Jake Talks About Lists Again

Obsessive Compulsive Meets Organisation

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a deep and unhealthy passion for lists. List are life. Lists are love. People also know I am painfully organised. My house is tidy, my days are ordered. And as a result, I am very productive.

This blog post is going to be an insight into how I organise my life and, there are no surprises, its mostly lists. Lists make me happy. They make me content. And I find crossing things off lists to be very enjoyable indeed.

This post is not a suggestion for how you should organise your life. Rather, its just an entertaining insight into me and my system. In fact, I suspect my system wouldn’t suit anyone else, and if it was forced onto someone, they would probably go crazy.

Still, maybe something here will inspire you, or solve a problem you have been grappling with. At the very least, it will give you an entertaining peep into my brain.

Journal

My journal is for my thoughts, my memories and my feelings. It is an exercise in mental health. I put down the good and the bad here, both so I can let it go, and so I can process and analyse what is happening in my life. It helps me make plans, analyse my problems and explore my feelings. I have had dozens of epiphanies writing in my journal. I would say putting myself on paper has changed the course of my life for the better.

I go through a lot of these. On average, one hardback, lined journal every two months. That's about six a year. I do a lot of thinking. And a lot of talking to myself! Some days, I can write 10-15 pages, though the average is closer to 3 pages. That's not to say I journal every single day, but I do make the time a few days a week.

If you are stressed, feeling lost, feeling frustrated, unhappy with your life, or just trying to step your life up to the next level, I strongly recommend journaling. Getting all your thoughts down on paper makes a huge difference. I don't see any point in imposing any rules on yourself. I will say, my favourite time to write is early on rainy mornings, either out on my back deck or in bed—depending on how windy it is.

Either way, even when I am stressed, journaling is a relief, if not a joy. It’s a way of letting go and taking time to get to know myself. It’s the one time I can be 100% honest, knowing I can't be judged. And that is a rare pleasure indeed.

Day Planner

This is for my practical, every day 'to do' list. It keeps my house running, and makes sure I get to appointments and pay bills on time. It is a tool and the workhorse of my productivity. There is nothing poetic or creative about it.

Everything else on this list makes me feel good, or makes me more productive, or cares for my mental health. However, my day planner is vital. Without it, my life would be in complete shambles. Because when I am very ill, I can't remember anything, and because my day planner tracks my medication and if my pets have been fed, my day planner may actually actively keep me and my pets alive.

I actually don't know how people function without a day planner. I can't even imagine it.

What is really important to me, is that my day planner has a full page for every day. Its very frustrating for me when Saturday and Sunday are sharing a page, since my weekends aren't less busy than my week days. When choosing a day planner, think about how your week is structured and spend the time hunting for a planner than suits you. You might even find a digital planner suits you better, but I will stick to my physical book and pens.

Bujo

My bujo is part goals, part inspiration, part monthly plan. I don’t bujo exactly the same as other people—though anyone who insists on bujo 'rules' is just a killjoy. My Bujo is a gorgeous Paperblank hardcover notebook with blank pages. I keep it yearly, so each bujo covers a whole year of my life. It is used to track my yearly goals and projects, which are then further broken down into monthly sections. I include a lot of lists and checklists. Including, but not limited to, places to visit, saving and finance, books I have read, books I want to write, blog post planning, weight and fitness tracking, birthdays of friends and family, wish lists, planting and harvesting guides for my garden, career goals and milestones, & personal goals and milestones.

My bujo is also decorated with stickers, washi tape and hand drawn art. Its not just about tracking, its about inspiring, so its important to me that it looks good. Working on it is a great joy for me, an artistic process and something I do when I want to relax and do something creative.

Bujo is a fantastic hobby for people who love lists and art. Just keep in mind it should be enjoyable. Too many people I see put pressure on themselves to make it 'perfect', or they put such high expectations on themselves that they fall behind in bujo maintenance then are too despondent to catch up again.

I started working on my 2019 bujo in August, planning out the pages I wanted and then the order I wanted them in. I pencilled in the title and page numbers very lightly and over October/November/December I will do the penning and taping for many of the pages—since I am going to be very busy with a baby early in the year, I am hoping to get at least six months prepared in advance.

Often, I will set up pages at the start of the year, then only decorate them as the year progresses. Even if I have finished with them. That's okay too. Bujos are about function and enjoyment. Its not an art competition.

Prayer Book

Every day, instead of praying out loud, I write in my prayer book. These prayers are usually in the form of giving thanks, asking for guidance and asking for God to act on behalf of the people around me who may be struggling.

