photo credit: ninjapoodles

Yesterday didn’t go so well. Part of it was that two of my three Most Important Tasks actually turned out to require a lot more “prerequisites” than I expected—I needed to download and install very large software for one (which took a long time), and the designer didn’t have the files ready for the other, so there was no way to pass them on to the client. Oops.

I’m definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. Every day I get more requests from existing clients—not necessarily big requests, just more “items” that need to get fit in somewhere.

I’m probably going to have to pick a hard “cut-off” date when I just say, “Can’t take any more!” Maybe November 15, since that’s a month before my due date, and people will naturally expect me to ramp down for the holidays… but I’d better start spreading the word, I guess.

Most Important Tasks

• Create an instructional video for a client
• Tackle It Tuesday (see details below)
• Ummmmm… I know there was one more. I’ll update when I remember it.

The reward

Permission to make some more Twitter backgrounds for TweetStyle (with whatever time remains).

Tackle It Tuesday

One of the most continuously-messy areas of my house is my dresser and the rest of the area on my side of the bed (much to the frustration of my mister). Beyond his complaints and the fact that I hate looking at it, it’s also going to be the spot where we’ll put a (much smaller) end table + the baby’s bassinet.

Before we buy an end table, though, I need to prove I can keep it clean. So the goal for today is to clean it, and the goal for the next month is to keep it that way. Then I will feel like a furniture purchase is a fair request!

Here’s the before picture…

…and after!

Well, for one, it makes room for one of the really important activities of life—wrestling.

It also makes compact office supplies more accessible.

I’ve been swamped with a big project for the last week and a half, and during that time, things have slowly gone downhill (and to some extent, rightfully so… no one pays me big bucks to clean my house, you know!). The project finished up this morning, and then the mess started getting to me.

That’s my desk, where I need to sit and do creative and productive things. The junk was getting distracting, so while I was on a teleseminar call this afternoon, I started thinking about what I could do about it.

The how is predictably boring. I took things that were laying around and put them away. I did, however, get some new office organizational items at Office Depot last week (I guess the mess bothered me even in my “buried” state), and today I figured out how to use those better.

There’s still room for improvement, but this is much more “breathable” than it was before!

I heard about Tackle It Tuesday last week from Jessica Duquette and immediately liked the idea. Anyone who knows me well knows I like short-attention-span projects, and certainly that my house (and probably whole life) could use a little focused energy.

My first week’s project, though, isn’t specifically related to physical housekeeping. This is about mental housekeeping. I’ll start with a confession: I’m thoroughly embarrassed to write this post at all, let alone admit that I’m actually at the point where I need to write it. But that’s the point! I clearly need to move through my procrastination and move on already!

Last summer, I signed up to sponsor a kid through Compassion International. I picked a girl named Sarah from Rwanda, and have faithfully paid my $32/month. What I have not done faithfully (or at all!) is actually write to Sarah. I have her picture on my bulletin board. I have letters from her, I printed out pictures of myself and my cats to send to her, I even bought some stickers to include, but I haven’t written. In a year. I feel awful about this, but I still put anything and everything ahead of actually sitting down and writing.

That’s ending today. I’m going to write a letter.

…

Okay. Letter written, stickers inserted, envelope sealed, stamped, and ready for the mailman. Ahhhhhhhhhh.