This post is really me thinking/planning for the new year, which is as close as I get to resolutions. I’m making it public for a certain level of accountability. And, who knows, maybe someone else might find something helpful.

Goals are not, never have been, my strong suit. Nonetheless, periodically I do set some. Although 2020 has been a crap year for most, I have minimally come out on the plus side. This is partly because what is a lockdown to everyone else is pretty normal for me, and partly because I’ve been slowly coming out of a fog since 2019. I’m not entirely sure what the fog was, but that’s neither here not there at this point.

PROJECTS

So … I thought I should have a few goals to keep me pushing through the fog. Nothing big or major. Fog lights as opposed to high beams.

I really like that I have spent less time online. I don’t like that I still spend as much time at my computer as I do, so goal #1 is to FINISH organizing files. Realistically, I doubt I’ll ever be completely organized, but if I can keep it down to an hour or two a week and be able to find things, that will be great.

The other organization goal is my house. I’ve already started my winter deep cleaning. Two days and my bedroom is 99% done. Just windows and curtains left. I’m starting on my den today, and also working in the kitchen. Both these rooms require a little more than cleaning. It will be a couple of weeks before either is done, and longer before both are done. The den needs more bookshelves and purging all the non book stuff (and some books, too). The kitchen needs total reorganization and some more purging and some storing (for all the things I use once or twice a year only).

I think most people will have put away their Christmas gear by this weekend, but we have always left it up through the twelfth day of Christmas and Epiphany, so that’s next week for us, AND … since nothing has been put away in an organized manner for a few years (Iqbal is great at tidying up for company, but he makes Fibber McGee’s closet look neat), we’re going to do it right this year. “Right” means put away so that we can find specific items and not a mishmash of things, like some Halloween, some Christmas, and some 4th of July items all in one box, and not all of any one set together (which is what I had this year). Just organizing the seasonal stuff will clear out half the storage room!

After that the sewing/art rooms will be the big job. The rest of the house is easy, like the bedroom was–mostly just a good cleaning. Except … some places need some paint. I still don’t know if I should include that in deep cleaning or make it something separate. Probably won’t decide until the kitchen is almost done (first room that needs paint).

There are other projects to be done, like a new vinyl (for very low maintenance) deck, or lower level flooring (instead of cement and old carpet) but a) those depend on finances and b) they’re not something I’ll do myself.

• House Deep Cleaning and Organizing
• Computer files reasonably organized

ROUTINES

I’m reasonably sure I can manage the projects. Creating new routines is very hard. I don’t really want a rigid routine of anything. I want to be flexible. Having distractibility as a superpower doesn’t help. I either get so caught up in one thing that everything else gets ignored, or else I can’t focus on anything so I end up poking at everything and nothing gets done. The best I can come up with is weekly minimums.

I would like to:

• Read seven hours a week, minimum (probably the easiest to surpass)
• Do needlework (any kind) five hours a week, minimum¹
• Write five hours a week, minimum [letters count (but not email)]
• Walk five hours a week, minimum
• Post to this blog at least every Friday²

That works out to about four hours a day, so it’s not unreasonable. Three or four hours in the morning for the last three and read every night (which would double or triple that minimum).

I’d also like to draw, paint or collage, but don’t feel it as a high priority. I want to garden, too, when seasonable. Maybe an hour a week is good for them.

Big Thing!

I want to be a day person. It sounds simple enough. It’s not. Not at all! I’m pretty sure being a night owl is genetic. Everyone in my family is a night owl, except Iqbal–parents, brothers, sister and son. As long as there is no outside force making us be a day person (like school or a job), we’re night owls. The last time I was a day person was 2003-4, when I was going to college and had early classes. Oops, no, I worked for my brother-in-law in the fall of 2005 or 6. Iqbal is dead to the world after ten or eleven at night, even if he slept in that morning. Even if I had too little sleep the night before and was dragging all day, I start waking up by ten p.m.

I get only a normal amount of sleep (6-9 hours, 4 am to noon, average), but it feels like half my day is gone when I start. I can spend all day in the sewing/art studio, but am not inclined to go there after dinner. I’m not sure why. It might be that I just want to be with Iqbal. During the daylight hours, just being in the same house is enough, but at night I like being no more than a room away (and that usually only after he’s gone to bed).

Anyway, it seems so much easier to have a routine if I’m a day person. I’m not going to beat myself up if I can’t, but I’m going to try … again. And whether I succeed at it or not, I really hope to make a walk, outside, even if it’s raining (which it usually is here in fall, winter, and spring), the first thing I do every day. I’d like to get in shape enough to walk to my sister’s house, which, if I start this week, I might be able to do by June.

Hmmm … That means two similar schedules. One for a day person and one for a night person.

	Lark		Owl
8	Get up	12	Get up
9	Go for a walk	1	Go for a walk
10	Sew, embroider, quilt	2	Sew, embroider, quilt
11		3
12	Lunch	4	Write
1	Write	5
2		6	Dinner
3		7
4		8
5		9
6	Dinner	10
7		11	Lunch/snack
8		12	Read
9		1	Read
10	Read	2
11	Read	3
12	Go to bed	4	Go to bed

Lots of blank spaces. That’s a good thing.

Hmmmm . . . Maybe I should print a few pages and handwrite what I actually do in those blank spaces.

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¹ I’d like to keep up with TAST and finish a gajillion projects started. After (or while) I clear out the unfinished projects, I need to make quilts and use up a lot of my stash.

² If I keep up with needlework (and throw in some of my writing and some art) I’ll actually have something to post, other than my wandering thoughts.

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I don’t know why WP doesn’t have an underline button. Odd. I thought that was basic. However, I really like having strikethrough, _subscript, and ^superscript.