getting ready for sleep
Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → | ∇ General |
It’s not so late yet. George, Mark, and Lizzie are watching Practical Magic in the living room. George is finishing a pair of wrap pants, and I’m sitting in bed with the laptop. Vivianne is curled in my lap, although she seems to be staring at something up on the wall over my right shoulder. She is fascinated by it and seems to be deciding whether or not it’s worth the effort of getting up to chase.
I’ve gotten a lot done today. I’ve written more than enough blog posts. I’ve checked off a whole slew of things from my to do list, and added several for later and for next week. I’ve gotten a working plan for some of the structure that I need in my life, and I’m experimenting with it.
One of the challenges I face here is that whatever I build needs to be extraordinarily flexible. I know myself and the way I live my life. I know what I want. The tools that will allow me to be productive and achieve my goals also have to allow me the freedom to move as I desire and rearrange my schedule regularly. I don’t do well on a regimented schedule, I’ve learned this time and again. The trick is to make the time to do what needs to be done inside the flexibility and flow of my day to day activities.
I’m working with my planner to make all of this happen. My planner is a small moleskin. It has the days of the week on the left page, and a lined sheet for notes on the right page. I am putting appointments and schedules, and specific daily tasks on the appropriate days on the left. I am using the right page as a to-do list for the week. So far I have managed to fill most of it, but still have a few lines. I may need to find a better way to do a to-do list. I don’t want to keep it externally to my little planner, but I will if I have to. The weekly to-do list has small and large tasks, all sorts of things that need to be done. On top of all this, I have slid a note card into the planner that helps me remember to do things that I want to do every day.
For instance, every day I do a morning and evening devotion to Gwydion. It may only take 30 seconds, but I do it every day. I also do spellwork, and a morning and evening ritual of some sort each day. I haven’t quite figured out how that is going to work, but I feel the need for it. Every night before bed I will write the next days list on the note card (until it’s full, then I’ll get a new note card.) That way the next day I already have a list of the things that I need to do that should be routine. Hopefully I’ll eventually stop needing to look at or review the note card.
The system is less focused on scheduling time and more focused on doing things. I suspect this may be similar to GTD methodology or some of the other big time management systems in use recently. I want to compare it and do some research on what is working for other people, and how regimented or non-regimented they are.
