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?