knitabit

Peak Performance

That's the family headed down (plus two other hikers on the way up) from Handie's Peak in southwest Colorado. My first fourteener! It was awesome!

The GtD thing is going GREAT. I didn't end up doing much in the way of list generation while on vacation, but boy have I hit the ground running since we got back! I plowed through several piles of crap today and got everything filed away in crisp new file folders with pretty labels. I cleared out a file drawer in my work cabinet and will archive the previous contents into bankers boxes.

Bills are paid. Appointments have been made. Menus planned for the week.

Blood pressure down (I swear, I can feel it!)

Life is good.

Back amongst the living, I think

Geesh, I can't believe I haven't posted since MARCH.

I had a rough spring. My stress level went through the roof, in spite of cutting back my work hours and other similar adjustments. It got so bad I started forgetting appointments, blowing off deadlines and other atypical behaviours. I was at the doctor for a couple of routine appointments and noticed each time that my blood pressure was higher than normal. I've also put on about ten pounds in the past year. My house is a mess and I'm behind on just about any home improvement or craft project you'd care to name. Knitting has slowed to a crawl.

What the heck is going on here?

I can't pinpoint any one thing. Maybe it's just the accumulated effect of raising four kids, working a job and maintaining a varied assortment of interests and hobbies. For a while I considered that maybe I was depressed, but I feel basically happy and am sleeping well - that kind of thing.

Anyway, I decided I needed to get a grip, and the other day I stumbled across this book. And then I found out that there's an entire time-management industry out there related to "GtD". It's really inspiring to see what others (mostly men, incidentally...) have been able to accomplish with GtD.

I think this might be the answer for me. It's sufficiently geeky to capture my interest. And it's a mindset rather than a method, and I tend to do better when I have a framework as opposed to a set of rules.

I've already implemented a couple aspects of the system and was able to quickly wrap up a whole bunch of little odds and ends that needed to get done before we leave on vacation on Saturday.

And while on vacation, I'm going to spend some time with my laptop - brainstorming, creating lists, outlining projects, etc. (And getting back to blogging will be on one of those lists!) When we get back, I'm going to take a couple of days to overhaul my filing system.

I've got some socks on the needles and am starting to think about knitting a sweater to have ready in time for fall.

I feel better already.