It all comes back to focus, and lists.

After thinking further about my last couple entries, I think I've struck on a good way of playing this all out. See, you have to understand that I come from a family of pack rats. My father is the messy sort with everything he's ever owned stashed somewhere in the house he shares with his wife and their adopted daughter. From broken ship models (casualties of a brief foray into cat ownership years ago) to the original patio furniture he had when married to my mother, it's all there. My mother is the neat sort of pack rat, the sort who keeps things for years but who can also get rid of things when she recognizes that it's time — though sometimes the "getting rid" involves sending the box of old childhood trinkets to me.

What this means is that I have lots of stuff and sometimes forget to get rid of or organize stuff. And when you have a kid you acquire more stuff on a regular basis, from new craft kits to school homework. Having so much stuff makes it very hard to focus sometimes. It's easier just to stick your head in the sand and look at something else than clean up that pile in the corner you meant to tackle months and months ago.

Tackling this stuff down the line is one reason I've decided to start small as I said in the last post. But there's a bigger picture here, and that bigger picture is actually about how to tackle the small picture. And it comes down to lists.

I'm not talking about that big honking To-Do list we all tend to make — the grocery list of everything we're supposed to get done. Too often things get dropped off such lists or pushed to other lists, because it's easy to do this. I was recently reminded of something I learned years ago during the emotional havoc of my divorce — make small manageable lists.

When you make a list, only put on the items you know you can accomplish in a give time frame, be it a few hours or two days. Then tick those items off in the order that makes the most sense. I tend to knock off the small ones first and move to the biggest ones last — kind of the snowball method of Getting Things Done. That way, by the time, I get to the biggest items on the list, I don't have small stuff to worry about. I've also usually spent some part of my other productive time thinking about what's coming up — a design project, a blog post, making dinner — so that taking the larger items seems like less of a chore.

If all goes well and I keep making these little lifehacks into real habits, my plan is that I will eventually tackle the big items that keep getting pushed off because I'll actually have made the time to do it.

How do you keep yourself organized and disciplined when it comes to the things that just pile up in life? And, mind you, I'm "speaking" tangibly and metaphorically here.

random musings for Wednesday

I could write long posts on any of these, except I can't because my spare time seems to have evaporated along with winter...

• I am completely psyched that Trader Joe's (!) and Whole Foods have finally decided to crack the Richmond market (pun fully intended). I am disappointed, however, that neither company chose to reuse an existing structure, thereby reducing the amount of unnecessary building and traffic-inducing sprawl.
  
• Stress is general all across the land. No one I know ever seems to have enough time for all the things that need to get done. And no matter how efficient you try to be, there is always the chance that something will throw off the daily rhythm. And increase the stress.
  
• The developing Democratic primary race is fascinating. No matter what happens, this will be an historic election. And no matter what happens I don't think Nuts McCain will win.
  
• I have never been a pro football fan in my life, but I still found myself cheering out loud during the last two minutes of the Super Bowl.
  
• It is forecast to hit 80 degrees in Richmond today. In February.
  
• I have lived with one variety of pain or another for 317 days. But when life gets me (or you) down, think of sun and water.

Back to ticking things off my to-do lists.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father - flipside

I was reminded this morning why I also resent the model presented by the Tom Corbetts of pop culture.

There are piles of boxes around because I still haven't gotten things in place since the move. Art is not up on the walls yet because I want bookcases to go up first. The TV and stereo are still on an old table and cords are cluttering the corner. The lighting in the place is half-assed at best. There are tumbleweeds of Reilly's hair that roll around no matter how many times the vacuum is run. There are bags and boxes of stuff for Goodwill. The kitchen floor needs to be mopped. Either I'm too busy or too distracted or too tired or too much of a slacker to take care of everything, it seems.

But what it really seems is that no matter how many lifehacks I do, no matter how organized I am, no matter how much I scrimp and save money, I am not a successful media exec character in a TV show. And there is no Mrs. Livingston to keep everything neat, clean, cooked, and in perspective.

I'll keep trying though. Since I can't afford Mrs. Livingston, maybe I can find an electric grandmother.