If you aren't religious, the equivalent would be a gratitude journal, with letters to loved ones.

Personally, my prayer book has a hugely positive impact on my mental health. It teaches me to stop trying to control everything in my life and not obsess quite so much. Its also nice to look back through the pages and see how many of my prayers were answered, and how many things I was worried about that turned out okay.

Obviously, for me, as a Christian, it is a deeply personal connection with my faith. Its not really something I would recommend for others, unless the idea brings you joy and excitement. Its not going to make you more organised, either way!

Business and Writing Plan

This is my only digital file. I keep it in scrivener and it is broken into several parts.

Website

Social Media & Promotion

Novel Length Projects

Shorts and Novella Length Projects

Vision Writers

Non-Career Items

These are straight up lists of things I need to do, broken down into manageable/practical steps that can be added, one at a time, to my day planner.

In the Writing Plan, a novel might look something like this:

TITLE – First Draft

TITLE – Second Draft

TITLE – Feedback and Beta Readers

TITLE – Third Draft

TITLE – Synopsis and Query

TITLE – Submit to Agents

In my day planner, I might put 'Title – First Draft' down a my primary goal for several months, while I write it. But once it is done, it gets crossed off in the Writing Plan and the next day, the primary item in my day planner is 'Title – Second Draft'. And plodding along in that manner keeps me productive and on track.

In each section, Website, Vision, Novels, etc, everything is listed in the order I want to complete them. So, I always know that, in each section, I work from top to bottom to achieve my goals. There is, however, a LOT of things in this file. Probably enough work for at least the next five years, if not the next ten. And that's okay. Its fantastic to have a clear idea of where I am going.

None of it is set in stone, I can review and change it whenever I like. Things get moved around a lot—just not in mid project. Once I start, I commit to finishing.

Conclusion

There you go! Insight into the way I track and organise my life. Inspiring? Terrifying? You tell me. The important thing is, I have a system that works with my life. Whatever you do, you need the same.

And stay tuned, the newsletter, synopsis series and new website is coming! I promise.

Jake's Ethical Christmas

It's October 24^th, which means you have exactly two months to plan and prepare for Christmas!

This is probably an element of my personality only people close to me know about, but I am passionate about sustainability and reducing waste. I am not one of those people who tries to do a zero-waste year. That is only feasible for healthy people, who have a decent income and plenty of extra time. They also can't really have pets, because even though my dogs are on a raw food diet, I can't bring home 30kgs of raw meat in paper bags.

However, I am a strong advocate for reducing consumerism waste. Things like cheap clothes we wear a few times, or not at all, before throwing away. Trinkets and nick-nacks that serve no purpose. Things that are unwanted, unneeded and unpractical, but are given because we feel we need to give something.

In this blog post, I want to offer some solutions. Many of them will be local to me, but hopefully you can extrapolate them out to where you live—finding the same or similar items in your local area.

IDEA ONE – Be Honest

A great way to reduce waste and actually buy useful items is to be honest with your family and friends about what you need. I think younger generation are better at this than older ones. Older generations seem to find asking for specific things very rude. So instead of helping with rent, or buying the work socks you desperately need, they'll give you a $40 fairy costume for your cat. I think we, as a society, need to get past this. If someone asks you for something they need, and it’s a reasonable request, please get that. They'll appreciate it and it won't go straight into landfill in January.

If you are asking for specific things, take the guesswork out. Give your size and preferred colour. You can also make it fun. "Give me a year's supply of my favourite brand of dishwashing detergent." is practical and amusing.

IDEA TWO – Potted Plants

Please buy terra cotta pots. Terra cotta is just fired clay. Its all natural, there is very little waste or chemicals—bar those required to power the kiln they were cooked in. If cared for, it lasts thousands of years, but if crushed up, its no different to rock. Broken terra cotta pots have plenty of uses in the garden, including just being left on their side to house frogs and lizards.

If you also buy seeds and grow them yourself for people, you are reducing waste greatly. If you are going to buy seedlings in plastic pots, ring around and see where you can donate the plastic pots so they can be reused. Some nurseries will very happily take them back.

A lot of succulents and other plants grow from cuttings. So, if you have a mature adult plant, you can produce endless baby plants for gift giving. Now is a good time to start propagating for Christmas, so the plants you hand over have a good root development and aren't going to die.

IDEA THREE – Biodegradable Toothbrushes

Did you know you can get biodegradable toothbrushes made of bamboo? You can even just throw them in your compost when you are done with them. Did you know every single plastic toothbrush you have ever used still exists? It's in landfill or floating in the ocean right now. Not only that, but it will be here for hundreds of years after you die. That's over 1000 toothbrushes per person.

