I decided to make some updates to my spreads. I wanted to go with something that focused more on the habits that I need to be creating. I also made more adjustments to my time trackers. I merged them into one whole tracker on the spread rather than two that confused me a little sometimes. I liked seeing where my time went. I can procrastinate a lot and with this tracker I make sure that I see when it’s happening and if it’s at some time that I need to break out of. These changes are a good step closer to what I need in my life. All I need to do now is draw them up sooner than a week before… lolz!
I kept the brain dump because I need a place to store all the extra things I think through out the month instead of trying to put everything in dailies. I didn’t quite like using the dailies because I prefer a grouped overview of things rather than flipping around trying to find it on a daily. I added this last month for this reason and even though I didn’t fill the entire page I realized that it was something that I needed to keep implementing. It should become a regular.
I changed the meal planning page and the fitness page because I didn’t need all the space on the meal planning spread i made last month and I decided that I was going to create a new health spread near the back that will contain all my health notes and charts. So I took the bits from that I wouldn’t be using and merged it with the revised meal plan and came up with this.
I plan to use colored sticky notes to track inventory and shopping lists. I recently saw a great idea to use stickies to track everything but I think I like to look back on what meals I made when. So I’ll probably recreate this monthly. It will help me to keep better track of what i liked and what I didn’t so I can build on my recipe database.
Since I am trying to get on a particular schedule I’ve decided to tweak my layout to mimic it. It helps me focus on what I need to be doing and when. I’m trying to set new habits to free up brain waves for creative thought.
I’ve been on a mission to get my digital and social life in order and this layout, well the one before this, was very helpful in letting me see what I’ve been up too all week. It’s a nice way to refocus after some squirrel redirected my attention… That happens a lot.
Last month I decided that I wanted to go with a time tracker to realize my current time expenditure. I could possibly use it to make improvements where I need to so I don’t feel like I waste so much time. I found out a lot about how I spend my time and made it made me more focused during my day. I use a little sketch book to write down my activities when I switch them. So far I only missed a few days and a few hours on less days. I’m thinking that I should use this tracker while I’m trying to make changes. It’ s become very useful and the changes I made to this layout make everything less confusing than how I left it last time. This one just starts the night before the 1st, covers the whole day and then starts the night on a new line. I’ve improved the legend a little. I need better colors though and to trace the hour lines down in pencil. Then I’m good to go.
In October I made a horizontal spread and thought that I was wasting space with the extra modules that I added for things I turned out not to use. So last month I tried a more minimal approach and I didn’t quite like that either. I’m trying this because I like looking at the calendar month and writing in the holidays and birthdays. So I think this might be a better spread plus I can have all the space I need for my tracker.
I enjoy tracking things! I’ve been doing a really good job this year at tracking my habits and now that I’ve added the time tracker and can see how to make more time for those things that I’ve tracked poorly in and I need to spend some time working on it. I like how this is all working out for me and my “procrastinative” (if that’s even a word?) nature. I can stop working on things last minute and make great habits that allow me to get more done.
Last month I decided to separate my reset list from my weekly spreads. Then I put the monthly note section at the top to round out the page since I never really had many notes in a month it works just fine. Then I teamed it up with the project progress log. I tried doing it somewhat differently last month and I didn’t really like that so I’m back to the first iteration of just listing everything that I do related to the personal projects that I’m working on. I like this because I look at it and see that I’m working on things. Even if they are the smallest steps this page inspires me to fill it up for every month and so far I have. It feels good to know that I’m working towards my goals.
Every month I tweak everything and make it just a little better. I keep surprising myself that I’ve stuck to a notebook for such a long period because I was always one to skip out on them after a while. I suppose know that it has some real purpose and that I can create any layout that suits I’m more inclined to use it. I’ve spent lots of money on planners too and I’ve made some that I’ve printed out but I’ve never stuck with a system this long. I wonder how long I’ll be into this one. Seems like no end right now. I might have found my perfect combination!