Well, as I often do at the start of each year, I’ve recommitted myself to becoming better organized and keeping up on my task list better. And that means, of course, that I’m racing ahead trying to knock as many items off my list as I can instead of pacing myself. The good news is I’m getting a lot done. The bad news is that I have little time for blogging. I’ve also been out of ideas lately, though I’m not sure that’s a symptom of over-organization.
This is one side effect of better planning, though. Once you suddenly realize just how much you have to do, it takes you a few weeks, at least, to get caught up. Some of it is self-inflicted, to be sure. There’s nothing saying that I absolutely have to change the furnace filters this week, even though they’re about three weeks overdue. There’s no particular reason I have to buy more ice melt. I’ve still got a little left, and every day the weatherman reduces his forecasted snowfall coming later this week. By the time we get to it, it’ll probably be a no-show.
The trouble with being organized, too, is that the really, really long list of things I should get to sometime gets depressing after awhile. Even though I make a fair amount of short-term progress, the over-all list of things doesn’t seem to ever get smaller. I’ve knocked out four things today–on a list of sixty-eight. Never mind many of those I can’t even start on until at least spring. I just see that long list not getting any shorter.
This is why I have a love-hate relationship with organization and planning. When I’m energized and it’s working well it can be quite satisfying to mark off yet another list item. When I start running out of steam it can be quite tempting to not even look at the list, lest I grow even more discouraged. When planning is working well, it works well! And when it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Sad, but true.
Anyway, I may miss a few days here and there. I’m sure the most disappointed will be the comment spammers. I’m sure they make up over half my traffic. If I could charge them each a penny…