Monday, June 19, 2017
Motivational Monday - Progress report
Oh gosh! I feel like I ran five ultra (50K) marathons yesterday. BUT the quilt is done - except for the binding which I'm going to do before lunch today and get in a FedEx box before the end of the day.
I had to make 16 more flying geese units, assemble the 18 blocks, sew the sashing between the blocks (the quilt is on-point) and then the borders. Oh yes, the borders. I said there were three borders, but NO - there were FOUR borders and two of them were mitered!!!! Good grief, I'm my own worst enemy to say the least!
Made the backing and got the quilt loaded. Picked out an overall design and away I went. The quilt came off the machine, I prepped stuff for this morning and then I went to bed. It was 8:30 PM. Not to sleep, but just to relax!
Eleanor Burns would be proud of me - Quilt in a Day!
So here's the thing that's missing from my Task Master. It's not that I'm not getting things done. I'm getting loads done. It's not that I'm not aware of those twelve projects because I'm reminded of them all the time. My biggest issue is deadlines. I don't pay attention to them. I don't have a master list of project deadlines and so when something new comes in - I say YES and then get into a time management issue.
I'm not sure what is the best way to deal with this, but I'm going to start by taking a small notebook and allotting ONE page for each project. I'll put the name of the project, the DEADLINE and what is required to complete the project. The projects will be in order of the deadline in the book. Someone I met over the weekend, keeps her stuff on small pieces of paper (so they can be shuffled) and they were attached with a big binder clip. Something to think about!
On each page, I can list what needs to be done: design the project, get the fabric or whatever else is necessary BEFORE the sewing starts. These deadline projects need to take priority over the regular stuff and I will need to review this list of projects every week when I set my goals for the week. I need also to review the list BEFORE I commit to something else.
I also need to make a list of documents/patterns/articles that need to be written. Those also have deadlines and until I start getting ahead of the game, I'll always be behind the eight ball. I don't like to be behind the eight ball so this is my way of trying to get ahead of the game.
I have one more quilt that is urgently needed and hope to be finished by tonight. THEN I will work on setting up this list, setting my goals for the week in The Task Master and moving forward, hopefully in a much more calm fashion.
The only problem I see with this is that the more time I give myself, the more you mess around and the more time you waste. So there has to be a happy medium in there!!
On that note, I'm out of here to get binding on a quilt and see what excitement awaits in my e-mail. I'll report on my deadline list next week.
Have a super day!
Ciao!
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Sounds like a good plan. Since I retired, I don't have many deadlines but when I was working I did. I used to make a list of all of the steps in the project, sit down with the calendar and assign due dates. They went on a master list for the project and on my calendar.
ReplyDeleteI think, with your deadlines and volume of work, you need file cards you can shuffle. I recently bought a coloured set, although I haven't started using them yet. They come in 3 by 5 and bigger. You could have one colour for work and one for teaching and one for personal (if you ever sew anything for yourself!) With a hole punched and an old fashioned ring. There might be apps, and Quilting....for the rest of us has some great posts on apps and bullet journaling but low tech might be the best for you. Good luck!
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