FOCUS - Getting Started - 12/27/09

[bittersweet]

I've gotten about as far as thinking about my calendar and that's it so far. We don't have any New Year's traditions...unless having no traditions is a tradition in itself? I'm too much of a home body to go out and party..and getting a bit on the old side to be staying up so late. Besides..DD will be out, DGS will be at his dad's, DH will be in bed, as he's working 6am - 6pm on New Year's Day...so it'll be a quiet night of reminscing and crocheting..maybe watch a movie or two.

DEFINITELY no herring for me, though!! I think I'll go copy Indiana's 2009 Focus schedule, and change it for 2010.

[blessedw2]

B is sweet HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[Smile*Lee]

Since Indiana is in the hospital, I'm posting her quotes up for now. She can redo them when she gets home and feeling better. Thanks, Indiana!

The FOCUS thread for cleaning has been ongoing for a few years now.

Instead of doing a fall cleaning, spring cleaning or cleaning right before the holidays our homes are maintained throughout the year.

Each area is worked 4 times a year. The last area is finished well before Thanksgiving and then maintenance of the areas begins with time available for holiday preparation.

FOCUS cleaning is worked in with other cleaning routines. There are daily routines which include AM, PM and sometimes noon routines. Then there are weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal, and annual routines. There are other non-cleaning routines. We are only concentrating on cleaning in FOCUS.

It sounds like a lot of routines but they all fit together and work together. The routines don’t take long. They get easier and take a shorter time the more they are done. Then they become a habit and are just done without thinking.

The key to routines is to make them work for us not against us. They are to make life flow smoothly not to put us under stress.

When I do something I think it through from end to beginning. How do I want my home to look? How can I maintain it? Working backward what things are done yearly, then by season, quarterly, monthly and weekly. Not everything obviously needs to be done daily, etc. I didn’t want to spend 4 hours on Saturday doing weekly routines so for me it works better to break them up over 4 days with Friday being just a little item. The same thing with daily routines. For me the most important one is the evening routine because I set everything up for the next morning. Mornings are a breeze.

No one set of routines works for everyone. We each need to make them our own. We each work differently and are motivated differently.

BUT even though we can’t all work the same routine, SHARING our routines is great to see how we each tweak routines to give each other ideas. There may be some – “oh I didn’t think about doing it then” or “have you thought about switching X routine with Y routine”?

I’m changing the wording in the FOCUS thread to make it simpler to use.

Enjoy tweaking your routines.

[Nancy]

Thanks Indiana and Smile*Lee!

It's so good to read this again!

[Indiana]

Thank you Smile*Lee.

The new FOCUS threads began on January 4, 2010.

Won't you join us this year if you find it helpful.

[Smile*Lee]

I have to say.... the FOCUS format never really made sense to me before. Doing the Flylady monthly zones since 2000, the FOCUS rounds seemed WAY too long - UNTIL - I was tweaking up these threads for you. When I was reading all the detailed cleaning on the post for the Porch/Entry, the last line tells you to start decluttering for the next area. I have no idea why, but it kind of clicked for me. So.. I'm gonna try it. I was never consistent with Flylady zones anyway, so maybe this will work for me. . We'll see. Dang! I already filled in my calendar. Oh well.. I'm gonna go get another one.