a word for 2011

Have you got a word for this year yet? I didn't really have one last year, although I had some ideas that were right for me, they just never evolved into one word. The year before that my word was hope. That word was spot on, and it served me well.

This year, my word has found me, rather than me finding it. It came to me one day just before the end of last year, and it hasn't left since. It's not a word I would have thought up on my own. Actually, this word doesn't come to me naturally at all. But I've discovered over the last two weeks that it has many rewards.

My word for 2011 is order.

When I last wrote I told you about my intentions for this year. To write and exercise every day, to watch a movie with Paddy once a week, to spend a day alone once a month. These things aren't huge or impossible goals, but they will take commitment, and will involve some good time-management. This is where order comes in. You see, I have a feeling that a bit of order is going to be my friend this year.

If you know me, particularly if you are family, you're probably having a good chuckle to yourself about now. You wouldn't call me an ordered person. I wouldn't call myself an ordered person. Order and it's family of words; routine, schedule and timetable don't normally do it for me. I'm definitely an unstructured person. I'm relaxed, spontaneous, fairly messy, often disorganised, and I lose things. Some of this is because I'm a dreamer at heart, and very absent-minded, but some if it us just because I fit with that unstructured personality type.

I've tried to instigate various routines for myself over the years. I've started routines for housework, babies' sleeps, mornings, writing, and exercise. None of them have stuck. It's not that I give up easily, or that I don't value routine at all, it's that I find it very difficult to do the same thing, at the same time, every day. There is something innate in me that resists it. I am not a creature of habit.

That's not to say I haven't appreciated a bit of routine. Ironically, I always feel good when I have some routines, for as long as I can manage to keep them up. Someone once pointed out to me that it's important for unstructured people to have some structure in their lives. I guess that conversely that means that structured people need to also have some spontaneity in their lives somewhere.

But when I say "order" I don't mean strict schedule. I'm not about to write a timetable for our homeschooling, or decide that at 6:30am every morning I will be in the shower. Rather, I've identified some priorities in our day, and I've decided to make sure that those things get done first. For example, it seems to me that it will be a good thing if the girls and I are all dressed for breakfast with beds already made. It's easier to get on with the rest of the morning that way. We practise violin straight after we've finished eating, while Abigail is still in her highchair. That's the only time it works, so it's a priority. Then after that the girls empty the dishwasher. If that chore happens straight after breakfast then I don't have to battle with them to do it at another time when they are busy doing something else. Once that's done, it's teeth and hair and the rest of our day. And that's it. Simple and probably blindingly obvious to most of you. It's not a timetable. It's just a bit of order.

Order has worked well for me in the last two weeks. It frees up my time. It has inspired and enabled me to create some "quiet time" while Abigail is alseep where I write and the girls read, do puzzles, or play quietly. Which has in turn given me time to work on some projects I never thought I'd get onto this quickly. Order has enabled me to start something new - something very exciting which you will be hearing about soon!

I'm aware that things will change when the term starts and we have kindy and homeschooling activities to go to. Things won't be so simple then. But I've figured out something important. Order is easier to achieve when there is less to be ordered. You might think of this as keeping it simple, or less is more. However you describe it, it's obvious, and it's not rocket science. The simpler things are, the easier it is to order them. So I'll be choosing our commitments this year wisely. I'm not giving away my order!

Are you a structured or unstructured person? How does this influence your days? Do have a word for 2011? Tell me...