SquarePeg Books

So, yes, things are a little wobbly, right now. I’ll probably be commenting more on that every now and again forever.

But on to other things for right now.

My Annual School Year Resolutions Post DID NOT OCCUR THIS YEAR BECAUSE reasons.

Anyhoo… the Annual School Year Resolutions Post usually focuses on things like

“I’m going to WRITE EVERYDAY!”

“I’m going to WORKOUT EVERYDAY!”

“I’m going to finish my crafting list and all of my WIP’s and UFO’s on that list!

And so on. Very New Year’s Eve-y.

Organization and Discipline seem to be the two things I lack in making these plans AND sticking with them. I spent a good 6 months this year looking at calendar/organizer thingys to  find “THE ONE.” A lot like a soulmate quest, actually. There were the build-it-yourself-and-pay-a-bundle-of-money-for-it types. The timeanddate.com print it yourself ones, but there weren’t enough options for size and and layout that would fit my needs. There was excel, and (while I despise it but still have to use it for my husbands to keep up with things) Google Calendar and it’s look-a-likes.

At first I thought a full-size two-year monthly calendar would work. I like the 2 year function because I’m usually planning at least 6-months to a year out for everything (yes, even dental appointments). I have to, otherwise shots don’t get done and teeth don’t get cleaned and vacation things don’t happen and I double book a non-refundable trip over-top a dance recital and then there are tears and sirens and CNN is there and everything.

Well, it worked. Sorta. I could see the whole month, which was very helpful. But…

I needed a daily page as well to sketch out the daily to-do/goals list.

Then I’d thought I’d found it. It was my old college love, a Size 3 Dayrunner Organizer with Monthly and Daily Calendar pages. It had worked way back in the day, and I’d drifted away from it because of life supposedly being simpler now that I didn’t have 3 papers, a project and a test due next week and such not, but now, I realized it was the one thing that had kept my head above water in college. It fit in my purse and could hold all the important card things of adulthood and such not. Why did I ever abandon you?

I spent money on this thing (okay, not the physical clutch, I still had that in a box in the basement, which I stumbled across by accident looking for something else and then the cardboard died and stuff spilled everywhere and then there was that magic moment of rediscovery with violins and a harp playing in the background). Apparently, the size isn’t popular, so there aren’t many options or anything like that for the pages. Which is fine. I like utilitarian.

And then I got everything together and realized “Life is busier now than it was in college. I can’t fit everything on the monthly calendar blocks and the daily pages are great but they don’t all FIT in the organizer clutch at the same time  – especially if you have as many cards for ID’s and memberships and libraries and everyone’s damned insurance card as most 40-ish adult females do, and I’m on the lower end of the card possession spectrum.

(Insert profuse cursing here)

I had to go back to the drawing board.

Now I have a full-size, 1 year, monthly/weekly calendar that fits all the appointments and things and there’s a place to write the to-do list. I think it’s working, but it’s still a new relationship, so it might not be my soulmate.

But all this yammering has strayed from the point: what do you do to stay organized?