The First Challenge

This is the last day of my winter break and I feel compelled to write about this pad of paper. It is at once the symbol and the cause of my organizational problems and the #1 challenge for the 2007.

I believe that the Flylady system (15 minutes at a time) really does work. My problem is that by the time I get home from work (teaching 8th grade) my brain is fried and I can't (or don't want to) remember what I want to accomplish in 15 minutes. It's too overwhelming.

Obviously, if I'm going to achieve my craft project goals (or landscaping goals or home maintenance goals or any other goals) for the year, I need a plan.

The first part of the plan has to do with the craft projects I want to complete. There is no way I will be doing any real scrapbooking at home this year. I want to work on quilts in my workroom (another part of the problem) and simply don't have worktable space to do quilting AND scrapbooking at the same time. However, two full weekend days each month I can travel to crops where I have plenty of table space to work on. If I have my layouts organized ahead of time, I can get a lot done.

So, off I went to Michael's to buy some layout organizers. As I walked in, I remembered that I had bought some Mary Engelbreit embellishments before Christmas in the dollar bin, so checked to see if they had any more. They didn't, but my eye was caught by this butterfly paper. Turns out to be a pad of 26 weekly charts. I started plotting. For two bucks I could get two of these pads. This would give me enough paper for the year. Each week I could write out not only my exercise reminders and work/meeting schedules, but I could also list the chores that I want to do in my Flylady Fifteens. If I keep the pads themselves in my dayrunner (I use a binder-size notebook style because I need to keep lesson plans and personal commitments in the same place), I can transfer the week's schedule on the weekend, then fill in the Fifteens and take the chart out to hang in my workroom where I will see it each day and be reminded of what I want to accomplish. Sounds good. I bought two pads of charts.

I brought the charts home and proceeded to open them to put in my planner. First, I don't need the heavy cardboard backing with the 9-inch magnetic strip, so I take off the back. Then the charts won't fit in the planner because it's stuffed with papers that I need to weed out. I slip the charts into the planner with the intention of weeding it out today, then reach for the cardboard backing to "fling" it and realize that what I'm holding in my hand is the expensive part of a cross-stitch project card. All I have to do is trim it down, punch some holes along the edge and I have a nice project card with magnet for needles. In fact, since I bought two of them, I have two project cards.

So, where am I now? Instead of getting AHEAD by writing down the Fifteens on the chart so I can complete a chore, I now have more chores!

1. Clean out planner
2. Trim cardboard backing
3. Punch holes in cardboard backing
4. Store new project sheets in cross-stitch storage drawer

This is my life. None of this is "bad" stuff. They're all decent ideas. But one builds on the next and before you know it, instead of spending fifteen minutes taking care of an old chore, I'm spending an hour dealing with the chores I created to help deal with the first.

Not to mention the time spent to post this.

Didn't quite get finished cleaning off my worktable,
one of my chores for the winter break.