Several days ago, Laura from Organizing Junkie posted about her blogging notebook. I mulled that post over for several days. In fact, I left the tab open and I looked at it almost every day for a week. At roughly the same time, I reread an article on editorial calendars that I had read a while back, and suddenly things began to gel. Once I had figured out all the things I needed to keep track of I put pencil to paper. This is my second week on the notebook method, and here is what the set of pages I have used this week looks like. I took the picture this morning, as I was planning my day, after I decided that today’s post would be the notebook.

You can see it gets pretty messy by Friday, LOL. But I have to tell you, I have gotten more work done this week that I have in the past month, just because I am no longer spinning my wheels wondering what I am supposed to be doing.

On the left is a list of reviews and blog posts I need to write, across all my blogs. Beside this is my to-do list. I know that it looks like I have not done a lot of it this week, but I can assure you that the checked off items were biggies, and took several hours of sustained effort each. On the right are my daily trackers. I use that side to keep track of: which girl is cleaning the kitchen today, which boy is cleaning the small bathroom, what three household chores are the priority, how much money I make (hey, I’m keeping it real), the daily posts on my three main blogs, which other blogs I am posting on, what’s for supper, and my daily calorie and saturated fats count. I decided recording the number of potty runs was a bit much, though if I ever get to go alone, I may note it. In the back of the book are lists of post ideas for all my blogs. When I read, it is beside me so I can take notes. The notebook goes where I go, except to bed, because when I go to bed, it’s to sleep, not work.

I do think that I will make some weeks up in advance, probably by running a block of Monday through Friday across the top of the left hand page. That way, it won’t be such a hassle to note when the next post is due on the non-daily blogs (that’s what is making the review and posts column so long). Any questions?

One of the myriad tasks I did Monday was to put up a new clothesline. My old one sorta kinda died last year (maybe the year before??), and I had been without one for some time. And then I had to snap a picture! I forgot about it yesterday, but I hung this loads of whites out today. I love to see clothes on a clothesline. The way they flap in the breeze, there is just something so right about it.

Do you have things that you see or do that …. seem to connect you to a shared past? Actions so familiar that they are timeless and universal?? Tasks so much a part of life that you look down at your hands and they could be any hands??? For me it is hanging out clothes, sewing, and making biscuits. These are tasks that I have seen done so often that when I do them it is like looking into the tunnel of the past. My hands become my mother’s hands become my grandmother’s hands become her mother’s hands become her mother’s hands and so on, forever into the past.

And today, my daughter’s hands were beside mine as she helped me do this work of the ages. I did a lot of chores today. I am well spent to say the least. And not one of them was more satisfying than this one.

I’m going to try again today to get the webcam working for both still and video. Wish me luck. After that, I am going to clean. So, if I disappear and never come back, you’ll know I killed the computer. If I disappear and come back later, you’ll know some part of this house is nice and shiny.

:question:
I’ve joined a new weekly meme-type thing, and it is hosted by Work at Home Musings. You’ll see a tab up above that has the list of participants, it’s the one called “QotW”. Each week on Monday, she’ll ask a question for us to answer on our blogs. You are seeing mine on Friday, because I apparently cannot read anymore, and I was expecting the question TODAY. I told ya’ll I was losing my mind!

This week’s question (she asked on monday, ya’ll, just sayin’) is:

How many hours a week do you spend on your home business? Do you think it is too much or too little?

I aim to spend at least three hours a day working. I find that I typically work at least 5. This week, I’ve not been working as much because I have been concentrating on spring cleaning instead. As for too much or too little, it’s both. It’s too much when I don;t get to spend as much time with my family as I’d like, and too little when I don;t get all I need to do done, which is most of the time.

I posted real quick on my “smaller blogs” last night and gave myself the weekend off. I desperately need to get some things caught up. So! I need to

done return comments via email
done clean the boys bathroom
help boys clean their room
done change my bedding
pull everything out of my side of the closet
go through my index cards and separate the tasks
spend some time thinking and networking and pimping the blogs
ha, this is next week post the Southern Fried Carnival

I think I have found a decent solution to my problems with eye strain, and it doesn’t involve contact lenses or glasses. I changed my monitor settings, and set the brightness way down. It has really helped a lot with the eye fatigue and focusing, and I got a bonus out of it: fewer headaches! All in all, it’s working well for me, although I do have to turn it back up occasionally when I am working on photos.

Technorati Tags: eye strain, monitor settings

I finished the work on this site’s categories yesterday. I’m glad it’s done, and I can now do what I enjoy: writing. Overall I am pleased with what I have accomplished.