8 Things to do on December 26 (or later, if you prefer)

kaboompics via Pixabay

Today, I'm taking a week off from the usual 3 Keys post for a different kind of list post. 3 Keys Thursday will resume next week. 

Meet a friend for coffee. I'm so grateful to my dear friend who texted me earlier this week to set up a time to meet for coffee today. Not only did I enjoy a relaxing opportunity to get caught up and spend time just chatting, but I also got up earlier than I would have otherwise, which saved me from myself -- the self that would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep, wasting a significant portion of the morning.

Sleep in. This is usually at the top of my vacation list which, unfortunately, starts the cycle of get up too late/go to bed too late that I have to break when the real world comes calling. My coffee date saved me this morning but for those of you who've been exhausted by holiday preparations (or jobs in retail), this might be an even better option than coffee.

Put away some decorations. We used to joke that my mom had the Christmas decorations taken down and put away by the time we got home from their house on the day after Christmas. While I'm not ready to undeck the halls yet, I did decide that we could dispense with the emptied out stockings. I might pull out a snowman or two to fill in the gaps, but I'm not in any hurry.

Score some bargains. I'm not a Black Friday shopper, but I used to love going shopping the day after Christmas. As I accumulated a collection of "just right" decorations (along with some surplus) and retailers started slashing prices before Christmas, I did less of this. But, each year, I take stock of staples like wrapping paper and greeting cards and use December 26 to fill in the gaps with all the stuff that's on sale. As an added bonus, I feel more prepared when it comes time to get ready for next year's holidays.

Grab a Starbucks. If you're like me, you forget what day it is when you're on vacation. Since today is Thursday (which I had wrong until my daughter corrected me), it's BOGO day at Starbucks (at least for my drink of choice) between 2pm and 7pm. You're welcome.

Make a list. This was one of the first things I did this morning. Now that all of the "getting ready for Christmas" things have been checked off the list, I can get to the other things that have been competing for my attention. I can't do them all in one day, though, so I'm choosing three(ish) items from my master list to add to each day so I can feel accomplished.

Organize something. Over Thanksgiving, my husband put together a new bookshelf for our living room, which will house a variety of things from books and magazines to piano music. I got the new system started, then had to abandon the project for other, more time sensitive things. Now, with more time at my disposal, I'm using the new bookshelf as the impetus to sort through piles of accumulated reading material with a serious read it or toss it mentality. Since paper clutter is the biggest problem in my house, accomplishing this project will make me feel lighter, both literally and figuratively.

pinwhalestock via Pixabay

Chill. This is vacation, after all. Yes, I want to do all of these things (along with tackling those writing projects that have been unceremoniously pushed aside by other, time sensitive stuff), but I also want to make time to read, do crossword puzzles, play with the Apple Pencil Santa left under the tree and spend time with my family. This time off goes way too fast, and striking that balance between enjoyable work (the stuff that makes my "want to do" list) and play (the other stuff that makes my "want to do" list) is the key to a vacation that leaves me feeling both relaxed and accomplished.

That, to me, is the best of both worlds.

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3 Keys Thursday: 3 Key Things I'm Assessing Today

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

The semester has ended. Grades have been entered. Christmas is next week, an uncomfortable realization I made (and shared with my unsurprised husband) last night.

Fortunately, today is the day I've been waiting for. With the exception of this blog post and a phone call with my editor this morning, there are no obligations on my calendar, leaving me free to tackle, well, everything.

It's a putter day. My most favorite kind of day.

But it's also a day for taking stock -- assessing, if you will. Here are three things I'll be assessing today so I can catch up.

Assess the Christmas preparations. I've been stashing gifts away for several weeks now, hiding them from those who live here. This afternoon, my daughter has an appointment, so it's time to dig everything out and see what I've got. Lists would have been nice, but the reality of my schedule meant ordering this item here and that item there for both my husband and my daughter. Now it's time to put the puzzle together and see which pieces, if any, are missing, from holiday gifts, greetings and decor.

