by Kat | Apr 25, 2017 | General, In This Moment
True confessions, clutter is part of my life. I am not a “pick up” person – and neither is Steve.
Yeah, that was not very good planning, but what can I say. Hilariously, this is actually a bone of contention at times between us. I know, what?
Anyways, for me there comes a breaking point. That moment when the poor repressed “I hate clutter” inner self struggles her way to the surface and the big De-Clutter-a-thon begins.
Last week Thursday was that day for me. And, I am proud to confess that I have maintained this for 5 days thus far and while this is not a record, it does feel good to sit in my office with a clean desk.
So, in my clean up, I found several things:
- Sweater 1: Mr. GreenJeans – I will be taking this off the needles today to try it on and see if it fits at all. I really have no clue even what size I knit because a marked pattern was not found.
- Sweater 2: The February Lady Sweater – this is not far at all. I ripped back a few rows to redo the button hole and now has joined other WIP’s in my basket of things to knit.
- A skirt I knit about 10 years ago that was in need of mending (which languished because it no longer fit) Mending is complete (yay for keeping the “left over yarn and double yay for finding it with the skirt!) I have worn it twice because IT FITS and it fits better than it ever did!
- More Kid Silk Haze to finish my Air Soft Shawl
- And hankies, pictured above, that I think I got from my Great Aunt Sylvia. They are sitting on my desk today, I am not sure what exactly to do with them, but they are a bright spot and have prodded so many memories!
Before with the chair stacked miles high with stuff from my grandpa’s table, an assortment of mugs and cups, and more clutter my desk.
I promised before and after photos… I am sorry for the poor photo quality. The room is really hard to photograph (it is only 8’x8′ so hard to take a photo from anywhere but the door) but as you can see, my desk which was a mess – is now not so messy. I love this room, because I am surrounded by things I love – a table my grandpa made when he was in high school and an old painted wardrobe that a dear friend found for me. The wardrobe has shelves in it that Bob made and as you can see it is filled with my crafting things – lots of yarn, some fiber, some pattern books, and now even my LipSense things – all contained neatly within. There are still a few odds and ends that I need to find a place for, but essentially it is done.
After, clear space to write or work, one glass for water and photos of my kids.
Grandpa’s table, sans a billion pieces of paper. Books for work easily found!
My treasured wardrobe, neatly organized.
Have you found any good things lately?
by Kat | Apr 14, 2016 | General, Words
If you Google “planners” you will get about a zillion results almost instantly. (Actually, I got 139,000,000 in .39 seconds) There is so much information available from Pinterest boards, to blog posts, to YouTube videos all with volumes of information on what people think is successful.
Perhaps the reason that there is so much information is that there is not one perfect system for everyone and this is absolutely true for me!
So, what I have done is taken parts of things from a variety of “planning styles” to create a system that works very well for me. This took a bit of work, because when I worked in the corporate world – Outlook worked perfectly for my needs. I combined that with some other online programs and my work life was well-organized.
However, now that I am self-employed and I work from home a digital planning system did not work as well. I am not sure why – perhaps the fact that I am a team of one, and what I am doing does not need to be accessible to others.
Now, I do use some excellent online resources for my work, Trello, Slack, and Harvest are wonderful resources for working on projects – and they make working remotely seem less remote! But, for my daily, weekly, and monthly goals – I really like a paper planner.
Last year I moved to the Midori Traveler Planner. It has become the best thing I have ever used. I did a bit of modification to it (thanks to Bradley at Stuff & Things) and now it is just perfect for me. I am not an “art” planner person. You won’t find stickers, washi tape, or collages of stuff on my pages – just simple planning – daily, weekly, and monthly/yearly. I use this insert for my planner. It helps me “stay in the week” and focus on the tasks that I need to complete. It helps me know where I need to focus my hours and how many hours I am spending on a project.
I borrow a few things from the Bullet Journal System – not many, just a few.
Sometimes, I have a task that cannot be completed in a week – a little arrow shows me I need to move it to the next week. In the new week, it gets an arrow to tell me this was a carryover project. Sometimes it gets cancelled entirely. I can easily look back to see how my week’s went and can keep clear records of the work I did. I think this will make tax time next year infinitely better.
I also have a journal insert for my Midori, which I use daily for my creative writing. This year, I have been trying to work on my creative writing so I am using Spunky Eclectic’s monthly journal prompts. I look forward to expanding my writing as the year continues.
The last insert I have in my notebook is just a simple graph paper insert. I use it to keep track of inks I like, of projects I would like to make, recipe ideas, Breed School notes, and just plain doodling.
Not in my planner – my monthly calendar – this sits on my desk open and visible. I use this to remember birthdays, anniversaries, personal appointments, etc. Things that are not work related, but I need to remember.
There you have my planning style in a very portable planner. Tell me – what is your “Planner Style”?
