2010 Goals/Time Management

I've had this post rolling around in my head for a couple of days now (lots of time to think while shredding, you know).  I posted my 2010 needlework goals on Sunday and they are quite ambitious.  In order to have any shot of completing them, I need a better game plan than I've had in the past.  So, I've been putting a lot of thought into what I feel are the barriers to my productivity and how to make the best use of my time.  Time management has been something I've been focusing on in general over the past couple of years in order to eliminate time spent on unnecessary or unimportant tasks in order to have more time to spend on things I enjoy. 

I've determined that my main time waster is mindless web surfing, which is completely in my control to change.  So, I'm going to make it my top priority to get that under control this year.  It's mainly a problem when I'm working and I'm not interested in what I'm working on.  Since I do all of my work on the computer, it's easy to just open a webpage and start surfing.  Of course that drags the work out longer, which cuts into my free time.  I am self-employed and only have myself to get the work done, so the longer it takes me to do it, the less fun time I have.  Again, largely in my control, so it's up to me to solve this problem.  Maybe posting it here for the world to see will help me.

The other things I've been thinking about are changes I can make to other barriers to my productivity.  One of my biggest barriers to my quilting is the fact that I don't have a dedicated studio so everything except the sewing machine has to be pulled out and put away after each session (i.e. the kitchen island is my cutting station, the floor or bed serves as the design wall when needed, and there is no good place to permanently set up a pressing station).  Because of my current set-up, it is not efficient for me to try and quilt for short periods of time.  In addition, I am a morning person and have no brain matter left after about 8 p.m. so trying to get complicated things done in the evening is a lost cause for me.  After 8 1/2 years of quilting, many more than that of cross-stitching, and even more than that of crocheting, I am now fully aware of what times of day I have the mental competancy to work on each of these hobbies and how much set-up time, or not, is necessary to do so.  I can crochet when I'm dead tired or have a migraine, but I need full wattage in order to stitch accurately and for most quilting tasks.

So, given the above, I have come up with the following plan to make the most effective use of my needlework time.

• I repurposed a large Rubbermaid container with a lid to use as a project box.  I can keep all of my current stitching and quilting projects in the box for easy access to pull one out when I have some time.  I already have my current crochet projects in a carry bag that I can grab whenever I need it.

• Any morning time I have available before work will be spent on my stitching projects.
• Any evening time I have available will be spent on crochet projects or blogging.  Much I'd love to start each day blogging and commenting on other people's blogs, that is most certainly something I can do when I'm tired at the end of the day and I shouldn't be spending my peak energy time on those tasks.
• Longer periods of available time will be dedicated to quilting.  Admitting that I will probably never be a quilter that can get quilting things done in the evenings after work, like so many of you do, was a big step for me.  I was very frustrated by this for quite some time until I realized that I just need to develop a system that works best for me.  If that means no quilting during the weekday evenings, but marathon sessions on the weekends, then that's how it will be.

Boy, just putting my thoughts on this down in writing is pretty motivating in and of itself.  I've always been the type that gets things done once they are written down, so let's hope that means that I will get a lot accomplished in 2010!

Shredding, not Sewing

While I'm on vacation this week, I want to do some de-cluttering of various areas of our home.  I got DH on board with the project, so we started with the office yesterday.  I work from home so this room is both a home and work office.  We started with purging 9 years worth of household bills/statements.  That project carried over to today, but is now complete and we have added numerous bags of shredded paper to the recycle bin.  We are currently about 80% paperless for our personal bills/statements, so this shouldn't be such a chore going forward.  I'm hoping to be about 95% paperless by the end of 2010.  I'd like to be at 100%, but there is always going to be some amount of paperwork that comes in.  My work is 95% paperless, but I still have one box full of notes, etc. that needs to be shredded so I can start the year with an empty slate, so to speak.  I figure one box of paper to be shredded at the end of each year isn't too bad.  In between bouts of shredding, I have added a computer, the related monitor, numerous computer cords, etc. and a scanner to the donation pile.  I'm hoping to finish the shredding by tomorrow so I can move on to the other items in the office and be done with that room by Wednesday at the latest.  Ty and Maya go to the vet tomorrow morning and I have a continuing education class on Wednesday afternoon, but I think I should have enough time tonight and tomorrow to finish up the office by the time I leave for class on Wednesday.

Oh, and as the bill boxes got emptied, look who had to check them out.

The other part of the office I worked on today was my bookcase.  I got some new collections of books off of ebay the past couple of weeks and needed to make room, so I pulled everything out, rearranged, and this is the final result.

