I’m not one that’s really been into New Year’s resolutions. But there are changes I’d like to see in my life over the next year. So call it what you may, but here are a few things that I’d like to be different.
Reading: Primarily Bible reading, but reading in general too. I’m on a Bible reading plan now, inspired by Tony Morgan’s plan. It’s easy to get behind a little in it, but they have catch up days too. But I’m realizing more and more the vital need that Scripture has in my life (bout time, huh?) But I want to read more regular books too. But I find it difficult to carve out time to fit everything in, and sadly reading has gotten the brunt for a while….and it needs to change. I have a few new books I got for Christmas and a few olds ones I’ve not completed (started?) that need some attention.
Focused time w/ The Wife and The Girls: I have gotten into the habit of telling Addie “I’ll get to it in a minute” and repeating that all week for a simple task that wouldn’t take long at all to jump in and finish. I want my girls to respect my word…so I have to be much more careful with it and how I give it.
General Health upkeep: I didn’t want to call this “exercise” or “working out” or “diet”, but all of those things factor in. But I want to be more mindful of what I’m putting in my body and how I’m exercising it too.
Visit schools more: Very beneficial for keeping up w/ students and can conquer a few fears too. I have to admit I still get that desperate feeling when I walk into the high school cafeteria and try not to look as if I’m searching for someone from my church to go up and say hi to….even though I really am.
More prayer: Prayer for my fam, focused prayer on the student ministry and the kids there, more prayer for friends and issues. I think I’ve tended to pray as I’m running out of other options instead of as the first point of concern.
More focus on MST: I think it’s got potential galore. But it needs some time spent on it to realize it. I need to start budgeting my time to spend an allotted amount w/ general forum maintenance, but some major time spent in developing and writing stories. New stories on a consistent basis will be awesome for it. I know it.
So those are a few tweaks I know my life needs to have administered to it these next twelve months. Do you have any?
My wife and I have deemed this year “The Year of the Clean Up”. It’s our theme for this year (and our first theme ever).
The focus is on cleaning up our:
a) House – We hired a maid to come every 2 weeks for $50 a trip. An investment.
b) Table – The kitchen table is not a holding area, it is a place for our family to have dinner together. Clearing it off and scheduling meals together on Google calendar isn’t trivial.
c) Transportation – We bought a mid-sized import SUV that gets 22 MPG instead of a full-sized domestic SUV like all our friends in Dallas. No harming the environment for us.
d) Our Mouths – We are done with the catty bickering that sometimes gets mumbled during exchanges in the middle of the night as we tend to crying children.
e) Finances – Auto bill pay, more consulting on the side, and an agreement to track our spending.
f) Calendar – Using Google Calendar to track every member of the family so as to not double-book and to schedule blocks of quality time that otherwise has to happen by circumstance.
So, yep, we have a little administration stuff going on as well. Cleaning it up!
Cleaning up, huh? I could do a lot of that as well. And I’m looking into Google Calendar as well. Have you looked at Backpack any
Was just mentioning Backpack because of it’s calendar feature. I don’t think it’s on Basecamp. Not positive though.
I used Backpack a little, but I am so used to Basecamp for business stuff that I can’t make the shift to Backpack for personal. A ton of folks like it.
One thing I found which I think is similar but much more flexible is TiddlyWiki. It is a self-contained wiki (uses javascript and inline CSS to keep it in one html file) that is focused on the Getting Things Done model of productivity. I used it for awhile but got frustrated with how to take it along with me to other computers or host it securely on my server. Once you get your brain around it, I think it works as well or better than Backpack.
Since I am a Google groupie, this approach to putting todos in your Google Calendar sounded real nice, though I have not tried it yet.