Wonder Women

Naughty is expensive!

Spend Adamcode.com Release Date: Jan 28, 2009 Genre: Finance © 2008 Adam Williams

I have mentioned before that I use the IPhone app "Spend" to keep track of my kids' allowance. I also wanted to mention how I use it in my parenting in general. This approach can easily be used with a desktop computer or a notebook, too. I just don't like doing all the math with six kids!

I give my kids an allowance of 50 cents per year of age a week. So my eight year old gets $4 a week. Of that, they are to give at least 10% to God. I used to have at least a 10% savings rule, but most of the kids do really, really well with savings. I was also giving them interest for savings, but I was in danger of going bankrupt! The kids use their money for extras--like a shake or a happy meal if we get fast food. Or for music downloads on ITunes.

When the kids do something exceptional, I give them bonuses which is 10% of their weekly allowance. It makes it fair and it's easy to remember. This afternoon, the 4yo asked the 6yo if he wanted to sit in her chair at the nursing home. I about fell OFF my chair! That was definitely bonus worthy. On the other hand, when they do something unacceptable, they are fined 10% of their allowance. Just today I increased the fine for physical injury to 20%. I'm adopting a no tolerance policy. I'll have less hitting and if not, at least I'll have more money. :-) Actually, the way it works is the injured party gets the payment from the perpetrator--just like in adult life.

This kind of system may not work for you if your kids aren't motivated by money. My kids cry and cry if they get a fine. Works for me!

Worried about the economy?

Right when all our economic woes began, I was reading from Psalm 37 in my chronological Bible:

The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
       and their inheritance will endure forever.

In times of disaster they will not wither;
       in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

If you're in need of some real encouragement, read all of Psalm 37 on www.biblegateway.com. My FIL is upset that his children's and grandchildren's inheritance has been cut nearly in half by the dive the stock market has taken. But God says our true inheritance will endure forever! Hallelujah!

Even if the hard times hit even harder, we can trust in our good and gracious God who gives us abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

Chore-ganizing

With all 8 of us in and around home most of the time, housekeeping is a huge issue. That is why I have been searching for a method of organizing chores that really works for my family for a LONG time (this picture is 2 years old).

I've tried magnet chore boards on the fridge. Didn't work because the kids forgot to change their magnets around and I always had to reset them each day. I've tried printed lists. Didn't work because I had to reprint them all the time. I tried the big tag board from www.familytools.com. Didn't work because the kids were constantly knocking the whole board down. Too many times of picking up a thousand tags and reorganizing them and I was DONE with that. I've tried computer programs that give points for chores. Didn't work because I had 5 kids clamoring to get on one computer to enter their chores at the same time. Actually, what they were doing is salivating over the rewards. I tried www.titus2.com's Managers of Their Chores. That didn't work because the oldest felt it was too babyish and the youngest was losing her cards all over the house. That was just one more thing to pick up! They also despised having the same chores for a year. Lots of bickering about fairness. I also tried Chore Olympics that I devised myself. I created sets of chores that were rotated from child to child. Each child was timed for their chores each day and the totals were added per week. The winner got a prize. Besides the fact that it took forever to add up everyone's times, I kept running into problems when one of the kids wasn't there for some reason. Then I have a child who will never, ever, ever win. You know the type. LOL

The biggest problem I had with all of these approaches is that I wasn't checking all the chores to make sure they were done. I was too busy managing the systems, doing my own chores, and helping the youngest. I think I may finally have a solution. It may or may not work for you. Actually, any of the above systems may work for you if you have fewer or more organized kids than I have! But what we do now is foster cooperation rather than competitiveness. The chores are organized into sets and are assigned the same days as they were before using the same list as I used for Chore Olympics. Only now I set the timer for 25 minutes. If you're done before the timer runs out, you call out, "Who needs help?" Prizes are awarded for everyone based on the number of days a week chores are completed within 25 minutes. Because I am helping everyone, I have the opportunity to see while we're doing chores if the work is done. It's music to my ears when I hear, "Who needs help?" The Lord knows I do! LOL For those who are interested, the rewards I give are a number of draws from a privilege jar I got from www.FamilyTools.com. If we get done within 25 minutes 7 days a week, 3 privileges may be drawn from the jar for each person. They only get to keep one, but the choices increase. The number of choices decreases with days chores aren't done in time. Originally I had thought of adding choose a chore to everyone's list if only 1-3 days we make it, but choosing a chore just is a chore for me! I have to show every child how to do those tasks. I prefer to save Choose a Chore for those times when I child whines that s/he's bored.

Get Focused

I know, I know. Another productivity software post! But this one is really about a method of getting things done that is designed for paper.

It's true that I change approaches to task management like I change outfits. But after two and a half weeks I am enamored with this approach. In 2.5 weeks I have added more than 600 tasks to my list and have just over 230 to do. I did something last night I have been putting off for two years. I feel that this method of getting things done is probably the best way to beat procrastination!

So what is it? I can't tell you. LOL. But go to www.markforster.net and sign up for the Autofocus beta testing link for free and Mark will tell you! It is definitely easy to understand and can really be life changing.

I am using Appigo's ToDo to access Toodledo for my Autofocus lists and I love it. Toodledo may be the most flexible task management software I have used. It isn't perfect but it's getting close! However, paper works just peachy.

I am off to mark "do a blog post on productivity" off my list!

Word for the Year

I was reading Aby Garvey's blog the other day and she mentioned having a word for the year--an idea she borrowed from Ali, a well-known scrapbooker, whose blog you will find referenced by Aby.

The concept is simple, yet powerful. Choose just one word to be your focus for 2009. This word can drive your goals, your priorities, and your tasks from day to day. Most importantly, this word can change how you think about each day of this year.

I have chosen the word CHALLENGE, not just because I am coordinating The New Life Challenge, but also because this is how I want to start to view my difficulties. Things I have formerly thought of as "pains, evil, unfair, boring, difficult, scary" and so on, I now choose to view as challenges. I LOVE challenges; I don't love things that are painful, evil, unfair, boring, difficult, or scary. Although I am simply relabeling these things, there is much truth in the change. I will grow and learn and by God's grace become better as I confront and overcome each challenge.

So now I challenge you: what is your one word for the year?

Productivity with Life Balance by Llamagraphics

I'm a technology junkie and I'm always looking for ways to improve my productivity. I recently started using LifeBalance by Llamagraphics. It isn't new software as it's been around for PC, Mac, and handhelds for a while, but it IS new for the IPhone.

I was drawn to the goal-directed format of the software. I do like to think of everything I do as being driven by my life's goals. You can see from the above IPhone screen shot what I think those goals/life areas are for me at this time. "Inbox" is just where I collect tasks that have to be ordered into goals later. Although it takes more time to select a goal to add tasks to, the process forces me to determine how everything I do fits with the bigger picture.

The second aspect of LifeBalance that I was drawn to was the outline format. I think in terms of outlines as a writer and speaker so organizing tasks into projects and then goals makes perfect sense to me. I can easily find tasks using this format without having to use the search function (which the desktop version of LB has).

The third aspect of LB that I love is its To Do list which takes all of your task deadlines, importance, and contexts into account to tell you what you should be doing right now. Say you have a context (place) called computer. You're at your computer and want to know everything you have to do on your computer. The first thing on the list is something that is due in an hour, the second thing is something important but doesn't have a deadline, etc. With so many tasks in my head that either have a deadline or don't, I love that my computer can think for me!

The fourth aspect of LB that I enjoy is it's pie chart. The pie chart is made up of your top level goals. You can quickly adjust their importance and also see how your actual activity matches your goals. For example, my family and I went to Disney World before Christmas. The week before Disney World, I didn't want to do any scrapbooking and I wasn't as concerned about taking care of myself. The organizing and family/friends areas needed to be priority. When I cam home, I adjusted them again. At the same time that I started using LB, I downloaded WhereIsMyTime on the IPhone and found it very enlightening. You have to face the cold, hard truth of what you're actually doing for how long. If you have an IPhone, check it out!

There are a few drawbacks to LifeBalance. First, it's spendy--$79 for the desktop version, but it does offer a month-long free trial. Second, unlike Mark Forster's Do It Tomorrow approach, you don't have the feeling of finishing your tasks. Third, you do have to spend more time entering tasks than with software like Things.

I have high hopes for LifeBalance, but I do plan to beta test Mark Forster's AutoFocus system of time management beginning January 4th. I will certainly keep you posted! Until then, why not sign up for the New Life Challenge and make your goal to get more organized ? Happy 2009!