Schedule an irregular household task.
Keep those cyclical chores from slipping between the cracks.
Despite what the internet may want you to believe, not every task can be fully automated. Sure, you can put your bills on autopay — but you can’t put your household on auto-clean. I find that checklists work well for me for weekly or monthly household tasks, but there are always a few that need to be taken care of on a less regular schedule.
For example, my partner and I have serious allergies, so we need to change our air conditioner filters once every three months. It was always hard to remember when we had last switched them out and when we would need to do it again. I finally started putting it on my calendar like any other appointment.
It seems an obvious solution, but I struggled to remember to swap our filters for years. Now when I see the reminder popping up during my weekly check-in, I simply put the task on my to-do list for that week. (Yet another way those weekly check-ins come in handy!)
Any kind of recurrent household task can use a reminder like this; I tend to set up reminders of all tasks that need to be done less regularly than once a month. This habit has been especially valuable during the pandemic. I may not have known what day it was most of the time, but I managed to change the air filters on schedule as always!
It may seem like unnecessary busywork to set up a reminder for these kinds of things, but the tiny hassle of setting up a prompt allows you to stop worrying about it and focus on more important things in the meantime.
Challenge:
Schedule an irregular household task on your calendar. Maybe you need to put drain cleaner in your bathroom sink every six weeks, or you run your oven’s self-cleaning cycle only every 4 to 6 months. Think back to the last time you did this task, and set up a reminder for next time. If you really can’t remember when you did it, schedule it for next week -- and make sure you have any needed supplies ready to go by then.
Until Next Time:
Remember that scheduling tools aren’t just for work tasks. You can customize your system for your own needs and schedule anything you want to spend time on. Try not to overburden your calendar, though -- as tempting as it may be to do so. Give yourself plenty of time for rest and downtime, too.