blog to discovery

Had maths + French. Missed Geog because of speech day practice … When we started Miss G was waving her arms all over the place and we couldn’t stop laughing … We did netball at half two we went to audition we were hopeless it was better than walking up and down but we had to dance. Went shopping. Got memory book by Judy Blume. Had shower tried to curl hair with rags went totally wrong. Head kills from where S hit me with netball.

.. Maths is worse I hate it. We used the machines in French I felt so embarrassed because Mrs Hyham might be listening to me. In PE we did real movement with twinkly music. Latin + music boring. Did sports hall played bad[minton] At squash beat S 9-1. Lost watch … In Flute did oral I was awful. RE was good I got an A.

… D says I can’t get the stereo and that I can’t get any more equipment but when I have paid D for Nintendo I am go to save up. He can’t stop me. And it is only £79.99 and I have already saved £125.11. English was OK but we didn’t get books back. Drama was good we did about Fear. In French got B+. We did table tennis in PE …

This is a question I’ve been asking myself for the last year or so, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who has a task list that never seems to get smaller. I’ve tweaked my system, moving from digital to paper and back to digital; I’ve incoporated new ideas from Getting Things Done and Do it tomorrow, but the list keeps growing. So at the start of 2008 I decided to do some analysis so I could understand the nature of my incoming tasks and hopefully develop a system that means I can work through my task list.

If you are interested in reading my analysis you can find it over at Productivity in Context. Thank you Stephen for inviting me to write my first guest post.

Apparently the rss feed for my blog has not been working since the end of May, and despite subscribing to it twice I didn’t notice, so thank you Catherine for telling me.

I can think of a couple of reasons why it is not working; the upgrade to Wordpress 2.5 or the relevant plugin is out of date.  As I like to look for the easy solution I have upgraded the plugin and I’m hoping this will solve the problem.  If not then I may be looking for some assistance.

As it happens I have not actually posted much since the feed went down so you have not missed much, but in case you want to look back, here are the missing posts

• Making progress? May 2008
• Classes and the qualities of friends (JE 9th October 1989)
• Getting back on track using repeating tasks

Things didn’t really pick up in reference to my post writing in the last month as I had anticipated.  I wrote a grand total of 0 posts, not very impressive.  I have a long list of posts that I want to write and my organisation system is going through several changes at the moment so I have a lot to say, I just need to improve my systems so I can get them out of my head and on to the screen.

However, despite my lack of communication the number of subscribes has not varied greatly and is currently 173 (higher than my last update in February), so thank you readers for sticking with me.

In the last month the most read posts were

• Dealing with repeating tasks in a paperbased system
• How I successfully plan my day
• Ask advice: How to label keyboard keys

I got up. Listened to dirty dancing (I’ve had) the time of my life and Love is strange on the way to bus … Art + Design was okay … Needlework is getting worse a[t] least we only have one more lesson this term. At lunch there was haddock and fish fingers. Went to netball might be improving. Maths is boring - fractions and I have to write sums in pen … Watched Home + Away + Neighbours. Did homework listened to Dirty Dancing which bought but not allowed video because it is a 15 Mum is mean. Mum help[ed] me tidy room. Came to bed found stereo I want wrote diary.

List is order I tidy my room in

1. Window sill
2. Floor from window to wall
3. Desk top
4. Tape top
5. edge of bed
6. ????????desk drawers (left to right)
7. sort pens and pencils

It can be difficult to get back on track when you’ve lost momentum. This is certainly the situation I’ve found myself in at home over the last few months. However, I feel I have finally started getting there.

I think the key is in repeating tasks. By their nature these are tasks that are done on a regular basis, and I have a mix of tasks that I ’should’ do and those I want to do. What I’ve done over the last couple of weeks is to focus on those ’should’ tasks, because although they are chores they have a big impact on my surroundings and therefore my emotions. For instance one of these tasks is to tidy the house and I know that by having a tidy environment my brain finds it easier to focus on achieving the things I want.

Got up caught bus … Chemistry was good we saw what they use in fireworks. In English we talked about a talk we’re each going to give I decided to do the Niagara Falls (I’m doing mine on Monday). Squash was brill and I’m not the worst. Got home had tea did homework tided room and found stuff for English … Went to bed and sorted things out for English. Read some of mum’s book Great Shape I’m a fast burner, that means I use up more energy than I make by eating etc. and I will stay thin whatever I eat.

[These are] the qualities which I think a friend should have

1. Make me laugh
2. Liking working (not swot but not dunce)
3. Like sport
4. Isn’t last
5. I can talk to
6. Generous
7. talks
8. listens
9. likes the same as me

May has not been as productive as I was hoping, as you my have noticed from my lack of posting. Due to the changes to my job, my work is now at a very pleasant level and I feel I am making good progress through my tasks, but I am also aware this could be temporary as two of my projects are currently paused. At home I have been very lethargic and unfocussed so although I have been completely tasks it is not very noticeable if you look around the house. We have spent both bank holiday weekends in Dorset, unfortunately they were both rainy, but we still managed to get some walks in.

Goals - Hmm, not much to say on this one really as I have not progressed it at all