Once upon a time, I attended a time management class. Since that day, I have used the “Swiss Cheese” method of task management. Visualize a round of Swiss Cheese and all the many holes in the cheese. Now imagine another round of cheese that is solid. If you keep taking bits and pieces out of the cheese, it will soon look like the Swiss Cheese.

Apply that thought to daily life. Our family Christmas celebration starts in less than 24 hours from now. There are gifts to be wrapped, a final house cleaning to be done, food to prepare, calls to make, and the list goes on an on. When I woke this morning, I knew it was time to “Swiss Cheese It.”

I keep a plain old notebook handy for notes. When I have more than one project going, I use a sheet for each item. A breakout of the list above is food preparation.

For instance, food to prepare.

Quick list of food we are serving
Inventory of items needed to complete food list
Containers for left overs
Check for refrigerator space
Food presentation – table or buffet style

Something to consider

Thought – One fear of aging is loosing our memory. That does happen, so a notebook of memory joggers is helpful.

Second Thought – We live in a very busy world. Daily news is delivered in bite sized pieces. That means we are exposed to more thoughts and ideas. Our community of family and friends share thoughts and ideas. With the easy accessibility to information, there is just so much more we are exposed to. It is difficult to keep it all straight some times.

If an idea hits me that I wish to explore, I write that idea down on a fresh sheet in my notebook. As new ideas for that subject speed through my brain, I write them down so I don’t loose the thought.

There are now hundreds of electronic methods to do this same function, but for me, my notebook works just fine.

How do you remember the details of your life?

Share this: