2014 Completion Core Challenge

[Oogiem]

So sorry to hear that Dena, May you find the peace and strength to get through the next bit, it's tough! BTDT.

 

[DenaDahilig]

Oh, no, this is GOOD!!!! It's a very good thing! Living at home by himself he just doesn't think, "Maybe I should go grocery shopping if I want to have food in the house." And when he does have food in the house, he just doesn't feel like making anything... and a diet of applesauce and prunes isn't a plan. So, after months of nudging him to move someplace with three meals a day and activities (and losing 45 pounds), he's finally decided to go. For two months only. I'm hoping he'll make it permanent but a 2-month commitment is a start. So it's all good! It's the actual packing him up and moving him that's the challenge!

Thanks for your thoughts, Oogie!

Dena

 

[Oogiem]

That's good then Dena, it's just that so many people I know have been or are going through moving parents into care homes and it's not a good thing for lots of reasons, hard todo, parents resisting, expenses etc that I feared that was happening to you.

OTOH I am please dto report that hubby and I managed to go through the entire set of equipment files, threw away a lot of stuff we don't need, consolidated stuff and cleared out almost 1/3 of a file cabinet drawer. Now all the equipment files fit in one drawer and we both know where everythign is and it's all alphabetized. Now to continue my computer file system clean-up and do the other drawers of physical papers.

 

[CassRussell]

Thanks largely to this forum thread, I've done things I've been putting off for far too long in the recent week. I forgot to track all of them but I did go back to my original post and saw these things I declared I would do:

* update my horizons of focus document (been 'working' on that since 22 October) - completed 31 Dec
* decide new daily affirmations, print & put on bathroom mirror - completed 28 Dec
* read 1 novel - I didn't complete this and today I have read 2 chapters so I feel good that I've at least started
* hang photos up (been on my list 2 years) - I did this today too & I saw why I didn't want to do it - at least half the frames required extra work before hanging so it was fiddly. And the entire job took me less than 30 mins (including removing the car from the garage and putting it back). Funny how a 30 min task has weighed on me for so long!

I've also completed my goals for 2015

Happy new year to you all. Here's to more good stuff in 2015
Cass

 

[Oogiem]

I need this challenge to continue into 2015….

Things I actually did:

Got one box of books off the shelves and down to the lending library at the brewery. Books live there for a while, people take and bring them and every couple of months the remainder gets donated to the library for their book sale. I'll sort out another box in a week or so. It's slow and harder than I thought to give away my old friends.

Got the paper equipment files completely sorted with my husband. All the old ones related things that we no longer have got thrown away, old warranty info for things we still have also in the trash and everything labeled and filed.

Got a notebook of old pictures and papers from work scanned. A copy is going out to our former boss as a Christmas present. He was lamenting that he didn't keep any of the pictures of the equipment and stuff we did when K and I told him we had a bunch. We said we'd try to find copies. That was months ago. Instead the better solution was to scan them all and make a digital copy so we finished that yesterday. Some were pretty amazing, stuff that we worked on in 1990s that is now commonplace.

Defined the file reorganization and renaming plan. I'll go dig out the old thread on that or post a new one about it. It might help others contemplating a full file reorganization.

Got one of my computers upgraded to Yosemite and have been slowly testing all my critical software. As I do so I am making notes so when I convert my main computer I remember what I did and how I got stuff working again. So far Yosemite is ok, a bit to get used to but not too bad.​

Things I am working on but haven't finished yet:

Continuing to read and return borrowed books. I have 2 more to finish from one person, they actually read really fast, the last 3 I read over the course of 6 days. I am hoping to return the finished ones to him today and the rest by the end of next week. Bonus, There are no piles of books blocking my desk window, something that makes a huge difference in my attitude even though it was only being blocked by about 4 inches of books.

Finish the file renaming and reorganization of my main computer.

Finish the file clean-up of the paper files.

Decide on my One Little Word for 2015.

Take the work pictures we scanned and put them back into a notebook or scrapbook. It was a lot of fun to look at them and review and I wish it was easier so I'm thinking of how to make a special scrapbook for them.

Upgrade my main computer to Yosemite if all the 2014 tax stuff is completed. Until I get all of that out and to the accountant I don't want to change any software on my main computer.​

My goal is to have all those tasks done by the end of January. So can we keep this going or rename the thread?

 

[CassRussell]

Wow Oogiem your list is impressive and I feel your pain with the books. I'd love to keep this post going into January too. It's great to focus on completions and somehow this accountability helps me focus Plus the sense of community here is very helpful.

 

[Oogiem]

FinishIt's snowing hard, we've got a blizzard going on outside and avalanche warning our area.

I'm inside and realized that I ought to come back and update on my progress at year end completion tasks.

one of them is either reading or else putting back on the shelf the 30 or so paper books taking up space on my desk in the To Read pile.

This is moving along well. In December when we started this I managed to finish 8 of those books, all of them loaners that I was able to return to their owners. Fell down a bit in January with only 4 books finished but came on strong again in February with 7 done. March is starting out well with 2 completed already! My to read pile now fits on top of the desk organizer with the exception of 4 paperback books still stacked in the "working" area of my desk.

One huge one that I know will give me a lot of mental space is defining the huge security/inventory/declutter group of projects regarding our house and farm.

This too is going well. Yes, my paper project support file is huge for this, nearly 2 inches thick now, but we have a very good inventory of absolutely everything we need or want to do related to clearing space in our lives, our house and the farm as a whole. I am no longer waking up in the middle of the night and capturing lots of additional items to add. I have noticed that I am capturing some items more than once now. I am using that as a signal that those need to become projects and get started.

I've turned most of the ones that keep reappearing in weekly mind sweeps into projects. One interesting discovery was that I needed to have several of the on-going clean-up type projects planned and ready to go. I can't focus on any one of them for very long before I go batty. So I am both cleaning up my computer filing system and purging the paper filing system at the same time.

We also successfully cleaned out and tossed enough of the stuff in the garage that was no longer needed so we have room for our new car inside.

I am now in that dangerous terroritory where I've been so many times before. A nice new system roughly 70% implemented. This is often the place that things sit for me so I decided to resurrect this thread to give me the push to finish.

Top 3 de-clutter projects right now:

1. Finish System clean-up on main and laptop computers
2. Finish paper filing system purge
3. Finish last 2 segments of the garage clean-up

So, how did everyone else do?