Today I undertook one of my favorite and also least favorite projects of the year--transferring all my random slips of paper and no-longer sticky post-its into a new sketchbook/planner for 2022. Good because it's bright white blank pages are sort of exciting, least because it just makes me remember all the things I never got a chance to get to. I started the post-it system after years of lost to-do lists and actual planners and trying to understand bullet journaling and a million things that did not work to keep my mind organized. The premise was simple..the front pages sort the days of the week, the coming weeks, the coming month, the coming year. As things arise, I write them on the 1 inch post-its and stick them to the corresponding day. Obviously stuff gets moved and transferred to coming weeks and I suppose gets done eventually if if ever does.
I have spreads for dgp projects in the works, including columns--layout-cover designs--proofing--so that I can see at a glance what is happening with each book. I have a section for monthly goals, though as the year goes on, I usually lose track of filling these pages out, but occasionally they help me finish up things. The worst, though, is a section titled "PROJECTS' where every idea I have --for poems, for art projects, for shop lovelies--usually just sort of go to die, only to be moved to the next planner every late December. I also have pages for the library and things happening there. Admittedly, I didn't even change books between 2020 and 2021, since so much was just lingering from the previous year. There are ideas for art & design projects that I've been moving from book to book since 2013. Also writing projects. Occasionally, like unusual creatures, I finish them eventually, but more often not. I might seem productive on occasion, but not half as productive as I'd like.
As I make plans for this year and organize things and layout the planner, I am both terrified at what this year will look like and excited. Will I get to all those things, finally? Or at least some of them? For sure, much of my days will be filled with freelance projects and shop business and editing projects, which I plan to amp up considerably, but even still I will have hours I don't currently have that get eaten up by working 40 hours/ week and commuting ( another 10 hours total). Running a business is a lot of work and sometimes 24/7, but not doing with another full-time job (that's actually like 3 jobs) will be refreshing. Not to mention bandwidth eaten up by that job, which was a lot in all sorts of ways.
