Incremental January: Week 5

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Last December, I received a package from a good friend that was full of all sorts of wrapped goodness. The first gift I opened was this cute little octopus. He still doesn’t have a name but he’s taken up residence on the dresser and protects my stuff from marauding pirates. Doing a pretty nice job of it too.

While the Octopus has been on guard, I’ve been cleaning and de-cluttering for my January Incremental Project. Over the past month, I’ve donated, traded-in, trashed, and hacked my stuff. My space is cleaner and more organized. I can easily use, admire, and enjoy what’s important to me - the land-lubbing octopus, for example - which was a big reason for the clean up. Now it’s just a matter of keeping things neat. 

During these last few days of January, I’m focusing on building, refining, and keeping routines to stay organized. I’m using the magic of schedules and recurring tasks to keep me on track. All the annoying but necessary stuff - vacuuming, I’m looking at you - goes into my task manager. The current program of choice is Firetask. Each annoying little chore gets a due date and is scheduled to appear on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If need be, I can adjust the timing or delete a task entirely. Creating a timeline for all the little chores makes it easier for me to focus on the big stuff because I don’t have to worry about the underlying routine. Plus, I get the satisfaction of checking something off my to-do list everyday. 

With January’s cleaning finished, it’s time to decide what to focus on in February.  I’m looking forward to learning and leveling up.