Summer Time Management

I am terrible at downtime. Just ask Kaia. When we go on vacation I usually plan out our entire day from morning until evening leaving precious free time to just sit and read a book, relax on the beach, or enjoy a campfire at night. It feels like a failure if I'm not constantly doing something - usually involving historical sights or hiking in the woods.

That being said I'm also really bad at summer. Usually I end up with several weeks to catch up on studying, practicing, or tackling an ever growing pile of books on my summer reading list. Of course this isn't a real "problem" per se, but it can lead to a slight dilemma for me. Since I have so much I want to do and so much time, the trick is to figure out how to create structure for my time so I don't do what I did yesterday which involved a lot of wandering around the house starting a new task every ten minutes.

This table was clean prior to yesterday afternoon. Unfettered additions to my "pile system" of organization have created what some might call "a mess."

For me the solution lies in the handy-dandy "to-do" list:

The to-do list.

This little tiny piece of paper, in theory, is my saving grace. It will keep me from wandering from task to task throughout the day and give me a blueprint for what comes next. If all goes well I will feel productive today. We'll see how it turns out.