Just recently I feel like I’ve got a better handle on the sewing/blog/life balance. For a while it was the case that I had so many ideas of things that I wanted to do, floating around in my head; that I ended up doing none of them. Do you ever get that? I have little chunks of time throughout the week when I can get some sewing done. But because I wasn’t planning ahead for that time, I really wasn’t getting the most out of it. I love writing my blog but was finding myself getting frustrated trying to squeeze everything in (and often failing!) So the other day, I decided to take the bull by the horns and add a little structure around my sewing and blogging….
I came up with these little planners. Nothing fancy. Just done in Microsoft Word using columns and text boxes. But the difference they have made to my productivity has been brilliant. I actually feel like I’m achieving things rather than just thinking about the things I want to achieve. All because of some little A5 sheets of paper, ha ha! These are they…
Like I said very simple. A box each for Mon-Fri on one side, (Nothing sewing or blogging related on Sat/Sun for me. That time, and weekday afternoons, is set aside for family and household stuff. Weekday mornings when Elliott is at pre-school is my “creative” time 🙂 and a column on the right for ideas and a little to do list. For each day, I write in what I plan to sew and what, if anything, I plan to post on this blog. My ideas columns is rolling list of stuff I want to do. What doesn’t get done one week will get copied over to next weeks ideas column. That way, a potentially good idea doesn’t get forgotten in the midst of the million and one things that need doing every week! My “to do” box is usually to remind me of what I need to photograph or what sewing supplies I need to get.
So in the interests of sharing these small eureka moments, I’ve made this blog planner available to download here. It’s in Word format sized to A4 (I scaled mine to print in A5 so it slots neatly inside my diary). When you view it via the download host I’ve used, it looks a little different. But once you download it and open it in Word, it’s all good. (Any probs, let me know and I can just email you the attatchment direct) I’ve left it editable so that you can change fonts, text, move stuff around to suit your needs. They’re very generic really and could be used to organise lots of different activities. I tweaked it to create a meal planner too (essential for me when dieting!). You can download the meal planner here too if it’s of any use 🙂
So, a little mid week gift from me to you. If it helps save just one overloaded and frazzled brain, then I will consider my work is done 😉