Assuming people use, on average, one toothbrush a month, 12 toothbrushes is a year's supply. If you gave everyone you knew 12 bamboo toothbrushes every year, you could save thousands of plastic toothbrushes going into landfill.

Many bamboo toothbrushes also come in cardboard packaging, that is also biodegradable. You can order them online from places like Amazon, Aliexpress and speciality stores. They range in cost from about $4 each, to around 40c each and come in a range of colours.

IDEA FOUR – Hand Made, Unpackaged Soaps, Candles & Bath Bombs

Living on the sunshine coast, there is an endless supply of soap and bath bomb makers around, and they stock all sorts of boutique stores and market stalls near where I live. However even if you don't live in an area like mine, most malls these days have a Lush, Dusk or other candle/soap store that has unpackaged items, and sells them in paper bags.

I think its preferable to support a local artisan and buy them right from the people who make them in their kitchen. However, make do with what you have. The good thing about soaps, candles and bath bombs is that they get used up and they are gone. If they are made with natural ingredients (no plastic beads!) they cause no harm. However, they are still a lovely treat to use and receive.

IDEA FOUR – Coconut & Wood Plates, Bowls & Chopping Boards

Coconut bowls are all the rage at the moment. They are probably a more practical gift for the trendy Instagram people in your life. Or the people who wish they were trendy Instagram people. If someone loves food or cooking, wooden bowls, plates and chopping boards may be a fantastic, long used and much-loved gift.

Skip this one for the friends and family who eat take away with one hand and play computer games with the other.

IDEA FIVE – Jars of Preserved Foods

Again, I live on the Sunshine Coast, so I am surrounded by boutique farms which produce their own preserves and sell them at local stalls and stores. Everything from goat cheese, olives, dried tomatoes, garlic cloves, more exotic jams and chutneys than I could poke a stick at.

In my favourite store, the Maleny Food co, which has QLD's best ice cream, a fromagerie and a several shelves of exotic preserved goods, there are always about a dozen things I want to buy. But I always tell myself 'next time'. Then I buy and ice cream, and $50 worth of buffalo cheese, and next time never comes.

Again, this is a gift that is better for people who love to cook. And its probably worth adding a small hand-written note, saying: 'This product is tastiest if used within X months'. A lot of preserved food lasts forever. However, that means some people save them forever! Products like expensive, virgin oils are better used as soon as possible. After a few months they go stale.

Eat your preserves while they are fresh and full of life and flavour.

IDEA SIX – Memberships, Tickets and Gift Cards

How about a twelve-month Audible membership? Or dancing lessons? Or a twelve-month Netflix membership? Cooking lessons? Tickets to events? Gift cards to and eco friendly store? Is there a memory you can have together? Can you go scuba diving or horseback riding? This idea is particularly great for kids. You can buy them a year of music lessons, or martial arts lessons. Anyone who drives a lot will get a lot of use from an Audible membership.

If your friends have no time for classes and are always run off their feet, would 20 hours of a maid service be welcome? How about 4 hours of babysitting so they can go out together for once? If their yard is overrun, can you hire them a gardener?

Think in terms of services, skills and experiences, not just items.

So that's it! My suggested Christmas gift list. I am already gathering my gifts for Christmas (pro tip, you're probably getting bamboo toothbrushes). And if you start planning and ordering now, you should have everything in plenty of time for Christmas, which will make things stress and guilt free.

If you don't celebrate Christmas, or Christmas is a bad time for you, now is the right time to start planning so you will be busy over that period. Make a list of things you want to fix, make and visit over December. Go to the beach, go to the gym, get out in nature, declutter your house, learn to cook some new things, try new restaurants, paint. Find a list of all the local tourist attractions you've never been to and see them all. Tackle that pile of books that you keep swearing you'll read. And, on Christmas day, even if you don't want to, find someone hosting an orphan Christmas and spend the day with them. Let other people feed and distract you.

And remember, try not to buy a bunch of crap that will end up in landfill.

Writing In Progress!

There has been an unexpected delay in the next blog series. Which is mostly that editing POS has taken up more time than I expected! And there were a few days of unexpected clean up after the big storms that passed through, as my house is out at Nanango, one of the badly hit regions. Thankfully there was nothing serious, but it was a big drain on my time!

I am so looking forward to launching all my new things, like the newsletter and website, it's killing me to wait another week!

I hope everyone is excited about this year's Nanowrimo too!

If you don't know what that is, check out Nanowrimo.org and challenge yourself over November!