Monday, April 21, 2008

Move it Monday

Wildflowers
Mondays.

I've always loved Mondays. (Okay, you KNEW I was different, right?) When you own a business doing something you love, Mondays are fun. All weekend I would think about new ideas for my business. On Monday, I got to put them into practice. I learned early on to never schedule client appointments for Mondays. (They forgot them most of the time anyway.) Mondays were for ideas and growth. New beginnings and fresh starts.

Thinking. Planning. Doing.

Mondays these days are busier than I'd like. I meet in the early hours with a creative think group where someone else's work is the focus. Very energising. Because I'm already in town, I usually run a few errands. Then I head home to put the finishing touches on the women's Bible study I lead on Monday nights. In between, N and I have conferences about his school work and my expectations for the week.

One of the things I'd love for N to learn is how to make a goals list for the week. The busier a person is the more they need to think and list what they want to accomplish each week. Someone who wants to reach for a dream needs a list to aid with focus and clarity.

A list like this would not only have the must do things on it...meet with a client, pay bills, deal with laundry. Those things are urgent and loud. The list would also include the things I want to do...creative projects or heart dreams...write three chapters on the novel, make time to fiddle with the pond plants, doodle an new idea for a quilt, spend time with a French vocabulary book. Too often what we crave to accomplish gets lost in the rush and shuffle of life.

I'm making a list and marking off things as I work on them this week. Hopefully, by the time I post a Ta-Da Friday, I'll have made progress toward the goals most important to me.

What's on your list?

5 Other Creative Souls are Saying:

Kim -today's creative blog said...

Thanks for the comment Deb. I'm glad you like my whining. I actually had an email once saying I was too jealous and whined too much. LOL You notice how I didn't stop.

Lisa said...

Dh and I are both major list keepers too. We make the short term kind and the long term kind and the creative kind. lol. Although, I have heard that you shouldn't put any more than three things on your list at one time. It is more manageable that way and it actually gets done. ;-)

I think it would be spiffy to write out all long term, creative type goals each on its own post-it note and stick them all to the wall somewhere. When I have a free minute to work on something and can't decide what, I could just go to the wall and pick. It would be fun to see the wall become empty over time. Nothing is more comforting than a list with all the items crossed out!

Ds and I write a list of his school work on a white board and he erases items as he completes them. He also keeps a list on paper for himself and has a black leather-bound calendar for keeping track of when he works and how it fits into his other activities.

Julie said...

Oh - i wish there was a writers group in my area. I would love that - and it could give me some inspiration for one of my jobs - writing for a Horse magazine. Sometimes it is difficult to cover show after show and showcase each one in a different light.

I am a kind of Move it Monday girl too...but I do love my weekends on the farm too.

Rose said...

I seem to spend all of my time doing the "must do's" hoping there will still be time for the "want to do's". Balance is very hard for me to find since I moved to the ranch. It doesn't help that a lot of the "must do's" are still done the good old fashioned way. So, I just take it as it comes and then relish the free time that I do get to do the things that make me whole again.

Rose said...

PS....you have the most beautiful flowers in your garden and the greatest camera for capturing them.