madi's blog.

Back again – how about that?

I’ve been hard at work over the last week or so. There hasn’t been a lot of time for reading or writing, what with working two jobs, real estate school, and the holidays. I’ve still got four presents to buy, three chapters to read, and two projects to finish before Friday. Plus laundry, cleaning, and basic human things like eating and exercise.

You could say I’m a bit busy.

 

 

Somehow the world feels less like it’s going to collapse around me now that I have more responsibilities. Not as much room for the mind to wander and cling to the worst possible scenario.

Compared to this time last year, I’m a Pinterest-perfect productivity goddess. It still looks like a hurricane came through the apartment, but it was a nice hurricane who left all of my items in separate but messy piles. The giant white desk has been replaced with a teeny brown one and a beautiful cabinet generously gifted to us by my parents for Christmas. Since I’ve thrown out half my belongings in the past year, we’re not so much wading through a mess on the floor anymore either.

Did I mention I’m throwing out 465 items this coming January? I’ve set that goal and a lot of others for the first three months of 2017. With all that I threw out in 2016, I’m not sure how I’m going to find 465 items to get rid of, but boy is Nathan going to be happy when I do!

I’ve been motivating myself by creating a bullet journal. I always have trouble using a planner that someone else made for me, and using an unstructured notebook leads to nothing but a mess. I’m no artist, but let me tell you: this has already done wonders for my productivity. I haven’t even started using it yet!

 

Please excuse my crappy phone pictures. To an iPhone, I guess white paper looks blue.

 

 

The only New Year’s resolutions I’ve ever been able to keep were the ones where I had to read a certain number of books during the year. That required intense tracking and commitment, plus a solid number gave me a way to go above and beyond; what better way to feed my overcompetitiveness than by competing against myself?

I’m working on finishing up the index, designing the January Projects page, and then designing the daily log. Once I have a format I think the process will go a lot faster, but I’ve put in a lot of hours (that I really don’t have) making what’s pictured above.

I’m a little afraid that I’ll break my commitment to these things. If life worked out so that the only things I had to do were the things I wrote down in my planner months before they happened, it would be easy to keep up with a plan. I think we have trouble when unexpected things start to show up. Projects you want to do that you didn’t write up in advance. It’s okay to change the plans. It’s okay to shift things around.

That’s part of why I wrote, “Everything’s a work-in-progress” on the title page. That’s why it’s the header on my blog. I need to be reminded of that. Some of the world’s most incredible artists were unsatisfied with works we today consider masterpieces.

 

Putting so much thought and care into how my year is going to go is a kind of self-care, an organizational gift I’m preparing for my future self. Writing out what you want to do is the first step to manifesting it. Fine-tuning what you started is the key to making it a reality.