Assess a to-do pile. One of these was eliminated on Tuesday when I worked on my grades. The one I'll tackle next formed a short stack on a table in my office and holds the materials for a job I was looking forward to doing, a folder to remind me to check work email and create my out-of-office message and a clipboard with to-do files and lists. There is one more pile in the family room which can be dispensed with pretty quickly, and a partially completed project that may or may not get completed today but will get consolidated. On a putter day, I choose my battles.

Assess the state of my writing, blogging and writing social media. All of these were cast out of the grading tunnel that I entered last weekend, so it's time to assess the damage and do some planning. I'm really excited to get to this, actually, especially after my phone call with my editor.

Unlike the Grinch, I don't wish to stop Christmas from coming but, since it's going to be here rather quickly, today is the day to set the stage. There are so many loose ends to tie up and the reality is that some will remain untied by the end of the day. Progress, however, is my friend.

What key things will you assess today?

True Confessions Wednesday: Beat the Clock

True Confession #15: I'm a beat-the-clock kind of organizer. I don't mean that I quickly scramble to put things away when company's coming (although that does sometimes happen). Instead, what I mean is that I've learned to use small pockets of time to my advantage. While this doesn't work well for major projects, it's great for making progress in smaller ones. In fifteen minutes or less I can zap a pile, return homeless items to their homes, make the bed, put away a load of laundry....

You get the idea.

Sometimes, these pockets of time arise between activities. Other times, they're a way of making a dent in an otherwise daunting task like cleaning the basement or overhauling a closet. These short bursts can be an organizing session unto themselves, or they can be the start of something more, nudging me to complete a task I expected only to start. Either way, they often lead me to replace clutter with clear space which is the ultimate prize in the organizing game.

Admittedly, not everything in life can be accomplished in fifteen minutes or less; some tasks call for a longer commitment. But while I wait for that elusive block of time to arrive, it's nice to know I can chip away at tasks a little at a time.

And end up with clear space to boot.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Mixing Organizing with Decorating

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I am, as usual, a little behind in my Christmas preparations. The situation is far from dire -- the house is decorated (for the most part) and, thanks to my husband, the tree is up and ready to be decorated when my daughter gets home this weekend.

But, thanks to my daughter, I'm a little ahead in the sorting and organizing department. When she was home for Thanksgiving, we raided the crawlspace and pulled out decorations she might want, along with the old standards we put out every year.

The holidays provide a built-in opportunity for taking stock, weeding out the things we no longer use and filling in the gaps with things that suit our current needs. Here are three keys to mixing a little organizing into your decorating.

As you take things out, take inventory of your containers. Can you lift them? Find what you need? Are like items stored together, or are the ornaments mixed in with the outside lights? As you take things out, think about how you'd prefer to take them out next year. Then, make a list of what you need to make it happen.

Plan by style. Using a system that sucks the joy out of decorating? Maybe it's backbreaking (like my crawlspace), unwieldy (those big bins that looked so roomy in the store are just plain heavy when they're full of decorations) or confusing (endless stacks of identical brown boxes). Re-evaluate your system now and upgrade it with containers that work for your styles. If you can hold off revamping your system until after the holidays, you might even get what you need on sale.

JillWellington via Pixabay

One in, one out. If you, like me, enjoy hitting the after Christmas sales, or if everything old is not new again, make room for additions to your collection by weeding out any decorations you haven't used in the past two years. Then, when you buy a new treasure, get rid of something old. Fortunately, even exchanges are pretty easy to pull off with things like decorations, and even easier when we're replacing something that's stopped working with something style-specific.

The goal here is to plan what comes next so that after the holidays, when the craziness subsides, you can put your plan into action. Then next year at this time, you can decorate with style.

True Confessions: Making a List and Checking it Twice

True Confession #14: I love stationery. This is something that's been true ever since I was a little girl. We'd go to a five and ten or a variety store (yes, I'm that old!) and I would spend as much time as I could wandering the aisles filled with notebooks and various kinds of paper. I still remember the pink notebook paper I got to fill my flowered binder in elementary school (fourth grade, if memory serves) and how I saved it for special assignments.

