I swear I'm not...

...that I'm not copying my sister's post. :) I swear that my 'getting my life together' plan is occuring separately from my sister's however it is fun to know that we are both getting organized simultaneously. You too Bren!

For a while now I've felt that I have this growing list of things to get done - from simple things like run my credit report to more logistical things like making a binder to keep my recipes in. And then there are what I call the 'big ideas'. Things like tap-dancing, writing a short-story, reading every day. As this list has grown I realized that at work I'm a person that gets stuff done. I'm a "do-er". I like to think of myself as a strategist, keeping the big picture as well as the 'on-the-ground' reality in sight and I make lists - lots of lists to keep track of all the things I'm going to do. I'm a 'check-er-off-er' too, using big check marks when I've finished a task. I'm a facilitator - creating plans, making guides, etc, etc. So why the hell can't I do it outside of work??

So yesterday as I hobbled around from my painfully hard yoga class (ps - I think I bruised my rib, or the skin around it, or something like that) I headed out to get my 'get it done' supplies. They consisted of:

• a monthly and weekly calendar, combined
• a notebook
• flags

I sharpened my pencil, got out my four-colours-in-one pen to enable colour coding and got to work. First I wrote down all my due dates for my bills and picked two central dates per month to pay everything. I then wrote down everybody's birthday, including which days to buy cards and mail 'em. Mum/Dad/Crish - you should now be getting birthday cards! You have all been 'planned for'. :) I also wrote in other big events coming up.

Then came the fun part - the list. I started writing everything down that just simply needed to get done. I came up with 19 things - some small and some fairly large. I felt slightly overwhelmed looking at the list but at least it's all now down on paper rather than floating around in this head of mine.

So far I have to say that I've been fairly successful. I've already completed four tasks and it's only been 24 hours. Pretty good, eh? They were all small tasks but still...I finally got them done and it feels good. My plan is to re-group every night...taking a look at my to-do list and scheduling things every day in to my planner. I have high hopes.

My only fear is that I don't want my planner to become my so called bible - that is, without it I'm lost. I really don't want that to happen but I already feel like it is becoming my other brain. Maybe it's not such a bad thing. I've just got to make sure I don't lose the planner!!