I am counting this week as a real back-to-work week. Last week I was just coming out of the throes of our vacation. 

There were groceries to be bought, suitcases to be unpacked, back to school to be taken care of, and lots of stuff needed to be cooked to restart homemade meals.

All of that is done. And we had a nice relaxing weekend to end the week of catching up. 

Which means this week is the real beginning of the Fall season of work for me. In preparation for that, I did a real planning session on Sunday after a lot of time…all summer in fact.

And I realized how much I missed it! Not that I needed to plan my weeks through the summer, because I wasn’t getting much formal work done. But I do enjoy the process of planning when I actually make the time for it. And having a quiet space for it really helps. Without being called in four different directions, or having to fit it in five minute spaces between chores makes for a good planning session. Now I am thinking I may start making a ritual of it: Take 30-45 minutes each weekend at a coffee shop or the library (not open on Sundays) just to leisurely think about my upcoming week and what I want to accomplish. As well to look back on the previous week and see what got accomplished or missed or learned. And taking a bit longer at the start of a month to do some budgeting, and looking at monthly goals and appointment and commitments landscape to be ready for what’s coming up.

As part of this planning, I also like to write down some highlights of the previous week (or month), just to capture our life in that time. It gives me a sense of gratitude, and highlights some of my accomplishments when I don’t feel I did much. It’s a good feeling to look back.

I have been watching Mike Vardy’s Forge Your Future Challenge recordings on You Tube. He did this challenge last week. It’s a great motivator to look at one’s work life, clarify the goals, simplify the overwhelm, and make processes that work. I am certainly enjoying it, and may watch it all over again just to get a better grip at all the material he presented in this free series. One thing that caught my attention was capturing of ideas or thoughts no matter how trivial. I landed on this idea on my own a few months ago. I have a little notebook and a pencil to go with it to just notice and write about interesting things I come across in life…anything funny or motivational or a newly learnt fact etc. But I could certainly do with using this notebook with more consistency, and to not collect ideas to write in it later on, but do it more in the moment so I don’t forget about it. That is one of my productivity goals for this season…better capturing of ideas. 

I am also changing my usual way of planning for work…just the layout of it in my journal (yes, I still use paper, and have decided I like it better than using digital) is different now based on how it makes more sense to me, rather than how I saw someone else demonstrate how they do it. It’s crazy how we get stuck with what we see rather than what our brains can process and assimilate better…I think it comes down to taking a step back once in a while to ask the question “is this system working for me? Can I make it better or more suitable for me?”. I love simplifying my system of working. And I love working things out on paper. So Trello will have to wait for me to get back to it when I feel like I need a digital system. 

It’s amazing how I’m starting to think about productivity and processes suddenly now that its September. You could not have made it do this all summer! But I’m happy to be here in September even though the sweaters are coming out already!