New Year, new system

Normally I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but for some reason this year I feel like starting.
( New Year's Resolutions )

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( Things I'd like to do )

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( Things I'll almost certainly do )

Starting last week, I started a new system to help me get things done with more purpose and less guilt. I still like to blog, but when I have paperwork to do, I feel guilty doing it. I enjoy spending time with Jon, but if I have a project to finish, he encourages me to work on that instead. I've had difficulty finding the right balance of "shoulds" and "want-to" items in that hour and a half of evening time I get as my only real daily time without the kids. (Our sleep schedule is still so poor at night that Amber's nap is mommy-sleep-time, not work time for me.)

I based this system on what zathrus is doing for her daughter's home school instruction, because it appealed to my sense of order.

I made 7 green post-it notes with a different type of task on each one: blog, catch up on e-mail, do paperwork, cuddle with Jon, do housework/cleaning, prepare for trips or parties, and comment in friends' blogs. Every night after the kids are in bed around 8:30 I start with a triage cycle of reading/responding to very important e-mails and skimming my friends page for births/deaths/etc. I try not to get sucked into chasing down links or reading patrissimo's blog. From 9:30 to 11 after consulting with Jon I pick an activity to work on the rest the night.

I move the appropriate post-it from the left side of the mirror toward the right depending on how well the activity got completed. I also have one blue post-it representing a late night. Once/week, I can use the blue note to say, "This activity is going to take a long long time and it's best if I give up sleep and have a bad day tomorrow in order to accomplish it because otherwise it's never going to get done."

Last week I used the blue note to spend 7 hours working on the finances and finishing my video business sales taxes. I went to bed at 3:30 am.

Once all the post it notes have moved to the right, I reset them to the left side of the mirror. The idea is that everything gets paid attention to once/week, and I get a little more balance.

One week in, the two that are left are blogging, and commenting on other's blogs. (Tonight is blogging night, yay!) I think I'm going to have to adjust the mix a little because I need to do paperwork more frequently to stay on top of it. I just don't like doing paperwork, and the thought of only having to pay attention to it once/week was appealing to me. Our taxes are coming up quickly however, and are very complicated. So either I'm going to be using a lot of blue nights on paperwork, or I need more than 1 in 7. Maybe 2 in 8 would be enough.

So that's me. And I still have 40 minutes left to blog about Peter and Amber. Yay! In case I don't finish, the kids are wonderful btw.

--Beth