When all else fails...

/

…you can always procrastinate by getting organized.

Sidebar: Years ago I saw a children’s theatre show based on Winnie-the-Pooh and friends, and there was a recurring cry to “get organdized!” and I still hear the mispronunciation decades later.

In the ongoing reconstitution of my attic study after the installation of a functional and non-leaking air conditioning unit — remember, the old leaky one was installed over a closet full of outdoor flags, table cloths, costumes, and detritus, all of which had to come out and now clogs most of the floor up here — I had to install new shelving to start hanging everything back up.

That, as every DIYer will understand, took multiple trips up and down two flights of stairs to gather the next necessary tool since the process never reveals itself fully before one begins, and multiple trips to purchase materials, hardware, tools, etc.

But now that’s done and we begin the actual process of deciding what to put back in the closet and what to give away/discard.

All of that is prologue. The first item I examined was a huge stack of old daily planners from more than 20 years ago, none of which are remotely useful to anyone any longer. (I did get a bit verklempt flipping through the 2002 calendar to look at all the rehearsals and performances for Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.) Into the trash they are going.

However, if you still use paper planners, here’s a pro hack that I developed to keep my brain straight as I…

  • worked as the media specialist at Newnan Crossing Elementary

  • ran the Newnan Community Theatre Company as artistic director

  • served as the choir director for Newnan Presbyterian Church

  • worked with the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program in the summers

  • did all the home stuff with wife and son

I had a lovely leather, zippered notebook, and in it I would keep track of All The Things using a DayRunner daily calendar, which looked a lot like this item.

Here’s the hack: When I bought the next year’s calendar, I’d take that Notes page on the right-hand side and run the whole year through the printer, overprinting the page with three columns up top:

  • People to Call

  • Things to Produce

  • Other to Do

And then at the bottom:

  • Things to Buy

Like so:

Especially with things like the theatre’s schedule or GHP’s deadlines, this method was a life-saver. For example, for the theatre I’d start with a show’s opening date and then backtrack through the lead-up to that date: auditions, program notes, publicity, etc.

Nowadays, of course, I’m doing none of the above jobs other than home life, so such detailed planning is mostly unnecessary and easily handled with my calendar app and to-do app. But I still color-code events in the calendar and tag to-do items with context, so the concept of the hack is still useful.

And as noted up top, getting organdized is a stellar TASK AVOIDANCE strategy.