Building Your Own FlyLady Journal. The Control Journal is your own personal manual for listing and keeping track of your routines.
You can use a notebook, a binder, or even a scrapbook, it doesn’t matter — it just has to work for you. You may even want to divide it into two or more books: one that you leave at home, the other that you take with you when shopping, etc. FlyLady uses a notebook with plastic sheet protectors so she can use a dry-erase marker to check off the completed items. She also color codes each section and the zones so they are easy to find. FlyLady Journal, Step 15: Emergency Numbers. This is a very important part of your control journal.
This is where you’ll write down all the information someone would need if there were an emergency in your house. Get a sheet of paper and, while you are calm, write down these emergency phone numbers. At the top of the page, write clear directions to your home, in case someone needs to tell emergency workers how to find the house: Call 911 if someone is hurt or there is a fire! If you don’t have 911 in your area, then list the numbers of the sheriff, police, and fire departments.List the names and phone numbers of your family doctors: PediatricianGeneral PractitionerSpecialized doctors (such as OB/GYN, eye doctor, etc.)Poison Control CenterHospitalVeterinarianYou may need them to meet you at the emergency room or work you in for a simple stitch or two!
FlyLady Journal, Step 14: Monthly Dividers. This is where we’re going to keep our calendar of yearly events.
First, put your January – December dividers into your journal. Then, at the end of each month or on the first day of the month, I want you to think about the birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations that you may need to send greeting cards and/or gifts for during the next few weeks. Write them down on the page for each month. Only do this one month at a time! There is no need to do it all at once. FlyLady Journal, Step 13: FlyLady’s Tools. FlyLady Journal, Step 12: Address Book. The next section we are going to build in our Control Journal is our address book.
This is not something to obsess about; it will take months to get it complete. The first thing to do is add the ABC dividers and put a sheet of paper between each alphabet letter. This does not have to be a specially formatted sheet with a line for name, address, phone number, cell phone, e-mail address, who the person is, etc. Just list the criteria you want to have for each person across the top of the page so you don’t forget it. FlyLady Journal, Step 11: Basic Weekly Plan. Now that you’ve made pages for all your routines, you’ve completed a whole section of your control journal.
Take a divider and label it “Routines” to mark the spot. The next step we’ll do is add our Basic Weekly Plan. In Step Two of building your Control Journal, you put seven blank pages (labeled for each day of the week) in the Weekly section. These pages are for your Basic Weekly Plan. FlyLady Journal, Step 10: Master Grocery List. Thursday is our errand day.
FlyLady Journal, Step 9: Daily Routines. FlyLady Journal, Step 8: Menu Planning. This section is where you’ll keep all your menu plan outlines.
Below, Leanne Ely, the Dinner Diva and FlyLady’s resident nutritionist, explains how to create a basic menu plan and how to pick recipes for it. In FlyLady’s own words: The goal is to have about five weeks of different menus and recipes for those menus, along with their grocery list. Leanne has some great ideas about this. Set up your own outline for your week and stick to it. Create five outlines like the ones in Leanne’s example, and you’ll never not know what’s for dinner. Menu making makes all the difference in being able to pull off successful, stress-less dinners. FlyLady Journal, Step 7: Pantry List. The next section you’ll be creating for your control journal is your Perpetual Pantry List.
This is the list of foods you generally keep stocked in your home. Below you’ll see Leanne Ely’s Perpetual Pantry List. Leanne Ely is the Dinner Diva of savingdinner.com who writes the weekly Food for Thought essays and is our resident nutritionist. Keep in mind that this is an example; you should adapt this list to your family’s likes and dislikes. Do not go out and buy all the things on your pantry list at once; it takes months to build up a pantry.
Baking Supplies: FlyLady Journal, Step 6: Detailed Cleaning List. There are five zones in FlyLady’s system.
Once you have finished your decluttering in a zone, you will be ready for detailed cleaning in that zone. Don’t know what a zone is? Check out the Zone FLYing Lesson. FlyLady Journal, Step 5: Weekly Home Blessing Hour. Today you are going to create your Weekly Home Blessing Hour list for your Control Journal.
Write it on a piece of paper (it is only seven things) and put it into the weekly section; FlyLady’s is labeled under Monday’s Weekly Home Blessing Hour. It is in a sheet protector so she can mark items off as I do them. Again, keep it simple! VacuumDustMopPolish mirrors and doorsPurge magazinesChange SheetsEmpty all trash When you do your Weekly Home Blessing, set a timer and spend only 10 minutes per item on the list. FlyLady Journal, Step 4: Morning Routine. FlyLady Journal, Step 3: Before-Bed Routine. “Your Control Journal mission for today is to write down your Before Bed Routine. If you want to start after dinner, then go right ahead. Put this routine on a yellow piece of paper if you have it, if not don’t worry about it. Pam and Peggy had yellow for their daily cards. It looks bright and cheery in your control journal” – FlyLady The Before-Bed Routine is the key to jump starting tomorrow. FlyLady’s example of her Before Bed Routine in listed in the “Routines” FLYing Lesson.
FlyLady Journal, Step 2: Basic Set up. FlyLady Journal, Step 1: Supplies. The first thing you need to do is dig out a bunch of supplies to build your control journal with (that you already have on hand!). Things that you may want include: A notebook/binderWhite or colored paper (you choose)Blank dividers“ABC” dividers for addresses and phone numbersMonthly dividers for seasonal reminders, such as birthdays and when to change the furnace filterSheet protectors (not the matte finish unless you already have some; they are hard to erase)Dry erase markers in your favorite colorSome kind of calendar for your scheduleA small note pad for making lists or post-it notesA zippered pouch (for stamps, paper clips, pens, and other small items)