To Do Stuff
Dec. 21st, 2007 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebOkay, I have a New Year's resolution for this year. I've decided I would like to do more stuff. I spend a lot of time reading stuff, learning how to do stuff, and buying supplies for doing stuff, but I don't spend enough time actually doing stuff.
I still have to iron out a few details. For example:
What's going to count? Writing blog entries sort of counts, but I'm already doing that. Actually creating other stuff will count. Making scrapbooks from my travels will count. Making educational materials will count. Trying new recipes definitely counts, and cooking ahead for the week should probably count. Making potholders counts. Mending stuff counts, but doing laundry and dishes? Maybe not so much. Will exercise count? I don't really think it should, though I would also like to do more of that.
What am I going to give up to make time for this? Web sudoku sounds like an obvious answer. (Also, to my friends who have blogged about addictive web video games, I am not clicking on those links.) Also reading (though not all reading) and shopping (though not all shopping). I don't know really.
What is it that has been keeping me from doing stuff lately? And how can I address that? I think one answer is that my stuff is disorganized. I plan to spend much of winter break working on that. There have been several recent improvements at home that make it seem much more like it might be possible to make some space to work again.
Another (related?) answer is that I feel drained when I get home from work and want to do mindless things. So first I try to do something productive like write a journal entry or do dishes or something, and then I just read or play sudoku or watch a movie or something like that. I suspect some of the things I want to do have some mindless components to them; I need to just remember that I want to do them. Like recently I remembered that I have this yarn with which to knit some rectangles that will be put together with pieces made by other co-workers into a quilt, and I got out my knitting needles and re-taught myself how to cast-on so I could get started on that. Now I have to re-teach myself how to cast off so I can finish it and get started on my next one.
I think my new little notebook might be a good tool for helping me keep track of stuff to do, so when my brain or energy fizzles, I can just look for something appropriate.
Journal Entry of the Day - Sweet Sassafras' Thank you Wardrobe Refashion where she discuses how having vowed to make rather than buy her clothes for four months has changed her for the better. "When I see something pretty, instead of just asking myself, 'Do I like this enough to spend X dollars on it?', I have to think, 'Do I love this enough to invest the time and energy to make it?' With that has come a better understanding of my own tastes."
I bet doing anything yourself can make a real impact on how you see things in that area.
Actually, doing anything at all in a different way than you're used to can change your perspective. You hear about this after people go abroad, and there are whole journals based on people changing something about themselves for a certain time period and seeing what happens. They generally find out that they like something they never thought they would like and so there are some ways that they never go back to the way they were.
I still have to iron out a few details. For example:
What's going to count? Writing blog entries sort of counts, but I'm already doing that. Actually creating other stuff will count. Making scrapbooks from my travels will count. Making educational materials will count. Trying new recipes definitely counts, and cooking ahead for the week should probably count. Making potholders counts. Mending stuff counts, but doing laundry and dishes? Maybe not so much. Will exercise count? I don't really think it should, though I would also like to do more of that.
What am I going to give up to make time for this? Web sudoku sounds like an obvious answer. (Also, to my friends who have blogged about addictive web video games, I am not clicking on those links.) Also reading (though not all reading) and shopping (though not all shopping). I don't know really.
What is it that has been keeping me from doing stuff lately? And how can I address that? I think one answer is that my stuff is disorganized. I plan to spend much of winter break working on that. There have been several recent improvements at home that make it seem much more like it might be possible to make some space to work again.
Another (related?) answer is that I feel drained when I get home from work and want to do mindless things. So first I try to do something productive like write a journal entry or do dishes or something, and then I just read or play sudoku or watch a movie or something like that. I suspect some of the things I want to do have some mindless components to them; I need to just remember that I want to do them. Like recently I remembered that I have this yarn with which to knit some rectangles that will be put together with pieces made by other co-workers into a quilt, and I got out my knitting needles and re-taught myself how to cast-on so I could get started on that. Now I have to re-teach myself how to cast off so I can finish it and get started on my next one.
I think my new little notebook might be a good tool for helping me keep track of stuff to do, so when my brain or energy fizzles, I can just look for something appropriate.
Journal Entry of the Day - Sweet Sassafras' Thank you Wardrobe Refashion where she discuses how having vowed to make rather than buy her clothes for four months has changed her for the better. "When I see something pretty, instead of just asking myself, 'Do I like this enough to spend X dollars on it?', I have to think, 'Do I love this enough to invest the time and energy to make it?' With that has come a better understanding of my own tastes."
I bet doing anything yourself can make a real impact on how you see things in that area.
Actually, doing anything at all in a different way than you're used to can change your perspective. You hear about this after people go abroad, and there are whole journals based on people changing something about themselves for a certain time period and seeing what happens. They generally find out that they like something they never thought they would like and so there are some ways that they never go back to the way they were.