Happy New Year! As is the case every January, I’m in major GSD mode at the moment. We left for Colorado the day after Christmas and returned home late Saturday night. Sunday was all about taking down the Christmas decor and unpacking, so I haven’t fully gotten around to the purging and organizing frenzy yet. However, I discovered a trick during the weeks leading up to Christmas that I fully plan to make a year round thing: a daily to do list.
Christmas is always the busiest time for my family and my business, which led to “analysis paralysis” some days. I felt overwhelmed and didn’t even know where to begin. I recalled reading something a while back about how writing a to do list helps keep one on track and results in greater productivity. Wrongly, I assumed that keeping up with my planner was the same thing. But, this article convinced me to give the to do list theory a try and now I’m hooked. The gist of the study is this:
Almost everyone struggles with getting stuff done. But some of us struggle with the stage before that: just figuring out what it is we need to do. The to-do list is, in theory, the answer. It’s a time-honoured system that’s beautiful in its simplicity: work out what needs to be done and in what order, write down the tasks, do them, and then, one-by-one, cross them out.
Psychologist and author Dr David Cohen believes his struggle to stay organised is helped, but not entirely solved, by his to-do lists, which must be on paper – preferably in a diary – and need to be constantly monitored. “My family think I’m chaotic,” he says, “but I would be much more so without my lists – they’ve kept me in line for years.”
Cohen puts our love of to-do lists down to three reasons: they dampen anxiety about the chaos of life; they give us a structure, a plan that we can stick to; and they are proof of what we have achieved that day, week or month.
The full article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/10/the-psychology-of-the-to-do-list-why-your-brain-loves-ordered-tasks
After several weeks of jotting my lists down on whatever notepad happened to be handy, I splurged on some new monogrammed stationery. To the surprise of no one, I chose bright pink and green for my initials. Although the non-monogrammed paper worked just fine, I am super excited each morning to write my daily goals on my new notepad.
Much better, right?
The monogrammed notepad is from Mayfly and Junebug on Etsy. The color options are fabulous and their customer service is top notch. In addition to notepads for adults, Mayfly and Junebug also carries stationery for children, tableware, gift tags, stickers, calling cards and more! https://mayflyandjunebug.com/
Mayfly and Junebug items
Not much tops the euphoric feeling of a fresh planner (please tell me you feel this way, too!), so I’ve been giddy with excitement planning my week with these new babies. Inexpensive Mead planners from Wal-Mart are my go-to calendars. I love the layout, the colors and the fact that they’re spiral bound. The blue planner is my personal schedule and the larger orange calendar is for EmeryBodie stuff. The Lilly Pulitzer notebook is also for EmeryBodie. It’s where I write down all of the details of each order (names, initials, fonts, colors, need-by date). What can I say? I am OLD SCHOOL.
Mead Planners
I hope your 2021 is off to a fabulous start! Check back tomorrow for a new Travel Tuesday.
