Creative Spotlight: Tiffany and her "Daily Docket"

Hello there!

I'm Tiffany over from A Day In My Life, where I write about my life with two boys: an amazing (and handsome) hubby, and a rambunctious 2-year-old. I spend most of my little one's naptimes concocting some craft or another, and it makes me happy to share my little ideas with others. 

I'm especially partial to all things organization, which is why I'm thrilled to be able to share the heart of my day-to-day management. Really. It's the main thing that helps me keep my life together. I hope it can help you (or inspire you) as well!


Here is Tiffany's Post!


About a year ago, I stumbled across the amazing concept of a daily docket on SimpleMom.net. At first, I started implementing her system, but it has evolved over time. (If you want to see the actual printouts SimpleMom uses, check out her Downloads section.)

First off, I didn't like having to print an entire page out every day. I felt that it was a little wasteful. I wanted something smaller that I could reuse over and over. Plus, I really liked her weekly checklist, but realistically, there was no way I could get all of that done in just one week.  Here's how I solved those problems:

I divided it up. I made up a monthly checklist:

Of everything that needs to "get done" around here at least once per month. I laminated it, and taped it to the outside of one of my kitchen cabinets.


I also made a weekly checklist with the things that need to be done more often:

And a daily one, with a very flexible "schedule" (with only 5 spots, because I really don't have more than that each day), and with lots of to-do spaces. I like to add things as I think of them, but don't really expect myself to accomplish all 15 in one day:

I put those two back-to-back and laminated them as well.


I started out using a dry erase marker, but a dry erase marker doesn't like filling in the bubbles. It starts to erase itself when you go over the same spot twice. Plus I would accidentally bump it and it would erase something important.


So then I moved on to a wet erase marker. And it proved to be much more "temporarily" permanent. But if I had it in the kitchen and it got wet, or Harvey drooled on it, or I didn't dry my hands all the way after washing.... it would smear all over the place. And when I would spray it down and wipe it off at the end of the day, inevitably it would get on my hands and take a few washes before it would come off.


Then my sister-in-law told me I could use a permanent marker, and it would come off with Expo Dry Erase Cleaner. It is the perfect solution. I use a fine tip Sharpie, and all my information stays put. Plus, I tried plain 'ol rubbing alcohol to remove it , and it works great too.


My lists are kind of specific to me, but if there's enough interest in a more generalized version I could make one up for download. Leave a comment!


I've now made up a .pdf with the more specific-to-me-items omitted. Check out the preview, or just leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send it to you!


What do you do to stay organized day-to-day?