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Organization Post: Stuff What Works
Passing on three things that have really worked for me as I get my crap in gear:
1) Attagirl list. Among the to-do lists and project sheets is a list with 52 numbered slots. Every time I come up with something that works really well for me, I list it. Then I go look at the list whenever I think I can't do this, don't have decent ideas, and am bound to screw everything up.
2) LJ. No, seriously. The best time to make a list is right after you needed it, so what you left out is fresh in your mind. A tagged LJ post is an excellent way of finding what you wrote down a year before - for example, if you check out my Christmas Prep tag, you'll find all the family's traditional recipes. Under the MediaWest and ChicagoTARDIS tags, I have private-locked posts listing hotels to stop at along the drive, notes about what worked and what needed to be changed, packing reminders, etc.
3) Master calendar. NOT the preprinted kind you buy in a store. You need to have complete control over what goes into it and how it's organized, so put it in a binder. I'd link to the one I use - it's from Staples, a 1" 3-ring binder with a clear cover and an elastic band that makes me able to treat it like a moleskine - but I can't find it on the web anywhere.
Calendar pages should be generated from a computer program. (I use Outlook because I have it; there are free versions, including Google Calendar) This is necessary for two reasons:
- You can customize and color code to your needs, and print new versions if your needs change
- You want to be able to track things over more than one year; it's easiest to set once and have a repeat than write it all over again every year.
The calendar doesn't just list dates, it's being loaded with ticklers and reminders. For instance, three weeks before a birthday is a reminder to look for a present. This year I learned that Linganore has its May wine on sale May 1 and it's 20 minutes from the Sheep and Wool Festival, so that's now a footnote on May 1 every year. I've spent a lot of time feeling blindsided because I'm never ready for things when they happen - "It's spring already? Do I want a garden or not?" So in the same vein as making the list right after you needed it, I'm writing ticklers for deadlines, missed or met, into *this* year's calendar so they'll automatically pop up at the right time *next* year and now on.
These calendar pages are printed out so I have a version I can doodle on/make weekly lists as well as have a calendar that remembers the big things. It's important to print only on one side of the page, because then you have the other side for listmaking ("this weekend I'll...") and planning. Advance planning, even. I intend to cast on the Christmas present knitting on July 5; on the back of the July 5 page is the pattern and yardage. Ideas for the bathroom are doodled on the back of the page the week the project is meant to be finished.
And finally, it's not just calendar pages in the calendar. When the local library went to a computer system, they stopped stamping books and gave you a receipt with the due date. That's punched and added. Flyers for events I want to attend are bound in. Phone lists, review lists (I've got a master checklist of all the back Big Finishes due USF), project notes - all in one place.
All of it's amazingly simple (okay, setting up the calendar can be long; I've got a list of some 20 events I need to look up the dates for every year). But the cumulative effect in getting things together and feeling confident in it and me is profound.
1) Attagirl list. Among the to-do lists and project sheets is a list with 52 numbered slots. Every time I come up with something that works really well for me, I list it. Then I go look at the list whenever I think I can't do this, don't have decent ideas, and am bound to screw everything up.
2) LJ. No, seriously. The best time to make a list is right after you needed it, so what you left out is fresh in your mind. A tagged LJ post is an excellent way of finding what you wrote down a year before - for example, if you check out my Christmas Prep tag, you'll find all the family's traditional recipes. Under the MediaWest and ChicagoTARDIS tags, I have private-locked posts listing hotels to stop at along the drive, notes about what worked and what needed to be changed, packing reminders, etc.
3) Master calendar. NOT the preprinted kind you buy in a store. You need to have complete control over what goes into it and how it's organized, so put it in a binder. I'd link to the one I use - it's from Staples, a 1" 3-ring binder with a clear cover and an elastic band that makes me able to treat it like a moleskine - but I can't find it on the web anywhere.
Calendar pages should be generated from a computer program. (I use Outlook because I have it; there are free versions, including Google Calendar) This is necessary for two reasons:
- You can customize and color code to your needs, and print new versions if your needs change
- You want to be able to track things over more than one year; it's easiest to set once and have a repeat than write it all over again every year.
The calendar doesn't just list dates, it's being loaded with ticklers and reminders. For instance, three weeks before a birthday is a reminder to look for a present. This year I learned that Linganore has its May wine on sale May 1 and it's 20 minutes from the Sheep and Wool Festival, so that's now a footnote on May 1 every year. I've spent a lot of time feeling blindsided because I'm never ready for things when they happen - "It's spring already? Do I want a garden or not?" So in the same vein as making the list right after you needed it, I'm writing ticklers for deadlines, missed or met, into *this* year's calendar so they'll automatically pop up at the right time *next* year and now on.
These calendar pages are printed out so I have a version I can doodle on/make weekly lists as well as have a calendar that remembers the big things. It's important to print only on one side of the page, because then you have the other side for listmaking ("this weekend I'll...") and planning. Advance planning, even. I intend to cast on the Christmas present knitting on July 5; on the back of the July 5 page is the pattern and yardage. Ideas for the bathroom are doodled on the back of the page the week the project is meant to be finished.
And finally, it's not just calendar pages in the calendar. When the local library went to a computer system, they stopped stamping books and gave you a receipt with the due date. That's punched and added. Flyers for events I want to attend are bound in. Phone lists, review lists (I've got a master checklist of all the back Big Finishes due USF), project notes - all in one place.
All of it's amazingly simple (okay, setting up the calendar can be long; I've got a list of some 20 events I need to look up the dates for every year). But the cumulative effect in getting things together and feeling confident in it and me is profound.