When the new year fast approaches, we often look back at the old year to reflect.
- Did I do everything I wanted to?
- Did I stick to my new year’s resolution?
- What areas do I need to focus on this year that I feel will make me a better person or enjoy my life more?
For me, last year, I had a word; LESS.
I am a stay at home mom who makes stuff for people, but I have a hard time telling people no and I overload myself and then stress out. So I did my best to accept less customer orders so that I could spend more time with my kids. And I did pretty good until I started to fall behind in my work and then ended up stressing all of November and December, which just really takes a lot of joy out of the holidays. Though I still want to spend more time with my family, I think I need a new approach to it.
This year, my word will be CALENDAR.
I don’t want to say scheduling because that just sounds so stiff and rigid in my head, but calendars are cute. Like the ones in kids’ classrooms, or the daily rip off ones that have comics or something fun.
Calendars come in a large variety of styles so you can find one that fits what you need to organize. I love getting pretty drawn floral ones; I may be a heavy metal girl but I love my foo-foo too.Usually I need to find one, but this year my mom surprised me with a pretty and very thick floral calendar that has a sewing theme to it. It’s amazing! There are pages where I can sketch my ideas and note materials needed for the projects, reference pages with sewing terms and body measurements, and of course calendar pages. What makes them nicer to me is that I can see a month at a glance and each week separately with room to make note of tasks I need to complete, what’s important to focus on that week, and what can roll forward or expect to do the coming week. Plus I can cross things off like a list. I love lists!
Being a seamstress and quilter as my job for the past six years, I think I’ve finally figured out about how long it takes me to create a project while working around my distractions. I can use this information to then specifically schedule my projects and complete items in a timely manner.
This will also allow me time to schedule my own activities and family time so that I don’t have to stress about projects needing to be completed. Woo-hoo, no more holiday rush and work stress (I say with my fingers crossed)!
