Monday, December 28, 2009

An organizational adventure

I had a whole day to myself today to do exactly as I wanted. That doesn't happen very often, really... And of course while I would have loved to get into "The Project Room" (our bonus room above the garage) to play, the state of the project room made that impossible. It is a disaster. And the disaster is my fault. During this relatively slow week between Christmas and New Year I am hoping to make some serious headway in the home and life organizing departments. I cleaned out our pantry and refrigerator this morning (we had nearly a dozen random zip-top plastic bags floating around the pantry shelves. Why? I have no idea). That felt good. Managed a few other routine household chores, and drew thick lines through them on the day's to-do list. Then I ran a few errands: picked up some "fabric drawers," which I think is a fancy way of saying collapsible cloth baskets - to corral the jumble of hats, gloves and scarves in our hall closet; got some yarn on sale - hopeful about getting a prayer shawl ministry up and going at church; got a few cute cookie tins at 60% off, which will come in handy for gifts next year; and various other necessary things, like milk. The late afternoon and evening found me working on thank you notes and Christmas card, and finally, the project room. It will be an ongoing project, but that's okay. There are still multiple boxes in there which we haven't touched since we moved up here from Phoenix, they've waited this long, they can wait a little longer. Part of my hope for getting slightly more organized is management of time. I excel at creating monster to-do lists, unfortunately I rarely succeed at getting everything done. During my library adventure last week I picked up a copy of Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern. She advocates using a Time Map, which is something I've sort of been doing for the last few months, even before I got her book. I get out of whack a lot, though, and I think I've discovered the two primary reasons why: I am lousy at estimating how long tasks will take, and I am really good at letting myself get interrupted - by others and by myself. I have created a map for tomorrow. I'll let you know how off track I end up. :)

1 comment:

Mary Hess said...

So, I'd love to know more about what a "time map" is? I think I'm really skilled at allowing interruptions to get me off course... and I'd like to change that.