Fabric Inventory complete/stash pictures & ponderings

Well, the 2010 fabric inventory is complete.  While it is a bit of a chore, I always like revisiting my stash and finding things I forgot I had.  It also gets my creative juices going and helps solidify my current year goals.  And of course I never get tired of petting my batiks.

In the midst of the project, the mail arrived and look what was waiting for me.  Here's a sneak peek.  Can you guess what the box contains?

Ok, here's a closer look, along with the package inspector, Echo.  Are you surprised?  It's more batiks of course!  Yummy Timeless Treasure batiks off of Ebay.  They were a good deal and cost about exactly as much as the check my sister sent me for my dishcloth sales, so they were basically free too!  How could I pass them up?  They have been counted in the inventory and will be getting washed and stored today.  My inventory sheet tells me that I have almost 700 yards of batiks.  Do you think that's too much?  I don't.  I don't think I can ever have too many batiks.  My dream job would be as a fabric rep for Princess Mirah batiks, but alas, I will have to keep my day job for now, since we like to eat and have a roof over our heads, as do the furkids.

Here's some pictures of my batik stash, as well as the rest of my stash.  I do truly love my stash and wouldn't want to get rid of any of it.  I love that I very rarely have to shop for borders or even backings as I can shop my own "store" 24/7.  Same goes for thread.  I have a huge stash of that now too and I had something on hand for every quilt I just quilted and didn't have to wait for the quilt shop to open in order to continue on my projects.  That is huge for me.  When I am in the mood to work on something, particularly machine quilting, I need to jump on it while the mood is there and get it done as I'm not good at all with "having" to work on certain projects.  The rotation method would never work for me.  I like to work on what I want, when I want to do it, whether it be quilting, cross-stitch, or crocheting.

Oh, and here's a cute picture of the main members of the Quality Control Team, Mutt & Jeff, er, I mean Sassy and Echo.  Can you see how much smaller Sassy is?  She will be a year old in a month and Echo is a month younger than her.  She's a petite little thing.

2009 Year End Summary

Today I tallied up my 2009 completed projects and here's the list.  Given some of the life events we dealt with in 2009, I feel like I had a pretty good year.  I'm hoping to get even more accomplished in 2010.

• 4 cat mats started, completed, and donated to the Arizona Humane Society
• 11 pet pillows of various sizes started, completed, and donated to the Arizona Humane Society
• 2 cross-stitch UFO's framed
• 1 tablerunner started and completed
• 1 quilt top started and completed
• 6 quilts in process completed
• 8 quilts in process quilted
• 3 cross-stitch pieces stitched
• 1 quilt top in process completed
• 5 cross-stitch pieces finished (i.e. as ornaments, etc.)
• 94 dishcloths crocheted
• 54 scrubbies crocheted
• 4 make-up removers crocheted
• 13 potholders crocheted
• 12 baby facecloths crocheted
• 5 coasters crocheted

Happy 8th Birthday to Maya today!

Maya, our female Tibetan Mastiff, turns 8 today, so Happy Birthday to her!  In honor of her birthday *grin*, we are having Ribeye steaks on the grill for dinner along with some fresh mushrooms and wine, which is a rarity at our house.  Of course she got her usual chewy today, so she did get something for her special day.

Fresh Date Muffins - YUM!

Just had to throw in this non-quilty post today.  I recently found a fabulous basic sweet muffin recipe that I've fine-tuned in to the most yummy date muffin recipe.  I made a fresh batch this morning and have been munching on them all day.  There's too much batter for 6 large muffin cups, so I make an mini loaf with the extra.  Don't they look good? 

Happy New Year!

20 years ago today I arrived in the big city of Phoenix.  Coming from Rugby, North Dakota, a small town of about 1,600 people at the time, this was a huge move for me.  I moved here to finish my accounting degree at Arizona State and I'm still here, for the time being anyway.  DH and I plan to move to Texas eventually.  I remember arriving to a rainy, cool day, with temperatures in the 50's, and laughing about how everyone was bundled up in coats.  To me, this was a minimum of a 50 degree improvement from what I'd come from and it felt downright balmy, and there was certainly no need for a coat!  Fast forward a year and I had acclimated and become one of those people for whom sweatshirt weather begins when the temps drop below 60, or possibly even 70, depending on if it's sunny or not LOL.  That could have had something to do with the fact that my first summer here recorded the hottest date in history - 122 degrees registered at Sky Harbor Airport on June 26, 1990.  It's never come close to that again, thankfully.

I have high hopes and big plans for 2010 and am hoping for a great year.  I wish the same to the rest of you out on blogland!