I am most organized when I write lists of things “to do” and then gradually check off the items. The undone are transferred to the top of the next day’s list. It sounds like a simple thing. It’s the simple things that work when you have more than a bit of an affection for the term procrastinate.
Between the end of the Christmas Season and the third week of February, I get seasonally effected by the intolerable dark, wet, snowy, gray, and generally cruddy weather of New England. To use a German term, I am VERKLEMPT – just overcome with emotion. I could gladly go to bed, pull the covers over my head at nine PM, and not wake until nine AM. These are not the lighter sort of emotions.
So the list-making assumes a more critical task; keeping my mood balanced.
- January first, begin sorting and looking through seed catalogs.
- January fifteenth, begin online orders of plants.
- February first, get together all my “Sugaring” supplies and clean and sterilize taps and tubing; Wash buckets.
- Finalize seed orders.
- February fourteenth, the fourteenth, is the traditional tapping day in my area. But with climate change, It’s started as early as the end of January.
- March first, start seed inside the house.
At this point, I’ve made it through a rough spot of winter. Parallel with the list above is one for the shop. Working in a cool greenhouse shop in February has challenges, but I’ve done some of my best work then – just let the little heater kick in and turn on the marine weather forecast from NOAA.
My lists help me get over the seasonal slump of winter, and it allows me to say: ” Winter, Bah, Humbug!”