TealNotes.com and New Year's Resolutions

This is a long post today, so don't say I didn't warn you!

Email Overload

If you're anything like me, you sign up for newsletters willy nilly and it soon fills your email inbox to capacity. Many people I know, and you might be like this too, very rarely check their email inboxes. We input our email addys into the form and forget about it.

I know I certainly have a difficult time keeping up with it. I thought I could sort it out a bit more, by creating mail filters and multiple email accounts, each covering a different aspect of my life. If you thought a single account was difficult to keep up with, try seven!

Email Productiveness

If you don't ignore your inbox, you can get overwhelmed with the email deluge. Pretty soon, you find yourself simply deleting the emails and never reading them. If you're a little more industrious, you take the time to unsubscribe from emails or go a step further and adjusts your email settings in your account with that website.

Sometimes we start from scratch, because we all get spammed or forget all the different sites we signed up for. We change our login or email associated with the accounts we want to keep and then forget all about the old email address. Did you know this clutters the internet as surely as our trash clutters the Earth? But that's another gripe for another day, probably never.

But what if you used your email more productively? There is a growing niche of people who plan, plan, plan, and share their methods with the rest of us. Because they plan, and they blog about it, they have to be organized in the digital world as well as the physical world, right? So how do they do it?

They also fill our inboxes just as surely as big box retailers. Oh what to do?!

Vivian from TealNotes

When I started my planning journey, which was borne out of a desire to be the best homeschooling mom ever (which failed miserably, btdubs), I signed up for Lord knows how many newsletters. While I've slowly but systematically begun to unsubscribe from the ones dedicated solely to homeschooling, I've been attempting to weed out backlogged emails.

But I missed weeding out the emails from TealNotes because it was an early-on subscription that was filtered out of my inbox properly and I didn't see them. I had to specifically go to another portion of my email that I simply forgot to check.

So this morning as I happened across that folder, I began reading some of Vivian's old emails. I figured I should read through to see if I might glean useful information before I unsubscribed, and as it turns out, hers will be one of the few newsletters that I will be hanging on to. And here's why...

Vivian readily recognizes that her work-from-home life isn't every one's life. I read the occasional blog and say to myself, "Yeah, right. Like we all have the ability to work when we want, stay at home to raise our kids, or plan life down to the tiniest, minute detail! They're out of touch!" But Vivian understands life a lot better than that.

In fact, an email from the beginning of September (I did say that I forgot about the folder's existence, right?) specifically speaks to her understanding that everyone has struggles. She writes:

"I remember when I went after one of my biggest goals. To go after the life I wanted and work for myself using my natural talents (like making pretty printables!) And honestly I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It was NOT the ride I thought it would be. I stumbled and fell and got badly depressed about not being able to make things work. I really didn't know what I was doing."

Do you have any clue how badly I needed to read that this morning? In this unemployed slump that is nearly ruining my life? In my current depressed state that overwhelms me to the point of tears? She went on in the email's featured blog post:

"Sometimes life throws big fat mud pies in your face like it's having a field day. No, really. One keeps coming. Then another one. One after the other. And before you know it you're under your bed sheets and struggling to make it out of bed each morning."

Remember how I said Vivian gets it? This is what I'm talking about. The majority of the emails I get from Teal Notes and the blog posts she shares are better than just "Buy My Planner Printables!" or "Look at This Awesome Life I Have!" Vivian encourages you to dust yourself back off and start again, telling you that you got this and it isn't over until you give up on yourself. Which you really shouldn't do, by the way.

Trust me. If you are trying to become better organized, better motivated, but are putting it off until New Year's next month, and are feeling overwhelmed this holiday season, you need to follow that link above. You need to start now, not January 1st. Vivian's way of looking at things really helped me look at the blogosphere differently. In that same blog, she shares her understanding that everyone has a different life path:

"If you're reading this, it's guaranteed you have a tooootally different lifestyle than mine. And that's ok. [...] 'the problem with ANY advice is that people take it all at face value. Instead of taking the bits and pieces that apply to their own life and adjust it according to their own context.'"

