We have this bad habit of coming up with all of these fun ideas of things to do or go see but when we actually have free time to do something we can’t decide. Or even remember what we wanted to do to begin with. We spend a lot of time think what to do today. I don’t want to say we end wasting a weekend or anything. We usually always have fun. But don’t always get to one of those items on our want to do list when we could have.
Sometimes that’s because we are just tired from the week and want to relax. But most of the time it’s because we are really bad at planning and deciding.
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A few weekends ago we had 3 day weekend. We woke up late on Sunday and sat there half of the morning debating on what we should do.
There is this park about an hour and twenty minutes away we kept thinking about going to. I was of course over thinking it. Do we have time at this point? It will be after lunch when we get there. Will we be able to do all we want to?
My husband and I were finally like lets just go and see what happens. If we don’t get to see everything so what. It just leaves us with something to do next time. And you know what… It worked out great, we were able to do and see many things. We weren’t able to see everything but there is so much more to do that we could easily go back for another full day of activities!
I think sometimes it’s hard to decide because it’s not often we have “no plans” and we want to make sure we do something we really want to do. So it was great to just go with and have the opportunity to do something fun
To avoid the debating and the decision making in the future. We decided to start an activities jar or a “What To Do Today” jar. As we come up with an idea of something we would like to do we will now write it on a stick and add it to a jar. So if we know we have the free time we can pull an idea out of a jar and just run with it.
Of course this is something you might want to do the night before just in case you pick something you need to get up early for or pack a bag or something.
We are even categorized the activities so that we know if we need to do something cheaper or a one day trip. We can just avoid the colors that mean something we may not have all the time or money for.
I am not always the craftiest person so the paint job is not perfect. Over all happy with the color coding. We did 3 categories for now. Red = Multi-day Trip, Green = Costs Money, Purple = Free. You can do as many categories as you would like and even do more than one category per activity. For example we have “painting with a twist” as one of our activities, this can also be labeled as Rainy day if you want.
I used paint that I had lying around for this process and if you enjoy paining this may work for you. However, it is a little time consuming so you could opt to use markers instead. The Sharpie markers write really nice on the wood.
I love this idea because when you are looking for things to do you tend to over think it. So by having a random pull this kind of gets to the things you want to and then you slowly check off your list. Need some ideas to help fill your jar? Check out these Free or Low Cost Things To Do.
Comments
Smart idea! I have that same issue… when i do have free time, i never remember the things i said to myself i wanted to do or see. the sticks in a jar are great and if you don’t have time to do the color coding, you could at least right down the activity on a small piece of paper fold and put them in a jar… you then would still have a place with all those activities that you most likely forgot about… 🙂 thank you
I love this idea! It is so simple, yet so perfect for the summer! I know my daughter would love to do something like this
What a cute idea- I may have to try something like this!
This Ian such a cute idea. I bet it would be great for kids too, especially during the summer
This is a fun idea! I might have to do this on days where I feel like actually leaving the house.
i love this idea! its perfect for any ocassions i think i would try it sometimes i get together with my friends and we dont always know what to do.
This is a great idea, sometimes it can be such a hassle picking where to go that you don’t even want to go out anymore.
I love fun and crafty ideas like this! I still remember loving this kind of activity when I was a kid.
This is a great idea! I should do this with my kids. Our June has been filled with camps, but July has nothing, so this is a great idea!! Thank you!
I already pinned your activity jar but I have to comment also as I love love that idea and will do one for our family!
This is so true. I love this idea especially because we fall into ruts so often and it makes it difficult to try new things. I especially love the color coding.
Love this idea. I agree, it seems like when we actually do have time to do things, we can never think what to do. This seems like a great way to fix that.
i think we all have this issue, we finally get free time and then cannot remember what we want to do. I have started keeping a running list in evernote.
This is such a great idea because I’m so indecisive! This would be perfect for me and the kids! <3
I love this idea I have thought about creating something like this for quite some time. This is more creative than I thought of though. I live in a great are filled with activities inside and outdoors as well. But we never know what to do at spur of moment and always seem to need a plan. Thank you for sharing your idea
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What an awesome idea! Totally creative!
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Think your idea jar is brilliant, and for busy people who don’t have time to plan & lay everything out on their calendar … perfect.