February 20 2020

Nod and Smile

When you have someone that just keeps talking when you are trying to focus, you have a couple of options on how to handle it without offending that person.

Nod and Smile

One of my favorites is the treatment I often get when speaking to someone who likely knows very little English. Often, when speaking to someone, they will just nod and smile then go on about their business. This is my signal that they either don’t understand what I am saying or are possibly pretending they don’t understand me. I often get the feeling in this case that they really do understand and for whatever reason just don’t want to engage. If the person is an employee who is obviously working, this might be their way of not getting in trouble with their boss for chatting on the clock. I find myself doing the same thing these days when either I don’t understand what they are saying because they are using another language or are speaking with a very heavy accent. Sometimes, I just plain don’t hear them and I really get tired of asking nice people to repeat themselves just because I am getting older and do hear as well as I used to.

No need to be negative, if you can’t hear or don’t have anything nice to say, zip your lips, nod and smile.

Wear headphones

If others are being noisy around you and you really need to focus on the task at hand, try wearing headphones. They need not be fancy or noise-cancelling or anything to help block the distractions. You don’t even have to use the headphones to listen to music or an audio book or anything at all. Sometimes just having your headphones on or in lets those around you know you are not waiting for someone to engage you in conversation. I have different playlists on my phone that I choose depending on the need at the time. If I am reading or writing, I don’t want to hear words when I listen to music, they distract me. I am also more than a little afraid I will burst into song and embarrass myself in front of others by singing along with the music. I keep a playlist of wordless songs to listen to when I write. I keep another playlist of up-beat and energetic songs with words to exercise, clean house, or long-distance drive to as they will keep me awake and engaged with the songs when something without words might well put me to sleep.

I can also admit to those of you who are reading this that I have, on occasion, been guilty of turning my music off and hearing the things those around me are saying while oblivious to the fact that I may be listening in. This I learned from my kids when they were teens. Adults are way too willing to believe kids these days are being rude and tuning them out with their music and earbuds. But sometimes they too are just listening in to hear what we might be saying about them.

So, the moral of this story, is always have music of some sort as an option on your phone or laptop. Always carry some sort of headphones with you or keep them in your desk at work. Also remember to keep these tools charged so they won’t let you down in your time of need.

 

Category: Learning, Planning, The Joys of Aging | Comments Off on Nod and Smile
December 19 2019

Reflection & Anticipation

The frantic pace of November and writing 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo comes to a close. Then the frantic pace of gearing up for the holidays replaces it. I find myself pondering what I want to accomplish in the new year. It seems odd to me that I don’t even consider what I might yet accomplish THIS year, but instead turn my thoughts to the bright shiny new year and pin my hopes on it instead. Now to be fair, part of that is due to this being our busy season at work because it is also giving season and I find it difficult to consider adding even one more small thing to my overly full plate in the last month of the year. I am already working fifty, sixty or even more hours each week trying to get all the work done before year end.

The hours I am putting in this month mirror, in a magnified way, the hours I put in last month while writing. It is a different kind of busy and tired. The company I keep, the crazy pace I am keeping and the end goal has changed, but it is also similar in a way. Misery, and I hesitate to actually call it that because I have chosen these tasks, loves company. Company is what makes what otherwise might indeed be a miserable task, seem less so. I dare say the company I keep is what drives me on to do these seemingly crazy things and what helps me to actually continue doing them to completion. Many hands make light work fits in this case because at work we have a team of temp workers to share the load and make the burden more bearable for the rest of us. The load for November cannot actually be shared as each of us must write our own 50,000 words to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge, but this task is made easier because we know we are not alone in this madness we chose to take part in.

So, why do I put myself through this madness, you ask? Well, because I CAN, I suppose. Because I enjoy challenging myself to achieve what others say I cannot, dare not, should not. It is kind of like a double dog dare as we called them when we were kids. I find the work enjoyable for the most part and while not exactly fun when I am doing it, it gives a sense of accomplishment knowing it has been done, once it HAS been done. In the case of work, I feel like I am making a difference. I am helping to process the grants that others have made possible through their generosity. It gives me a sense of wonder when I become discouraged with the negativity and bad things that happen in this world. It gives me hope to see that there are so many truly generous people giving to the causes they hold dear. The causes are many, they are varied in scope and the donations are anywhere from fifty dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars being given to help charities fulfill their missions. A few will close for one reason or another, but new charities will open too. There are so many people being helped because I put in the time along with my coworkers so that the accounts can be opened and the money can be donated and the charities can be supported. It isn’t all work. This year their is a committee trying their best to help us enjoy ourselves a little and take short breaks from the constant onslaught of work. This is not a time of dread that the work is piling up, instead it is a chance to get to know some new friends and appreciate all that we have learned over the past year. It is a chance to learn new skills and help with different tasks. No dull monotony to be found here. Each charity we vet and the due diligence we do is slightly different. It may be similar to something we did an hour ago or a week ago, but it is slightly different which keeps us on our toes and keeps the work from getting dull and monotonous.

