Creatively Listing

One of the qualities for my Daily Planning is flexibility. Not the wet noodle kind of flexibility, but bending to the moment. This morning as I was mentally reviewing my day - weather included - there were just too, too many details in my head. There seemed so many, in fact that they were tripping over each other just creating a pile of wet noodles! So, I gave in. One more list can’t hurt.

One more challenge. Not a huge one, but I’d just like to get on with things and not have to fuss about all this stuff. I didn’t want another little scrap of paper jammed in my pocket or cluttering up my already cluttered cell phone. It’s raining, windy outside, and for Victoria cold! How do I do this day!? I stood in the middle of my bedroom by my small writing desk and thought. Aha! A solution. For years, a dry erase board has been incredibly useful for mind mapping. Two of them sit patiently on my piano. (Pianos make great easels, for things besides piano books.) Getting things out of my head and down on paper - or in this case a dry erase board - creates a sorting place for the jumble in my head. 

Now I have three lists (plus the one on my cell phone). All of my lists are in specific, visual places. They are not scrunchable. This new/old one is big and I get to use coloured dry erase markers. Being erasable is especially important on this new ‘list’. At night before bed, I’ll take the eraser to it, smudging all the colours so it vanishes just like all the events of the day. Each morning a new daily plan may be outlined if my head is all a-jumble with a busy day.

This ‘solution’ takes me back a bit ago to black or green chalkboards and coloured chalk. Cleaner and definitely not as dusty. Old ways of doing things, upgraded to this year’s models, are still very valuable. In this world of technology using hands on solutions with what you have at your finger tips (or on your piano) seems more difficult. Or maybe just forgotten. Literally unheard of for younger generations, especially the youngest.

“The best solutions are often simple yet unexpected.”

~ Julian Casablanca