Thank you, blessedw2.

Thank you for sharing your card file system, Harriet! (I love this site already.)

You're absolutely right on the flexibility of the system. Refile to another day, change the cards, according to how you want to approach housework, experiment-there's room for all that! The flexibility of "when" in the card file is one thing I like better than the Control Journal. The specified days in the binder are more "in stone." Obviously, it can be overlooked and you mark off as needed, but I like the refiling of the card. In addition, index cards are so cheap.

I use scrap cards (previous ones I decided not to use after experimenting) to write down one time tasks or reminders. I use to have an on-going "to do" list that I procrastinated on. With one item on a scrap card and filed on a day--I'm MUCH more likely to get it done. Then I enjoy the completed card, ripping it in half, and throwing it away.

Do you use your card file solely for housework? Or do you incorporate other interests or categories?

[Twins' Mom]

Nancy, s/b is an abbreviation I use for "should be." P&P mention that there are eight daily cards, so I was just listing out that there should be eight.

Sorry to have confused you!