I mean, really. That tiny section totally blew my mind. She shared something she was told by someone close to her, and because she shared, something just clicked in my head. I kept looking at these blogs and saying to myself, none of that helps me. What I should have been doing is picking out the pieces that could be applied to my life and adapting other parts to work for me. That's why I started a Bullet Journal in the first place! Adaptability.

Check out her blog and keep in mind what Vivian's friend said: Take the bits and pieces that apply to your life and adjust according to your context. You will not regret it.

New Year's Resolutions

At the beginning of this year, I made two resolutions. Two. Dos. Deux. Zwei. Två. Most people, including myself, only make one. And we never make it past a few months, a few weeks at best. I'm quite proud of myself that I've done better than in previous years.

1. More Gaming

This resolution was difficult to keep. Mostly I wanted to do it as a way to spend more quality time with my son. In the flurry that was working full time and the resulting exhaustion, I felt him slipping away from me.

He recently turned 15, and that's about the time little boys stop confiding in their mothers, if not before. But because our lives, despite my marrying his father at one point, then divorcing his father, and then marrying the love of my life, have really been more akin to single parenthood, I needed to be more for him.

The one constant thing he is interested in is gaming. And he comes by that honestly really. I started gaming in 1987, and for most of my life, I have gamed in one shape or form. He and I recently purchased Minecraft for PC specifically to spend more time with each other.

It was difficult to play on the XBox because it is attached to the main television. If my husband is home, the tube belongs to him and no one else. Mojang and Microsoft also recently stopped updating 360 as there are so few homes that still have one. Everyone has upgraded by now. But when you're poor, you don't have that luxury.

We've gamed more since I've been unemployed, but even before that we made time on weekends I was scheduled off. As a result, my son and I are still close, but he still doesn't confide in me until he blows up about his worries. It's a work in progress.

2. More Blogging

Another resolution made easier by being unemployed, but I feel as though I did a better job of this than all the previous years combined even before the loss of my job. This blog was started in 2004. I did a post breakdown earlier this year, and it was appalling.

On the left, you'll see the breakdown from January's post. On the right is a screen grab of the breakdown as of this morning. (You might notice a few discrepancies for some of the years. I migrated posts from two other blogs before I deleted them.) So in the first 14 years blogging, I made a whopping 45 blog posts. And that's it?!? Of course I was also posting to Facebook, but we don't count that. This year alone, I've made 32 posts, this one will be number 33. I think that definitely counts as blogging more!

And although I'm all over the map with my blogging topics, and a lot of them have been genealogy based with my own family tree, it still took a lot of time and effort to put it together. I picked a new blog theme this year and made additional pages/sections. I'm an actual work in progress instead of just saying I'm a work in progress and doing nothing. I may have finally found things that interest me enough to keep writing. 

I don't care if my audience isn't very big. I'm blogging for me and if you get something out of it, that's icing on the cake. BUT! Did you know that if you Google 'Berthoulier', the second page of results features images of Lucy Liu from my blog? (I did a post about her style as Joan Watson back in 2013.) And my post about attending the 45th Annual Johnny Appleseed Festival here in Fort Wayne this year appears on page 3 of the results! 

Granted, there's only 4 pages of results, and none of my content is top page, but I'm getting there! If someone starts researching Berthoulier in their family tree, there isn't a lot, but they may click past page 1 and get to me. If anything they're going to wonder what Lucy Liu has to do with it and they'll wind up here anyway.

Defacto Resolution #3: Journalling

Although keeping up my Bullet Journal was not an official New Year's Resolution, it was something I started in October 2018, and struggled to follow. By January, I wasn't doing it up at all. But in February, I decided to give it another go. I followed various pieces of advice from several planner bloggers, and picked apart different layouts and picked what I wanted and what I didn't. 

I tried different layouts and I bought planner stencils and stamps. I made notes in the margins about what worked for me and what didn't. For example, I currently do not track habits. Nor do I use daily pages. I plan using only monthly and weekly layouts. Some pages look atrocious and disgusting. There's an entire clump of pages cut out simply because the collection was a mess and I didn't need it.