One of the coolest things I have found about the company I work for is their willingness to listen to us if we have an idea for how we could do a task faster or more efficiently. Any idea that might shave off a few seconds is tested and many are implemented to save us all time or share an easier way of doing something. With each new temporary employee comes a new set of experiences to draw from and we learn from each one whatever they can teach us. Our jobs are ever changing and evolving and this too keeps things from getting dull and boring.

So as I get closer to the end of this year and the beginning of the next I am thinking constantly of what goals I might want to set or what tasks I’d like to accomplish next year. Do I want to continue using my bullet journal? Do I want to try more of a prefab way of keeping track of things? If so, what should that look like? Do you do an end of month or end of year review to go over what worked and what didn’t? I have been considering this and would love any recommendations or suggestions you can share.

Right now, I am just trying to work as many hours as I can and not get completely overwhelmed by the preparations for the upcoming holidays. I can work the crazy hours this week knowing there will be days to rest next week. In another few weeks, the busy season will have slowed and most of our new temporary helpers will have moved on to other opportunities. For now though, I intend to enjoy their presence and get to know them. Hopefully, a few will get to stay and get hired on.

How do you prepare for the year to come? How do you keep it all together this time or year. Do you have an organizing tip to share with us? Don’t keep it all to yourself, share it with us, teach us what you have learned so we won’t need to repeat any mistakes you made along the way. While we are at it, is there a topic you’d like me to address here? Do tell. What do you find useful, what would you like to see less of? I won’t promise to take your suggestions, but I can promise to read and consider all of them before deciding on any changes in the new year.

Happy Holidays!

Category: Blogging, Goals, Organizing, Planning | Comments Off on Reflection & Anticipation
September 19 2019

Menu Planning

One of the important things I do to help us keep our budget under control is to plan what we will be eating for dinner each week. If you find you are having trouble thinking of new and interesting ideas, keep track of what you eat for a while to help inspire your menu planning. Don’t have a recipe? Search online.

Now you can write your menu on a chalkboard or dry erase board, back of an old envelope or whatever works for you. A few years ago, while walking through the local Staples store, I spied this lovely little tool, and decided to get it. It now has a place of prominence on the front of my refrigerator. I try to plan out the meals for the following week over the weekend.

I usually stsart my menu planning by looking at our Google calendar to see which nights we have something happening. To be honest, once I finish the menu, I usually take a photo with my phone so I have it handy for ready reference in case I can’t remember what I was planning for dinner that night while I’m at work. The meals are all up for grabs on any given night but sometimes the meals that take longer to make are scheduled on nights when we will have more time, so moving them around doesn’t always work well.

The example above was obviously a time when I was counting calories. It is probably one of the early ones, because I can tell by how neat and thin the writing is, that it was written with the marker that came with the board, and that went dry a few years ago.

This was obviously not a great photo, but works for what we need anyway. Sometimes, I get colorful like the week shown below.

The one below is for the current week. I remembered I had taken the photo and hadn’t added it yet, so consider it a bonus. If you want more specifics, feel free to email me or leave a comment below.

The most important thing about planning meals in advance is it helps you to make a grocery list. We all know when you shop with a list and try to stick to it, you can save money. Not only will you be eating healthier, you won’t be eating out unless it was planned ahead of time. This can also save money. Lately I have been taking inventory of what we have on hand and challenging myself to use everything up and buy as little as we can from the grocery each week. Sometimes this can backfire because you run out of everything and then you have a huge stock up week when the budget is completely blown, but in theory you saved more than enough in the weeks leading up to then to cover the budget deficit for the week.

So, do you plan your menu each week? If not, how do you know what to get at the grocery. Do you have any tips or tricks to share with us? Please give us at least one money saving idea or menu planning tip in the comments below.

You can find more interesting ideas on saving time (and possibly money) in this post from last fall, Finding Time to Write NaNoWriMo.

