FOCUS Falls to Distractadon and Procrastinatrix

I have so much to do. And my Achilles Heel is trying to finish the cleaning up of all my sewing areas, primarily my dining room.

So, I do what all right-brained, visually-oriented people do...I buy an organizing book thinking that by buying the book, I will get organized.

I actually really found this book incredibly useful. I'd always felt disorganized when reading most other organization books....

That's because most of those books are written by linear thinking, left-brained people who organize everything in alphabetized files and have everything put away in its place.

But this book explains that those "out of sight" files and drawers and cupboards are largely unsuccessful for right-brained creative types. We like to see everything.

The problem come in when everything is out in plain sight and too much clutter accumulates --it can become a hindrance to finding things eg. my dining room.

So yesterday, I was bound and determined to tackle the task of clearing up my dining room (aka my sewing room), and to follow the FOCUS method described in the book.

FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Successful

OK.

The "One Course" = Clearing the Dining Room

The "Problem" = Those horrible beasts, Distractadon and Procrastinatrix

You see, if you're visually oriented, you are tempted with each and every "sighting" to do a different task, instead of focusing on what you're already doing. The book recommends keeping a list nearby to write down those additional tasks with the intention of doing them later...stick to the one task...cleaning up the dining room. The other idea is to treat yourself as your own employee...and you, the boss, will evaluate your performance over a fixed period of time on the ONE task. OK. I can do that.

Well, yesterday I completely blew it. Distractadon and Procrastinatrix were here in full force.

While cleaning, I found this old Remains of Alice journal cover with the little bits and scraps from my Alice project last year.

To be honest, I had stopped working on it because it was really ugly. But there it was, Distractadon...challenging me to make it better.

My sewing machine was up and out. All the threads were out too. I would just spend a few minutes trying to improve its condition.

Four hours later, the journal cover was still not finished though it does look a bit better...AND the dining room did not get cleaned up...AND that journal cover has nothing to do with my immediate task list. Procrastinatrix.

So I suppose I should fire myself for poor performance yesterday? I did the next best thing...I admitted to Jim and Jack last night that I had a failure of a day. And, after four hours of working on my project, though no longer an ugly duckling, the project was not yet a swan. AND, this journal cover, on a scale of importance from 1 to 10, is a "0"!

Jack said, "I don't care about that Mom. You cooked an awesome dinner!" (His favorite -- corned beef, cabbage and potatoes).

Maybe it wasn't a complete bust. I think I'm beginning to like this journal cover...it was inspired by an online class I took with Maryanne Moss called Remains of the Day.

The idea behind the class is to re-purpose scraps of paper, envelopes and magazines that would normally be tossed out, into a useful journal. The cover is made over a card stock pattern and will fold up with the "book" inside. (You can see lots of beautiful examples here.)

I was so inspired by all of them. Something about using the Remains of Alice to make a journal that I could use and carry around, really appealed to me.

This will become a swan. I just know it. It has to...because this little Alice traveled all the way across the Atlantic from my friend Carol Ann in England just to be charm on the end of its bookmark.

I still have a way to go. But today is a new day and I'm back to being my own boss. And today, I have a new chance to alter my bad behaviors.

Today, I will FOCUS.

Right after I finish writing this blog post...

The Fridge Magnet says it ALL.

Have a great weekend!