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Keeping Things Moving

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I’ve been thinking a lot about making the most of my time and getting things done.  It’s not a surprise, since the beginning of Fall is much more about new beginnings than the New Year’s ever is.

the corkboard of doom, looking bare because
 it was just put together after the cats tore it up.

One of my favorite authors, Seanan McGuire, describes herself as a pumpkin girl – a child of autumn as you will (her letters to the great pumpkin are worth reading).  That resonates strongly with me – for there’s a whole lot of potential in the fall – school (the portal of learning) starting, seeds (which will grow into things) dropping, food ripening and being stored for winters, Halloween (where you can be ANYTHING your brain and creativity can come up with) – there’s so much stored energy in the Fall.

So it makes sense that I’d start looking at how I organize myself and my life.  One of the best tools I use right now to organize my designing is a set of two cork-boards.  They work like this: The first cork board has four categories: calls for proposal, pending proposals, submitted proposals and pending contracts. I try to keep at least two items in each of the first three categories, and hopefully at least one in the fourth.

My other board is my project board. It has: not started, in progress, sent, and pending payment. This helps me keep track of what I need to get done. When I find a call for proposal that fits me, it starts on the first board with date and details, and then hopefully moves to the second board, adding more notes to each piece of paper as it goes. At a glance, I can see what’s in the pipeline and when it’s due.
How do you keep track of tasks that need to get done?  Do you have a planner?  Calendar?  Something else?  I’m looking for a way of organizing when my pattern’s rights revert back to myself, and I’d be interested in any suggestions ya’ll have.

Getting Things Done

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I’ve always been an Autumn girl.  Something about the colors changing, Halloween (which is my favorite holiday, hands down – over my birthday and Christmas), the crispness in the hair, apples, cider, pumpkins, changing leaves, mums and frost just strikes a chord in me.  It’s when school starts and things happen.  So it makes sense that I sympathize with starting the year in the Autumn.

Fall is the beginning of the year, and nobody call tell me likewise.

A small sampling of lists.

Which means that Fall is when I clean out closets, put on my jeans and get ready for the long haul.  When I went to school each year, it was the time of setting up my organizational system that would carry me through the schoolyear.

It seems I really can’t break that habit.  Over the weekend I cleaned out my closet, and committed a bunch of clothes to be donated.  I re-organized my remaining clothing (it needed it, the old system needed maintenance almost every other weekend, and it just wasn’t happening).

I also made lists.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, Michael and I have become big lists makers.  There’s solid proof that writing down your goals (ie making lists concrete lists) increases your likelihood to achieve desired outcomes.  Having someone to check up on you?  Makes it even more effective.  We have lists for everything.  A casual perusal around the apartment (I wasn’t even trying!) turns up lists for:

  • themed meal weeks
  • things for our apartment
  • wedding registry ideas
  • times to leave for work
  • places to go when driving to the farm
  • short term travel places
  • long term travel places
  • medium term travel places
  • designing monthly goals
  • designing quaterly goals
  • shopping list
  • shopping sub-list: wants for next week
  • meal plan list
  • weekly list Jen
  • weekly list Michael
  • Jen’s daily list
  • Weight Watchers Metrics List
  • Recipe Idea List

And best of all: a list for a list.  We decided, much like our weekly meal plan list (which we print out each week and fill out) we needed a packing list, of things we need to remember to do and to pack when we travel.  We also have a list of lists we need to make for this week.

Why all the lists?  Well, Michael and I hold each other accountable.  When we write things down, we are more likely to do them.  And if I’m going to be juggling a wedding and a business, I need to make sure certain things get done by the end of each week.

So what do you do to stay organized?  How do you make sure that things get done?

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