Here was my punch list for january. My focus was clutter:
Still on the docket:
- Get rid of things we don't need - I realize that this is way too broad of a statement so I should probably pare it down, but just having it as a goal has helped me dejunk here and there by asking myself...do I really neeeeed this? Most often if I ask the question, the answer is no and it goes in the donate bin.
- Get a fireproof box for important documents. Undone so far...
- Get rid of ribbon (from my bow business). This one might need to be rethought, as I'm thinking about reopening the business and staying home again next year (instead of teaching). I'll revisit this one.
- Keep ongoing list of pros/cons of working. I put a lot of energy into obsessing about next week, next month, next year...you get the point. The idea here is to put it on paper and get on with my life. Hopefully the list will help me come to a clear decision at some point, but at least, for now, I'll tell myself that allll the many aspects that I feel like I need to consider are being weighed and accounted for. Haven't done it yet, but will!
- Unsubscribe to websites. I. like most people these days, get wayyyy too many emails. I have unsubscribed to quite a few but still need to keep this on the to do list so that I'll keep unsubscribing as new ones (that I've forgotten about) roll in.
- Clean out email inboxes. I was at 9,000+ unread emails, most of which are aforementioned subscriptions that I don't need/want. I deleted a bunch and am now down to 900 so I'll keep paring that down to a reasonable amount before the end of the month.
- Move business calendar and documents over. This is pretty much done. I've been doing a little bit at a time and need to go back through and make sure I have everything that I need.
Done and done!:
- Close my Facebook account. This was a tough one. A really tough one. So many arguments for, so many arguments against. It finally came down to asking myself "Am I getting a good return on the time and energy that Facebook (aka my obsession with Facebook) sucks out of me. Answer: No. Closed (not deactivated...been down that road before...closed).
- Organize files. I've been wanting to go paper free with most all of our files but just hadn't taken the time to do it. It took me a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there, but I scanned in the stuff that we needed and have got a big box of papers that need to be shredded. I'm not going to lie...that one felt good!
- Move CDs to iTunes. We didn't have a ton of CDs (from the good old days) but we had a few that we would liked to listen to occasionally so I got all of those imported into our iTunes. Did it while I was scanning documents so it felt doubly productive!
- Resolve any unpaid bills. We had a couple of things (medical bills that insurance was supposed to have paid but we didn't know if they had, toll tag bill from a recent trip out of state). Got those taken care of so they're no longer taking up any mental energy :)
- Clean out pantry. Throw away/donate what we won't use. The pantry is one of those places in the house that can make the whole place feel like I've got it under control or, if left in the state that is usually is, can make me feel like things are quickly spiraling into chaos. Got it cleaned so life is feeling manageable.
So there it is...progress so far! I'll report back before the end of the month with any additional progress that is made.