 

 

 

Category: Depth Year, Goals, Money Saving, Planning | Comments Off on Menu Planning
June 27 2019

Organize Your Summer with Lists

It is that time of year again, summer, here in the northern hemisphere. If you are anything like most North Americans, then summer means at least one trip on the calendar. If not a trip away then perhaps you have an event to plan for. It might be a Fourth of July cookout, in which case you need to plan the menu and make a list of all the foods and drinks you plan to make. Before you can make the foods and drinks, you will need a grocery list or maybe even a to-do list to help you get everything done in the right order and in a timely manner.

Maybe your summer plans involve a trip away for a weekend or longer. First, you need to decide if you will be away long enough to need to do laundry during your trip or if you have enough clothing and luggage space to pack clothing to last you the entire time you are planning to be gone. Once you have that done, you can either be very general like I was in the list below or get super specific planning each day’s outfit down to shoes and accessories. You do you. Whatever works. Make a list and reuse it each time you go on a trip to save time and help you not to forget anything.

If you think of something you forgot to pack while you are away, add it to the list so you will remember it next time. My hubby has what he calls vacation rules. Basically, if you forgot to pack something that you really need, you have permission to go out and buy it. He joked about forgetting to pack the car when we flew someplace on vacation. I told him that was over budget. We have been known to go out and buy jackets while we were on a beach vacation because we forgot the evenings might be chilly. On that same trip, we decided we needed clothespins because it was so windy the beach towels were in danger of flying away. Unfortunately, the grocery store we went to didn’t have clothespins so we bought a bunch of chip clips with magnets on the back instead. We still have and use those chip clips to this day, so it was a good investment and certainly cheaper than replacing the beach towels would have been had we let them blow away.

When it comes to making lists, I really like using Google Keep. The list below is an example of a list with checkboxes. When you have added the items to your luggage, you can check the box. The items go down below the list and when you need the list again, you just uncheck the boxes. I use this sort of list for my grocery list all the time. You have the ability to drag the items to rearrange the order of the list. You can tag the list with search terms or color code it, like make the background green if it has to do with money or whatever you like. Lists are very handy for helping you organize your summer activities. What is your favorite listing apps?

 

Category: Organizing, Planning, Travel | Comments Off on Organize Your Summer with Lists
May 16 2019

What Matters Most

When it comes to organizing, one of the most important things we can ever make the effort to organize is our lives. Get your ducks in a row. Get your sh*t together. However you say it, you need to actually DO it. I recently had the privilege of listening to my library’s copy of the audiobook, What Matters Most by Chanel Reynolds (affiliate link). None of us is getting any younger. We all think we are too young to need a will. I know I thought this back in the early nineties when our kids were still babies. We loved our kids, so we did it anyway. We went to a lawyer and had our wills drawn up, the whole nine yards. It was such a relief. It wasn’t terribly painful or even all that expensive when you consider the peace of mind it gave us. But here we are some twenty-five-ish years later with the same wills, never giving them a thought. When your life changes and your family grows up, things like our last wishes need to change too. We need to update them to reflect the life stage we are in now, the assets we have the people in our lives. All of these things change with time and as we age.

I don’t want to spoil the book, but I will say that this book is written by someone who went through the worst and lived to tell about it and use it to help others learn from her mistakes or oversights. She even includes a 31-page checklist that you can use to get your own sh*t together before you find you needed to but never got around to it.

There is a website called Cake that helps you through the process and gets you started.

If, like me, you still have work to do in the Get Your Shit Together department, you really SHOULD read this book. This book was published 3/19/2019, so it is likely to be the most current book on the subject. Do you have to read the book? Of course not, but it is an excellent book, so why wouldn’t you read it. Ms. Reynolds has shared the most painful part of her life with us (when she was too young to have to deal with this sort of thing) in order to show us how important this is. You could just click on all the links, download the checklist and work your way through it, but it won’t seem as imperative to get this stuff done if you don’t read the book. If there is ANYone in your life that depends on you or that you depend on, just do it. Do it for them, do it for yourself, but you need to do it.

Each of the links on this page leads to an awesome resource to help you through this process. By sharing them with all of you in this post, I can no longer use the excuse of having forgotten or lost them. With any luck, I will have spurred at least one person to get their sh*t together because I took the time to share this subject with you here.

Feel free to check back in with me and keep at me until I can honestly say everything is in order and up to date. Hold me accountable, please! I have mentioned to Hubby that we REALLY need to update these legal papers, and sooner rather than later. Maybe we need to make a list of all the things we have been putting off that we need to do during a typical business day and then make the appointments and take that day off work together and just get it all done. Our reward for a day of doing stuff that sounds like something less than fun could be dinner and a movie afterward.

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Category: Book Review, Depth Year, Goals, Organizing, Planning, Review | Comments Off on What Matters Most