Sunday - No Reading This Week - So, Just a Sunday

I had a bit of an adventurous day yesterday. I sat down with my journal to think about my current way of setting goals and not setting goals and wanting a bit more guidance than what I currently have available and realizing that my past ways of establishing goals have not helped me out at all and just generally thinking about lots of existential stuff. I think I have decided to do a different type of goal system - more task oriented and focused because I tend to do these types of things a bit more consistently than aspirational goals. So, I fell back into my habit of writing some goals, but I am hoping that I will be a bit more motivated to do some of these things with a different type of system and focus. We will see in three months...

After I finished the journal work, I went out into the world to see another house. As I was waiting for my realtor to get the key out of the key box, I felt a sharp pain on my left upper arm. I whipped my head around to see a wasp-type thing flying off me. My first ever wasp sting! I tend to be an allergic person, so I went into a mild panic reaction which made my breathing a bit shallow and all that. I survived without going into anaphylactic shock, so I guess that wasp stings are not something I am allergic to. Good to know, but not the easiest way to find this out. I have some mild pain and a raised area on my arm this morning, but that's all that I can identify as a reaction to the wasp sting.

Despite being stung, I liked the house and will be putting in an offer. There are other offers being considered, so my offer will be looked at in comparison to those. I am hoping that this is the one! We will see, and I should know by the time I have to leave if we are under contract or not. I am getting used to disappointment in this process of home buying.

I fell into bed around 7pm and slept until 3am. I allowed myself to wallow in the comfort of sheets and pillows until 5:30 when I started my morning routine of ice water, medication, and looking at the chore list for today. It is long and getting longer the more I sit here and think about it.

I knew that this Sunday would be a day of preparation and getting things done. I need to get my ducks in a row for my trip this week, so I have to finish up lots of different things so I can pack. I will be driving to the east coast, so I need my trip supplies of water and convenient snack foods. I am trying to figure out if I will be able to do any of the things that I need to do on my tablet or if I need to get a Chromebook to take with me when I travel. This type of thing just stretches my brain in ways it is resisting this dark morning. I think the tablet will be fine - I just need to get things loaded and updated there before I head away from dedicated internet service.

My brain is circling around and around. Tomorrow is the full moon. There is so much to think about and to plan for and to engage in at the moment that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Time to refocus on what needs to be done today and get started with that list. The first load of laundry is already going.

Days like this are both good for me and challenging for me. I have lots of stuff going on in my brain which leads me to not doing much of anything other than chasing my tail around and around. That's when I bring my book out to write things down and cross things off. My lists are my brain put down on paper, and they help me figure out what is happening and what I need to get finished. Today's tasks are not strenuous or all that difficult, but they take time and coordination - and attention to detail which I am sorely lacking right now.

So...

My primary strategy to getting myself organized is to make task lists. It is the system that helps me the most. I can see everything that needs to be done, and I can cross each item off when things are finished up. To wrap this all up, I am going to try the same system with my fourth quarter goals - task list and checking things off.

Now, I have tried to do this type of goal setting before, but I did not get as detailed in my task lists as I think I needed to to get tasks finished. I also put things into my book and then never really looked at those pages again. I am going to change the system a little bit to see if seeing my tasks every day will help me finish tasks during the next three months.

I am making a Kanban Board for my quarter four goals. This system is a visual system (hooray for me!) and is also a task-oriented system. I am hoping that it will help me identify specific tasks that I can accomplish to get to my goals. I have come up with three categories for my board - Business, Home, Creating. Since I do not have a large surface to turn into my board, I am going to adapt some picture frames to be my boards. The basic way that my examples of how to use this type of system demonstrate includes having sections to your board - a starting place, a work in progress place, a place for additional tasks or ideas to take up when ready, and limitations to what can be where at any given time. The sections that I think will work best for me are To-Do, In Progress, and Done. I am going to make some boards to put up in a central location in my office area to help me see what I am working towards every day. I like that there are limitations to what you can include in the In Progress portion of the board. That section tends to be smaller than the others, and I often wondered why when I was watching others set up their boards. Now I know!

Okay, so first step for making my Kanban board is to get the frames ready. I am going to use washi tape to separate my sections. Washi tape will stick to the glass in the frames without any problem, and it will make things look pretty. The next step is to write out the goals that I have for each category and start making post-it task lists. Each post-it gets one task. You stack all the post-its for a particular task together. If there are multiple steps for a specific task, then it becomes the task that is placed on the To-Do section of the board. Each task is analyzed, so you know what has to be done when. There are some tasks that have to happen before other tasks, and the last task in a post-it chain prompts you to move to the next thing that has to happen. It is so much easier to understand when I see it than it is when I talk about it. You know?

I am getting excited about making these boards and getting started with them. I think I may place them on the door jambs (it's the correct spelling for this architectural feature) from between my office and my kitchen. This placement would ensure that I would see these boards several times a day.

So, add making kanban boards to my list of things to get done today. Something that will make a difference in how I view goals for this quarter? We shall see what happens, and I will keep you updated as the quarter goes along.

Time to change the laundry to the dryer. See you tomorrow!