I came across the idea of the bullet journal and briefly tried it out but it was more work than I wanted. But I liked the structure of the journal, and specifically the idea of having an index to keep track of the different pages of content.
About a week before thanksgiving, I went through my house and pulled all my random projects into one big pile in the living room. Everything from mending a sweater to my folder of figuring out my style/outfits to installing a new fire alarm to my knitting project. I also pulled my multiple lists together. It helped seeing everything together. Granted there were several things I didn't include - in situ projects (finish painting my bedroom) or large and heavy projects (sort through my boxes of papers from childhood to present or my yarn collection).
What was helpful was I started seeing patterns and was able to group projects. I had my craft projects and enough material to warrant knitting and sewing to have their own separate lists. I had a pile of stuff I was doing because I was motivated by making others happy - in a good way (write personal thank you/birthday cards). I had a list of things to do to save/earn money (call my internet provider, post items on craigslist). And on and on. Then I took an old notebook from my use it or lose it pile which meant it wasn't precious, so I felt comfortable experimenting and not wasting a brand new notebook. And each page I wrote out what I was doing that day. Top of the page was my projects/to-dos I needed to do. They were top priority and I consider them a necessity. And the bottom half was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to get to but if I didn't it was ok. I planned out most of the week and tried to focus on categories for my future self, money related, time sensitive items (cook the chicken in the fridge before it goes bad) and a few items from the "others" list.
It's still early days but it's made things lighter for me and I don't feel as daunted. I'm able to realize that some items I may never get to and when I copy the lists over I might drop some items and prioritize others. And, I just had a nice little boost today to keep up my momentum. I had a call midday from an old college friend. She has always been so good at sending me birthday cards and I've not always reciprocated so figured I'd return the favor and have been sending her a series of cards these last few months. One, I'm using up my stationary collection that really was just sitting around and being too precious to use. And two, I knew she was going through probably one of the hardest parts of her life right now. We chatted and caught up and at the end she shared that the cards were just heaven sent and just what she needed in this most trying of times. And I didn't even realize to the full extent of what she was going through. She said she felt like I was her angel sending her love and support when she most needed it and that I somehow sensed it. Anyways. It just reminded me of the old saying, "the path to hell is paved with good intentions." Which I didn't really understand until way into adulthood. I thought good intentions was a good thing. And then realized if they are never acted upon and no action to carry them out then it really is just nothing. Still don't get why you would go to hell for something like that but I digress. Earlier me would have known cards would be a good thing to send this year but would have never gotten around to executing the idea. It's a great reminder.
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