Three things a day

Well, it’s 2016. And I have a list of resolutions, but I’m not quite done formulating my plan in my head.

But I DO know that this year I’m downsizing. So my (easily attainable) goal for this year is to get rid of 3 things a day. That’s it. They don’t have to be big, but I do need to remove three items from my life on a daily basis.

Here are the rules:

1. Three items per day.
2. Papers count as 1/2 an item (so six papers in one day).
3. Items can go in a box to be donated/sold/passed along, but the box should generally be emptied each week.
4. Items CAN be saved up (i.e. put 15 items in the box on the weekend for the next five days), but clearing things feels really good. Try to do this on a daily basis.

And that’s it!

If I stick to it the whole year, I’ll wind up with 1,098 items on January 31. Do I have that many unused/unliked things? We’ll see!

Edit Jan 13: I’ve been posting some of my “3 things” on my Instagram. For my own easy reference, I’ve created the hashtag #ditch3things. Check it out if you like!

Precipice: New Year’s Eve 2014

Well, folks, it’s New Year’s Eve. One of the biggest party nights of the year, the night where you’re summarizing your last year and planning your upcoming year. Trying to figure out how to make THIS YEAR your best one ever, and avoid last year’s mistakes, or at least making some good plans.

These days, I’m pretty on the edge. I feel like there’s so much swirling around inside me that I can’t figure out what’s what and what I want to do.

There are unresolved issues (inside my crazy brain, at least) with so many things: my work, certain relationships, my career path, how to use my time, what my financial goals should be, where I want to live … LOTS OF THOUGHTS!

As someone who loves planning, I want to sit down and map out my year, taking into account the need to be flexible, but knowing that I’m going to hit A, B, and C. Not being able to do that is tough and mentally straining – I feel like I always have something rattling around in my brain, that’s floating in the background and that needs to be taken care of, like a slightly-pulled muscle that you can’t quite forget about.

But. I’m going to fight the grumpiness and the mental exhaustion that always hit me when I have unresolved business. This is easier when it’s not 2 hours before bed. It’s easier anytime I’m not super tired, or discouraged, or annoyed at the idiocy of the other people on the roads, but damn it I’m going to fight for this one.

A couple of ideas for Resolutions came into my head today (I know, I know, not like me!) so I’ll share that list tomorrow, but for now I’ll say so long! So long to 2014. It’s been an interesting year. Lots of highs, lots of lows.

And lots more to come in 2015.

 

(Full disclosure: I wrote “precipice” as the title of this post, did a double-take, then had to go look up the correct spelling. Oops!)