Cutting out that section led me to finding a better way for me to journal. I still like the Bullet Journal concept, but a physical book tied me to a format. I couldn't easily paste things in it, meaning I couldn't scrapbook or 'tip-in' things into it, which I found myself wanting to do. 

I also realized that specific collections would have to be transferred to a new journal when this one is full and I didn't like that much either. I already have discussed my awful handwriting. Why would I want to RE-write all that info??

That's when I found my way to Traveler's Notebooks. No joke: I now have FOUR of them.

From Left to Right: 1, 2, 3, 4

1. A5-ish Red Vinyl (homemade): Sensitive account info, non-daily collections, Podcast Journal
2. A5 Leather EDC (Windrose Custom Goods): BuJo, Sketchbook, Daily Collections, Grocery. Will be repurposed to deskside daily journal January 1st.
3. (Roughly) Personal TN Quasi-EDC (homemade): Genealogy Notes, Supply Inventories
4. Pocket TN (Maumee River Leather): Being Prepped to be my EDC starting January 1st.

The crazy part about it is that other than the two covers and the inserts that came with Maumee River Leather's, and the two dot grid notebooks (Podcast and BuJO), I handmade every last bit of these things. I printed, and cut, and stickered, and taped, and glued my heart out this year. I'm out of heavy printer paper and sketching paper. No more inserts until I get more!

Transformative

I am not going to lie to you. It's a lot of work to stay organized. I'm also not going to tell you that I'm perfectly organized. What I will tell you is that I feel better about tackling life than I ever have before, and that's even in the midst of one of my worst manic lows in over two decades.

Using my TNs there is more information retained and not lost. I don't waste precious minutes scrambling to find a note I made. I have fewer missed appointments. I don't forget things Pop asked me to pick up from the store. Coupled with the Meijer App, I don't buy the wrong thing for him either. I don't buy the same exact nail polish I already have or a nearly identical shade. I don't accidentally buy the same washi tape (I do it intentionally!)

I keep track of when Pop wants more smokes (meaning I call him out on smoking too much). I note when I did this project for him or what day I went to the grocery for him. I write down when I wash the bedding or give the dog a bath so it doesn't go too long because I'm an absent minded professor.

My working schedule is in there so I know when I can or can't schedule appointments. I jot down quick ideas while I'm in public so I don't forget once I'm in private. I don't forget the coupons at home.

This is huge for an ADD mom who has an ADHD kid and an elderly, falling apart father. This is huge for someone who has never, ever, ever been known for personal organizational skills. I organized the heck out of my professional work spaces, but I was too tired to apply that to my personal life, but with planning/BuJo/TN... That's all changed.

Start Now

But the most important thing I can tell you is that planning as a life changing activity cannot wait until next year's New Year's Resolution. Take my fitful start as example. Take any planning blogger's posts about failure. It takes time to develop your own method that works for you. But it has to start somewhere.

I started in October and failed by end of November. I started again in February and while some weeks are nearly blank, others are messy and scratched through, and still others are full with notes and items neatly checked off. It took me ALL YEAR to come up with something that partially works for me.

I'm not done fine tuning it either. Life constantly throws us curve balls and changes our organizational needs. Planning is no different. For the past six weeks I haven't needed space to write down my work schedule, so I used it instead for noting what I did around our house and Pop's house. I wrote down notes from Pop's doctor visits, particularly his mountain of medications (because when we get old, the pill popping on doctor's orders gets confusing as hell!)

The systems other planners have created aren't always going to work for you. The system I have created for me isn't going to work for you either. Remember that I said it only partially works for me. It's getting better all the time though.

Conclusion

So Thanks for making it to the absolute end of this. I warned you it was long, but maybe you found something useful in it. Maybe you're a real life friend of mine and was wondering how I've been doing, or what I've been doing. Whatever, however, you made it here and read all my ramblings, I truly thank you.

I think next year's blogging resolution may have something to do with making my blog posts more impactful and easier to read. Which means shorter. LOL

~Her Royal Pinkness, Elizabeth I