I LOVE Post-It notes & Lists!

I love technology without a doubt.  I love spreadsheets, phone apps, forms, online tracking, widgets, buttons, and trackers,etc...  I love to "see" what I've accomplished, what I'm working on, and what is next.  Recently, I started backing away from my usage of so many technology based things to basically just calm some of the chaos.  Too much of a good thing, well...isn't always good!  I'm just worn out from keeping up and remembering what I was tracking where and keeping up with what I needed to track........enough already.  I've gone back to the simple way of doing things again.  IT IS WORKING! 

Simple means----lists and LOTS of post-it notes!  It means that first thing every morning or the last thing before going to bed, I write out the most important things I need to accomplish for the day.  What housekeeping task is the most important for the day?  What chapters of my book review books or book club book do I need to finish?  What are my goals for time/distance/etc... in regards to exercising? 

So many times I come to the end of the day and wonder what in the world I did all day.  Did I do anything or did I just run in circles?  Now I have it right in front of me.   I can see that the day wasn't wasted.  When I'm stressing over not knowing what to do next to stay on track and keep everything balanced, I can see what I thought was essential and focus on those.  Let's face it---in the whirlwind of a day it's easy to lose track.  More opportunities come up and more things can easily be added to the list.  However, before getting swept up in the moment, I know what was the most important to me last night or this morning.  I can focus on those and add the others to the next day.  Balance and simplicity---the keys to making sure we are moving along with purpose.

It's also working great for those things that I don't want to necessarily do, but KNOW I have to do.  Number one on that list is absolutely exercise.  I HATE it when I'm just thinking about it.  I do NOT want to step on the treadmill.  I LOVE it after I get going, but just getting started is my huge weakness.  Seeing it on my list and knowing it HAS to be done at some point, is making it so much easier.  I don't just write "exercise".  I write what my specific goal is for the day.  It may be a calorie burn, a distance covered, an amount of time I want to run (I'm focusing on slowly switching from walking to running now that my joints are improving in regards to lupus), or just an amount of time.  It's all about accountability.  I see "that" on my list and I get it done.  It's a priority.  I'm finding that it's easier to get it done because I don't like it sitting there looking at me on my post-it note.  Taunting me.  Beckoning me.  Get it done, and I'm released from the torture.  :)

It's about another attempt to simplify.  It's about another way to live on purpose and maintain balance.  Besides that, who doesn't like to see things marked off?  It's a feeling of accomplishment when many days that in itself is something worth celebrating.  It's an easy way to keep check of what is getting done and what isn't.  It's something to hold onto at the end of the day when I've been spinning in circles, the house is a wreck AGAIN even though I picked it up and scrubbed it two hours earlier, and it's an instruction sheet of how to break big tasks down into small ones and make progress!  My post-its and lists may not "look" organized and they may not be as "pretty" as some of my other "techy" lists----but they are working.  That is what matters.  Gotta run....thought of something else to add to my list for tomorrow.  :)