Another month, another opportunity to organize the life I wish to have.
There is an innate desire to make everything from washing the dishes to mopping the flour to feel enchanting and fun. For this reason I very often listen to a favorite fantasy audio book while I work and as a result am not as efficient as I could be. Simple chores can very often take twice as long as I am carried away in the fantastical worlds of my imagination and whatever I'm listening to. Then, by the end of the day my list of to-do's is done while my creative goals barely begun.
As an artist it is natural to want to make life beautiful and even the most mundane task feel creative. But, as a homesteader I know that I won't be able to focus on my creative or even paid work when there are so many chores left undone.
As a chronic day dreamer and one prone to flights of fantasy becoming an ultra-efficient house wife over night is not likely. Rather, this will take months and years to streamline my house work so that my other work doesn't feel so neglected.
Last month I started a new system that has changed everything ...
Behold my daily schedule.
It is, quite simply, a plan I have laid out for myself. A step by step list of what I do every day. House chores, hours for writing and content creation (paid work), and creative moments are segmented throughout the day. Instead of giving myself an endless list of un-finishable tasks I have a couple of options to choose from and then must move on to whatever block of the day comes next.
As simple as it sounds this new system has done wonders!
As a young artist type I bucked any semblance of structure and hated the idea of having to do anything anyone else told me to do. In a way I am glad that I was able to experiment living a totally free-form lifestyle but I must admit that I didn't really get much done. Most days I felt overwhelmed with everything I could do and really not sure at all what I should do.
The Bullet Journal ~
March is well underway but I have yet to set some goals for this cycle ahead. So, this morning I took some time to create a title and goal page in my bullet journal.
Each monthly set up is unique and I am still playing around with what information to include in this journal. But, I have come across one organizational tactic that has intrigued me greatly. The system of Life Domains by Rachel Stephen.
When it comes to setting goals for the short-term I tend to list off each and every one of my creative desires while forgetting about small, useful goals like organizing my closet. Such a small goal can seem insignificant until I find myself searching for half an hour through my closet unable to find what I am looking for.
In Rachel's system she divides life into 6 domains. This didn't really work for me. Rachel is a city dweller with no land to care for, home to build, pets to feed, etc. I, on the other hand, have so many projects going on that 6 domains didn't seem like enough and so I added two more - environment and skill learning to this list of semi-magical organization.
To further make this my own system I assigned each domain a runic symbol that I feel will imbue them with energy and power. And as I set about planning this month ahead I am allowing myself only two goals for each domain.