To this day, I have a collection of notebooks waiting to be pressed into service (because one needs a notebook that is just right for the task at hand), a collection of file folders in various colors, patterns, materials (traditional card stock vs. acetate/plastic) and sizes, and enough Post-it Notes to paper my office. Granted, it's a small office, but that's still a lot of sticky notes.

I also match my writing implements to the task for which I'm using them. But that's another post.

knockknockstuff.com

So, when KnockKnockStuff.com had its Black Friday (or was it Cyber Monday?) sale, of course I needed to add to my collection. I was running low on the pages I use to create the week-at-a-glance sheet that travels between work and home, linking my commitments in both places, so re-ordering those was a no-brainer. While I was there, I found a daily to-do page I liked and added that to my cart as well. Sure, I could use a blank sheet of paper, or the back of my week-at-a-glance page but, I need to see it person that I am, the combination of eye-catching and priority-based (breaking up the longer list into smaller lists based on urgency) was too good to pass up.

Oh, and did I mention that it sticks to stuff? Like, say, the back of my weekly list?

You don't have to be Santa for lists to be a big part of your life, especially at this time of year. And, while any piece of paper (or notebook) will do in a pinch, having a list that's very visible (and maybe even prioritized) can be just the ticket to bringing a little bit of organization to a busy, somewhat overwhelming time of year.

And, who knows? Maybe if you leave him some cookies, Santa will add that just-right notepad or notebook to your stocking -- the one that works for your style. And if the cookies are just right, maybe all the items will already be checked off.

Now that would be a gift indeed.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys for Keeping it Together When it's Falling Apart

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I just sent an email to two colleagues in which I closed with the following sentence:

"I hope your semester is winding down nicely rather than having to be wrangled into submission. Can you tell which mine is?"

Yep. That about sums it up.

I'm happy to say that, from an I need to see it perspective, things are looking pretty good. The piles are minimal and the systems are (mostly) humming along, which is all that I can hope for at this time of year. Here are a few strategies I subscribe to at this busy time of the year -- and others like it.

Keep it simple. Now is not the time to try fancy new plans. If it's not broken, don't change it. If it can wait, let it. If it can't wait, use a tried and true strategy. Trying to do it all is overrated.

Keep it consistent. The same things go in the same places -- time wise and stuff wise. Predictability might be boring under some circumstances, but it can be a lifesaver when life is overwhelming. And for many of us, there's even something comforting about a routine.

Try to avoid making a contribution -- to the pile-up, that is. Strategies like Give it Five! and Don't put it down, put it Away! can keep things from getting worse. While it seems that putting one more thing on the pile won't make that much difference, that one more thing you set down now becomes one more thing you have to sort later. Put it where it belongs, or start a homeless bin for all the loose ends without a location to call their own. That way, you need to look in only one place to find that thing you put in a safe place and, when things slow down, you can pick up the bin and put things away.

Finally, above all, remember the one thing I probably say more than any other: it's a process.

Oh, and: this, too, shall pass.

True Confessions Wednesday: Browser Tabs

True confession #13: I leave my browser tabs open. Lots of them. All the time. On multiple devices.

Can you say “I need to see it?“

Since I use my laptop in class, this has shocked more than one of my students. A few have even offered to “clean up" my desktop for me. Clearly they don’t understand that their idea of cleaning up my laptop would not be helpful. Hide my tabs??

Still, I am embarrassed. I can’t help feeling as though it somehow makes me look less professional.

So, when I took my MacBook into the Apple store because it was having power issues, I asked one of the technicians about this habit, and whether or not it was the cause of the battery issues. He shook his head (in a good way) and assured me it wasn’t a problem. “That’s what this machine was designed for,” he said.

That was all I needed to hear. I mean, I already loved my MacBook and now someone who knew what he was talking about was telling me it was designed for my I need to see it style?

Music to my ears!

And so now, when one of my students is horrified by all of my open browser tabs and/or the collection of colored folders on my MacBook desktop, I remember that technician at the Apple store. I know my plan doesn’t work for everyone, but it doesn’t have to. From time to time, if it’s not working for me, I need to go in and see which tabs need to be closed but, otherwise, it’s my style and I’m sticking to it.

And someday I will read all those tabbed pages.