organizing things | the annie blog

blogging

Posted on October 22, 2012 by annieblog

I place some blogging demands on myself as well. I maintain three blogs. Let me explain.

I have one blog that is ONLY for my family. You see, when we first adopted Atlantis, we had so much news – every day- what was going on, how the paperwork was going, the phone calls, the visits, etc. And, it was easier to set up a blog and post ONCE rather than continually update family. Well, six years later, and I’m STILL posting. Every day. Ok, not every day. But, about 97% of the time I do. I hardly EVER miss. It’s my routine. She gets tucked in, and I go blog. I blog about the day. Boring things that no one cares about but those of us that love her.

Then, in January of this year, I started a picture-a-day blog. I have my alarm set for 5:00 on my phone. Then, I just snap a picture of where I am, and upload to Flicker. Then, when I’m sitting down to blog for the night, I just upload that to its own blog. I’ve discovered that 5:00 around our house involves a lot of dinner prep. So, my pics are normally cutting boards, food, the microwave, etc.

Then, there’s this blog. I ask myself to blog five times a week. Do I do that? No. I think 3 is more common for me.

I keep track of how frequently I blog too. I have a little chart, then I kind of know if I should be blogging or devoting time to some other activity.

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twitter

Posted on October 19, 2012 by annieblog

Continuing with my organization process, I wanted to share some of my “daily” tasks. First off: Twitter. I try to tweet at least 3 times per week. This goes for work as well. There is a work account that a co-worker and I manage. So, when I go to tweet, I try to make sure I’m doing it for both – my personal account and the work account.

The personal account has a few friends following, along with mostly work-related followers. On the other hand, I mostly follow crafty sites and Christian-bloggers.

Then, for work, we follow alumni and current students – and those people generally follow us in return. And, maybe a few recruits.

With both accounts, we tweet and upload pics.

I do find that I edit my personal tweets though. I know too many of the people that are following me, and I hold back. I don’t know if that’s good or not. I prefer anonymity. But, I guess we can’t have everything.

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Posted on October 18, 2012 by annieblog

I demand an awful lot of myself. And, I’m ok with that. Things are ever-evolving for me. What works for me, may not work for you. And, just as I find something that works for me, things change, and I need to adapt my lists.

Right now. In this season. Today, I find that there are three things that are keeping me organized. In no particular fashion:

I use this list from Darlene at Time-Warp Wife. Every week. I like putting down things and crossing them off. It totally works for me. It allows me to see what I don’t do. I am very forgiving about this – I don’t beat myself up if I don’t get to something. I know that other things take precedence sometimes.
I adore my life planner from erin condren. It’s like a min-journal and calendar all in one. I am drawn to the colors. I like seeing things pop-out on the page with the stickers they include. It has been a life-saver!
I have my own house-keeping schedule I use. It’s nothing fancy – I just know that on Thursdays I dust, Tuesdays I clean the bathrooms, etc. I don’t really think about it. I have done this for years and have adapted my cleaning schedule based on my life. I also have tweaked it during the summer months. I mean, I ‘m home all the time then, so it needs to be changed for those few months.

This stuff works. For me. I am continually reading blogs and advice columns about staying organized. And, that’s all great and everything, but the important thing is to find what works for YOU. See, THIS works for me. It probably won’t work for anyone else. So, look around and see what will help you. It will take some trial and error. And, it will also mean, that you will need to adapt as you change from season to season. What worked for me in high school does NOT work for me now. But, that doesn’t mean my organization or life-planning skills were horrible in high school. It just means that things have changed, and we must turn, turn, turn. Ok, so now I’m singing.

Most importantly for me, I do not live and die by the schedule I make for myself. I allow myself much forgiveness. I know there are surprises that pop-up. I allow myself to work ahead on things, or even let them stack up on another day. I am not TIED to my schedule. I think we can fall into nasty habits by allowing our lives to be dictated by schedules with no room for wiggles.

I think within the next few posts I’m going to blog about a few of the things on my lists. Hopefully sharing some advice and motivation with you.

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Posted on June 26, 2012 by annieblog

So, it’s summer around here. The pool is open. I am enjoying my afternoons. I am happy!

What am I crafting?

Well, I am currently knitting the Belinda shawl from Mason-Dixon: Knitting Outside the Lines

I am using Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino in the colorway Ruby. So far, so good.

I also signed up for the Pan Am Jacket KAL at Knitting Daily. I am anxiously awaiting my yarn in the mail. I ordered some Cascade 220 in the colorway River Rock. I need to get it and start swatching!

I am reading the first book of Game of Thrones. I have watched the first season and am waiting to watch the second season until I finish the last 100 pages of the book.

I am still keeping up with new recipes every week. I am keeping the house extra tidy. I am on top of things and it feels great!

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may day

Posted on May 1, 2012 by annieblog

So, it’s the first of the month. I have things that I do the first day of each month. I have a list because I am afraid of forgetting something. Some of them are rather mundane – but here-goes;

I only have two wall calendars. One in the kitchen, and one in my office. I make sure to switch those.
I change the template of my blogs on Blogger. This just keeps it interesting for me. Oh, and I go in order. I do a lot of things in order. But, I just apply the next style after my current style. Even if I don’t really care for. I go in order, damnit!
I change my desktop and screen saver. On my laptop and my work PC. Again, I go in order. But, for my work one, I leave it over the summer – I don’t even mess with it because I’m not here.
I also make sure to change the furnace/AC filters. I admit I do skip months if we didn’t even use the unit, but I feel better knowing it’s changed. I won’t be actually changing it today because we just had our AC serviced for summer, and he did it then. So, I’m good.
I change my purse. I do not go in order with these though. I sometimes even skip months. For example, I’m not changing it today. I got a new purse the beginning of April, and I like it a lot – so I’m gonna stick with it for another month. Plus, I’m kinda bad about changing them over the summer anyway. See – don’t you just love it!
I change the background pic on my phone. I do this because I have such adorable pictures of her, that I just have to switch them around now and then.
I change the theme of my email accounts – my work one, and my yahoo one. Yes, in order. But, wait – just so you all know – NOTHING bad happens if I choose NOT to go in order. I just LIKE to go in order. Capice?
I change the background of my iPod touch. I use my iPod for knitting podcasts while I’m on the treadmill. I also whip it out if I am stuck waiting for her someplace.
I have 7 piercings in my ears. Three of them I never change. Two of them I change out every month. The other two I change daily.
I have this paper towel holder in my kitchen with a month theme thingy. So, I need to switch it out every month too. If I don’t remind myself I still have the Christmas tree decoration up in April. So, I do it every month.

And that – is what I do. Once a month

Oh, and the Pinterest Challenge starts today! I have my ideas planned out for this week. I can’t wait! I hope to do my first one tonight.

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planning

Posted on March 10, 2012 by annieblog

Today at work I made a list of things I need to do. You know, specifically those things I mentioned on last post. Things I want to do daily and some are even weekly. So, I made an excel file and worked on my little listy. I finally got something that would work. Then, I promptly left it at work.

But, tonight, while I was blog reading, I came across this: erincondren.com How perfect!! I mean, here I was, working on my own little schedule. When lo and behold, they have life planners!! Now, I can’t wait to get mine.

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new day

Posted on February 29, 2012 by annieblog

As I busily wasted time looking for a “cute” little heading, I realized that my standard name would work just fine. And maybe that’s my lesson for the day: the same ole’, same ole’ is just fine.

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