BlogHer paid me to read this book and write a review. The words and thoughts are my own, as if you couldn't tell.
*******
I've been spending time lately trying to calm myself. I have mentioned this before, that I'm a person who tends to spaz and freak out about stuff. And while I tend to overthink pretty much everything in my life, I am pretty terrible at staying on track with stuff.
For example, I have my paper day planner; my iPhone calendar, notes, and reminders; my Things app for my phone and computer; and TWO calendars in my office at home. Plus the work calendars. And yet, even after setting TWO ALARMS on my phone, I managed to forget to leave work for my hair appointment until 5 minutes after the appointment started.
I WANT to be able to plan. To pick a spot and get there. And I keep thinking that if I just keep trying to organize it, if I just find that miracle cure, I WILL get there.
So the latest is a journal called My Life Map by Kate and David Marshall that we're discussing at BlogHer. It's actually a nice way to ease into the idea of planning for your future in a non-scary, non-OCD-specific manner. When planning, I tend to default to my usual, "I have to come up with the OPTIMAL way that this will work, and if there is one small deviation, then everything in the world will fall apart and I will not reach my goal of BEING A WRITER/GETTING A MACARTHUR GENIUS AWARD/BECOMING QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE." [I believe in having lofty goals.]
I like this journal because it's very low-key. It gives you time to think [i.e. Top-10 Significant Events] but it never pressures you into creating the RIGHT response. It's a nice way for me to step back and actually ponder what it is I want and WHY.
Of course, the hardest part was writing in pen. Because holy shit, what if I changed my mind? Do they even make White*Out anymore? But that always looks so lumpy and terrible! I did it anyway, which I think is a big step. We'll see how this goes. Maybe I will be able to map out the non-scary way to get to my goal.
What about you? Are you a planner? Or do you just go with it?
I want to be a planner: I think it's the only way to get things to happen.
ReplyDeleteI want to be.
*sigh*
I neither plan nor go with. I fail to plan so I lose. I fail to go with it, being unable to simply adjust on the fly, so I lose. Sighing with The Empress.
ReplyDeleteI'm a planner who has a hard time adjusting when life doesn't go as planned.
ReplyDeleteI make many, many lists. I take the undone things from one list and put them at the top of the next list. I could write a novel of lists although the novel would basically center on a plot about buying toilet paper, nutella, and perhaps doing the laundry. I think maybe I'm in some nebulous third category: I don't plan, I don't float, I list. Sideways, like a boat taking on water.
ReplyDeleteglug glug glug
A hands down planner. I get way to flustered and out of control if things are not planned. Plus, annoyed with those that just go with the flow. I have issues, I know.
ReplyDeleteI am so with you on this. I am a right brained person but crave the organized left brainedness that people like accountants and planners have. I've tried all my life, with small spurts of success, like spitting in the wind. I've been called by my stylist when I forgot an appointment I had written in multiple spots, even though I am only 5 minutes away. And planning in pen? The thought makes me sweat in panic. So I guess I am a failure at planning. How did I get through 3 nursing degrees and stay on target and deadline? I attached myself like a leech to my type A friends and they dragged my ass along. :D
ReplyDeleteI just identified a lot with you! I think I go about things in a pretty similar way.
ReplyDeletePLANNER. If things don't go according to the schedule that I set out in my mind, I LOSE it. This actually got me broken up with when I was a senior in high school. I was dating the guy of my (16 year old) dreams and then I totally spazzed out on everyone in our group that went together for prom because they were causing us to be late for our dinner reservations. The next week? Dump-o-rama. I'm not quite sure at what age this uptightness started occuring......but it's really just so sad.
ReplyDeleteXOXO
You will be the Queen of the Universe! I have confidence in you.
ReplyDeleteI have a calendar on my phone that has EVERYTHING in it. I have a paper calendar in the kitchen where I put all the family stuff so my husband can't say, "You never told me."
I wish I was a planner. But I'm a dawdler. And I'm incredibly nervous about writing in pen. And I'm pretty sure you already are the Queen of the Universe? You're on postage stamps and everything...
ReplyDelete