Most planning advice sounds the same. Color coded calendars, hourly schedules and a long list of rules that fall apart by Wednesday. One homeschool mom decided to do the opposite, and she opens her video by saying it may be the worst planning advice you will ever hear. Her next line explains why she thinks that is the point: it is exactly why it works.
The creator behind the channel Organized Chaos – Audrey describes her method as a low friction anti plan to keep the chaos at bay. She says it has no rigid schedules and no toxic productivity. Over the years, she has simplified her planning a great deal, because the more extensive you make something, the more friction there is, and the more work is required to keep it up.
Plan On Saturday, Not Sunday
Her most important rule is a simple one. Your planning day needs to be Saturday, and she does hers on Saturday mornings. Her reasoning is that the week begins on Sunday. If you wait until your week has already started to plan it, you are already behind. She says that no matter what system you follow, you should always start planning at the end of the week before.
It is a small shift, but it changes the feel of a Sunday evening. Instead of scrambling to figure out what is coming, you can head into the week knowing what is on the calendar and what is for dinner.
Start With A Brain Dump
Her process begins with a brain dump of everything on her mind. From there, she adds things to the calendar and to her grocery order, and makes whatever lists she needs to based on what she wrote down. Once the items are sorted into lists, she throws away the brain dump and keeps only the lists.
That last step is worth copying. A brain dump is messy by nature, and keeping it around only adds to the pile. Move what matters to where it belongs, then toss the rest.
Four Simple Sections
She breaks her planning into four sections, and she keeps them basic.
- Meal planning. She calls this the most important, because she wants food in the fridge and the pantry for the planned breakfasts, lunches and dinners. She mentions that she has a separate video on how she uses a mini menu binder.
- Homeschool. She plans what the following week will look like, clipping the work together for each day and making notes. That way, whether it is her or her husband teaching, they both know what needs to be done.
- Work. Videos need to be created and filmed, so she plans the week before and is ready when the day comes.
- Home maintenance and cleaning. This is its own category. She barely does any planning here, because she follows her own cleaning schedule and simply pulls it up on her phone.
Fewer Plans, Less Friction
What stands out is how little she asks of herself. She says she is not a big stickler about scheduling and is not going to over plan her life, because it just does not work well for her. She also says her family’s priorities have shifted over time, and that has changed her schedule quite a bit.
It is a good reminder that a planning system should fit your family instead of the other way around. If your system takes an hour a day to maintain, it may be creating more work than it saves.
How To Try It This Weekend
You do not have to homeschool or create videos for a living to borrow her method. Here is a simple way to test it.
- Pick Saturday morning, or whatever day comes right before your week begins. The goal is to plan before the new week starts, not after.
- Write down everything on your mind. Do not worry about order. Just get it out of your head.
- Move each item to where it belongs. Appointments go on the calendar, groceries go on the grocery order, and tasks go on a list.
- Throw away the brain dump. Keep only the lists.
- Check your four areas, or choose your own. Meals, school or work, and the house are a good starting point for many families.
- Keep it light. If it takes too long, simplify it. Audrey says the more work a system requires, the harder it is to keep up.
The Takeaway
The beauty of her approach is that it is easy to start and easy to keep going. There is no special notebook to buy and no long list of rules to memorize. Even if you fall off the wagon one Saturday, you can pick it back up the next. You can watch how she does it on Organized Chaos – Audrey.
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