I just may be the last person on the planet who uses the 3 ring paper month-by-month calendar in a handy zip up cover. I prefer the month-at-a-glance; I need to see it all. Being visual and all, I use colored pencils: blue for days I turn into a stepmom, green for gardening events, orange for church volunteer stuff, and various other colors for miscellaneous other stuff like ... vacations! It's less exciting than it is full and busy. It's amazing to me how, at the 1st of the month, there is a lot of white space and by the end of that first week, there are penciled in events all over the place like my No. 2 coughed up a lead ball when I unzipped the package. Unfortunately this entire year I have not been able to fill in colors other than the blue pencil items - and it's been a bear let me tell you. This week I was divinely inspired by a new idea fostered by a hairbrained schedule over the last 4 weeks where I didn't get to go home one night after work and put my jammies on.
I brought out the purple pencil. Remember, in the first week there's a lot of white space. I took the purple pencil and boxed in just about every single day that had white space untouched by gray pencil; this, for the next two months. This means I have deliberately made time to not be hairbrained for a number of days. If I were really flexible I'd pat myself right square between the shoulder blades.
I know that some things will end up landing on those purple boxes, but I will stop and think first. What a sense of release I got when I finished this! What a feeling of hope that I don't have to be hairbrained for the next two months! Okay, so some of my thousands of lurkers readers may say, what a lame post, we all do this and she just figured this out? Well maybe I was too harried being hairbrained to clue in; give me a break will ya?
I think it's really important to be deliberate about setting aside time for yourself, time to not be harebrained. Otherwise, life seems to take over and thwart your best efforts. Good for you!
Posted by: Stephanie | Mar 08, 2008 at 08:33 AM
Getting past the me-time guilt...this is the problem! I LOVE how organized you are. You crack me up. I have, on the other hand-given up!
Posted by: J | Mar 09, 2008 at 09:13 AM
Ahhh to have purple boxes...
Posted by: Tulips4me | Mar 09, 2008 at 04:44 PM