it pays to plan ahead

i love planning. sometimes when i'm doing nothing, i just jot down my 'to do' plans. i dont just do a 'to do' list. that's just too easy. mine comes with detailed descriptions, notes to refer to and a rough budget (followed by a detailed one once i get an access to an excel sheet).

early in the year, i usually have plans of what i want to happen throughout the year. my plans usually come true because before i pen down the plans i must make sure they are achieveable. none of those overly dramatic plans just to spice up the list without actually achieving anything - that's just a waste of paper and precious planning time. they must also be realistic in terms of budget. once i made plans to renovate my whole entire house. that was a bit too ambitious, and come mid-year i restructured my plan to fit my budget and other things on the list.

last year, almost all of what i had planned was i-ed off. the big trip, minor house reno, clearing debts (i dont have major debts as i dont hold credit cards to my name anymore and i've settled my housing loan but i managed to pay off certain small owings here and there), akmal's birthday. alhamdulillah, it was a good year. made even better since i wasnt superly going overboard.

i've listed down my plans for the year early last month. but i didnt have time to properly analyse them and assign some budget codes to them so once i had time, i managed to look into detail and come up with the following '2011 plans' (oh so wonderfully original...)

plan 1: september
this plan will happen in september, insyaallah.

plan 2: project airway
this is one of the house renovation plans that was shelved due to 'tidak berapa penting pada ketika ini' reason. last year i madeover the bedrooms because we were reorganising the top floor. this year, i aim to look at our living room and adjust where i can. i have a couple more things i want to do, especially to the upstairs hall and the dining+kitchen, but that requires major hacking and banging and i think we shouldnt be around when that happens so detailed and thorough thoughts need to be put before that were to happen. for now i'm just looking at closing the airway, decking the floors, closing the windows near the stairs, repainting some of the exterior and some of the walls inside. i plan to settle this by may, when we're not too busy at work in case i need to take a few days off.

plan 3: baby photos
i feel very bad that i stopped printing baby photos after asyraf. for asyraf and amir i printed almost all of the photos we took of them before they turned 1. they are all kepts nicely in 7-8 albums each and the rest are saved in cds. i also printed and framed various pictures in 4R and 8R sizes and hang them up around the house. i dont have any of ariff and akmal. due to serious lack of time and energy. i think i need to start the baby photo project once again. dont think it would be a huge task - its not that difficult, i reckong, putting in some 3,000 photos in 15 albums. the framing up of pictures isnt difficult. i think per frame would only take about 5 minutes, so to do 8-10 frames would be less than an hour. the target for this plan is mid year, june, july around that time.

plan 4: family wall
i have a wall where i hang framed family photos. not the frame one can get in ikea but the frame that designated frame shops would do. i have several of amir and hubby and i and now i need to do some of asyraf, ariff and akmal. selecting the photos would take time so i'm giving myself til maybe october-november of the year.

plan 5: short breaks
i hope to tick off some short breaks during the year. i got the cny break done. since this year there's quite a few 3-day weekends, maybe we can shoot off for a getaway nearby. hubby's eyeing redang or perhentian. maybe tioman too where we can just hop on berjaya air at nearby subang airport. we're also looking at sentosa island for the boys but maybe that can wait til next year. i'd like to do cameron highlands but not with the car in its current condition.

plan 6: project pay-off
there's this one item that's really bugging me and i need to clear it off. hopefully by july i can settle it.

plan 7: the getting-akmal-off-susu-and-diapers plan
that's so a plan, isnt it? things are looking good for this. akmal's been taking less formula for a long time. he's drinking 3 bottles (of only 2-3 scoops), his first bottle is at 10am and his last bottle is around 7pm - all in school. he doesnt drink at home during the weekdays since he hasnt asked for susu before he goes off to bed anymore. on saturdays and sundays, he would drink once, sometimes in the late morning, sometimes before he takes his afternoon nap, sometimes in the evening before dinner. it varies. sometimes, like today, he doesnt drink at all. and sometimes, he's given a bottle if i foresee dinner would be late, like last thursday, even though he didnt ask for a bottle. all depends but what is certain is that the amount he drinks is decreasing. akmal eats a whole lot, he can finish an adult portion of rice so i'm not forcing formula on him if he doesnt ask for a bottle. i hope i can throw away the avent bottles by june this year.

the off-diapers plan may not happen anytime soon. akmal's older brothers were toilet trained when they turned 3, some picked up faster than others - asyraf fully toilet trained at 3 years old, amir at 3 year and 2 months, ariff at 3 years and 3 months. so if akmal can be off diapers by mid next year it would be wonderful. its in this year's plans because his teachers may staff training him during the year-end school holidays even though the final outcome will only be seen next year.

so that's it. not many plans for the year. but not having many may result in all being achieved and that's of course better than having a whole bunch of items carried forward.