Plan! Plan! Plan!

According to AI Overview :

Planning is good because it helps you achieve your goals by providing a clear roadmap to follow, allowing you to utilize your time effectively, make informed decisions, reduce stress by mitigating uncertainty, and identify potential obstacles in advance to develop contingency plans, ultimately increasing your chances of success.

My thoughts on their definition : - 

Contingency plan : yah…a pessimistic person like me who thinks too much on “what if”. It only made a simple task to a double or triple fold task. Ha!  

Not sure abt increasing chances of success coz I’m no living testament to that. 

I love to plan not just for holidays. Ooh! This popped up at the right time in my FB. Credit to @ottieandotter

I plan on what I need to do on a daily basis. And because I do try to follow regimentally sometimes I do get irritated when it doesn’t fall on plan. Yup! I think that’s my flaw. It’s not that I cannot be adaptable to changes, I can and I HAVE TO, I only feel frustrated when I gotta make changes to other days just coz of one interruption. 

Let the 阿嫂 speaketh

House matters, something that I always do was to (1) check on what’s in the fridge and freezer and then trying to use them as quickly as possible. I’m sure that’s what most people who cooks does that too. 

(2) do plan the menu so it makes it easier for me. But then I hate it when suddenly someone tells me last minute “I’m going out with friends for dinner.” then it’s senseless for me to cook that dish that day if the planned portion was for 4 people and I can’t change the portion.  

(3) I plan which day do what additional housework. Which day is change bedsheet day, clean windows, clean fans etc…

(4) have also listed on the cabinet doors on what dry pantry items I have, listed with the expiry dates. Makes clearance faster too when I do my occasional 6mths purging and tidying. 

Not so successful with this one 

However the only thing I can’t do in the house is to be more organized in our messy bomb shelter aka storeroom. I  had to list the items we have inside the ‘holding Toyogo box’. I really wish we have a bigger store area where I can put the cleaning stuffs in an organization box; bathing supplies in another and so on. There is just no space in the bomb shelter where space is also needed for our luggages, air purifiers, photo albums, board games, cookbooks etc… I often admire those people with a huge house and lots of spaces where they can designate a pantry room, a laundry room and so on. 

Sometime last Nov/Dec when I was tidying up the bomb shelter I managed to take some things out and start doing stock taking. I was a little happy but it’s difficult to keep crossing out (when I take to use them) and then adding them (when I buy to top up) on the testpad paper. Makes it even more inaccurate when hubby don’t update the list for me. Is this a necessity in the first place? As long as I have my “at least 2 extra bottles of Dettol at all times”, why do I even bother to stocktake on the toothpaste and shower gel and all? Maybe I’m just bor daiji chwher daiji zor 没事找事做。However I must admit when I did that, it somehow made me feel I have control of my life. Haha! More likely it’s control of my 阿嫂-ness.

Three lists stuck behind the bomb shelter door - my keto pantry and two lists of all the supplies needed for home

Then just 2 days ago I was using my iPad and looking at my 日本語 revision notes in Goodnotes and went through all the other documents. Haha! My attempt in German - 3 pages of notes on Das alphabets 😂 and that’s it!  

Recollection of 2022 on how I had to sit down and watch 👀 lil’ one and track her revision for N’levels. I realised I couldn’t leave it to her coz she was one disorganised person. I had to track and make sure that all topics are revised; all topics questions are attempted in TYS and home assessment books etc.. Needless to say she HAD to follow the schedule I planned for her. I was nagging at her to “hurry up shower/eat” - was rather pekchek coz I wanted to adhere to the schedule strictly and there she is making me panic coz she’s taking her own sweet time.

Then I thought since I used to buy my planner and two study trackers from Etsy, I should kapo and see what new designs are there on sale now. Didn’t buy anymore planners as household chores schedules are at the back of my head and coz there’s no need now to monitor any kid’s academic progression. 

I still have the cute fonts and stickers where it made my planning so aesthetically nice and so motivated to carry them out. 

Since I’m on the track on tracking my supplies at home why not I check if there’s such a thing. Lo and behold there is log tracker and I bought two. 

Then did some kapo-ing and found more interesting templates. 3 years later and new discoveries. These income & expenses planner/tracker is so interesting. Will I do this next time? Track the expenses and scream at the girls wasting water and electricity? 

I came across something similar in Japan - 家計簿

Took these pictures in a bookstore in Kyoto. Really interesting but if only they have it in cute characters like Sumikko Gurashi or Snoppy or Miffy. 

家計簿 are usually done by the wives after the husbands pass their salary to them to manage the household. Receipts are kept and recorded, now the younger wives who are more tech savvy may turn to recording in their phone or laptop using Excel worksheet. Phone lost Cham! But if I’m an old stingy whiny grumpy spinster I might end up doing this and manage the household. Since it’s not applicable in our context 🤭 I’m spared from doing this.