I don’t have a long list for this week, but I’m really happy with what I have.

Recurring items. I did my 7Qs update yesterday (7 questions: From failure to E.T. (2022 – 022-028) and I’m finding I am enjoying the process. Thoughts that I wouldn’t normally contemplate or blog about…I know lots of people who do it to pad their website content, but for me, it’s simply just poking my brain to think about random topics.

For this update of progress, the big change is that I added my new paradigm around “projects” to my to-do list tracker. I often struggle that my to-do list for the week or month is large, which is how I like it, but the struggle is that it is hard to prioritize certain items. For example, in the coming week, I have a few errands to run and they’re relatively non-negotiable. I have to do them. So obviously those are top priority, right? But if the urgent always crowds out the important, I don’t get to focus on some “lesser” priorities that are part of my long list of projects. I reclassified a few of them after an earlier posting in the week (Projects, projects and more projects…). But in the end? I still have 37 projects that I’m tracking. I don’t work on them all the time, of course, but I often feel like I’m never getting to them.

Soooo, the big change this week is that I now have two columns for my to-do list for the week/month. Column 1 is my regular or recurring items. Simple tick box items that include errands. But I also made a list of activities in the second column where ANY of them are movement forward on 1 of the 37 projects. I don’t have to be moving any particular project forward, I just want to keep track that I am accomplishing SOMETHING on the projects while I’m churning and burning through other simpler items.

We also did a game night this past week, although it was relatively a simple night.

Other items. Just as I have a number of little chores or errands in the coming week, I knocked a few off the list this past week. I needed to change the filter in our refrigerator, which is simple enough except for the fact that you then have to run water through the new one for about 5-7 minutes to make sure you get all the sediment out of it. So it’s been on my to-do list way longer than it should for something so simple. But done. I also picked up new compression socks that I had ordered, very exciting I know.

In terms of finances, I figured out two more donations this week for Soroptomist and the Riverview Park and Zoo, both in Peterborough.

I did a bit of tech support for Grace’s website design and launch, we’ll see what else kind of help she’ll need but she’s doing well.

For work, I figured out how to use One Note more easily, so that’s working. Plus managed to move a few files forward this week. I still feel I was like “half-succeeding”, not swinging for the fences yet, which is to be expected.

In terms of family “togetherness”, Andrea and I have been enjoying watching Discovery of Witches, and I’m hoping she’ll join me to watch the new Reacher series starting next weekend.

And let’s not forget to mention I cut my own hair again, flashback to the early COVID period, and Andrea fixed it up for me.

Reading. I feel a little foolish to say that the item that I feel was my biggest accomplishment this past week, beyond staying vertical (I’ve been feeling like crap since my new meds started on Tuesday), is that I think I have a way forward on my book tracking and reviews. I’ve been doing most of it in Excel, but I don’t use the spreadsheet as a database much, and I’m trying to push myself to use One Note as the “all in one place” solution for my notetaking etc.

I created a set of new tabs, pages, and subpages to be able to share my list of books (read and TBR) all in one place in One Note, and I’ve been experimenting with copying the data for the 200 reviews over quickly. I’m torn between pasting it all into ON or just putting in the link to the review on my website. After all, it’s already published there. What’s the point if I’m not going to use it? Well, the main issue is that it is not sortable/searchable with all my TBR books too. So I’m almost there, not quite.

However, I managed to make a list of all the Erle Stanley Gardner books, particularly for the Perry Mason series, and then I read the first three in the series, all contributing to my progress for January in the Reading Challenge. Plus made lists for Robert B. Parker and the gigantic Star Trek collections.

Conclusion. I’m ecstatic about the new project list, and I made some progress in some key areas. As I said, I started a new med on Tuesday (injected, which is an accomplishment itself), but it knocked me on my butt for the rest of the week and into the weekend. It’s a win that I’m still vertical at this point. Onward!