Launch lab: Planning to plan

Good morning Monday! I'm here with our second installment of lab work. (You can see Annie's first experiment here.) The idea is to try out new practices both in our homes and in preparation for the  launching / life-after-kids stage we are all flirting with at the moment. We want to DO things that are active and practical to see if they can better our lives in some small way. Play along with us (if you dare).

This is not ALL I plan on doing today. But I did need to get the picture taken. . .

For the next two weeks I'm going to have a small-ish planning meeting (with myself) each morning and evening. With the relatively unstructured days of summer looming large, I have a desire to be more deliberate in my life. I don't necessarily want to accomplish MORE THINGS, but I do want to be more mindful and devote my time to those tasks that will bear the most fruit. Lately, I feel myself giving up on the day by about 3 in the afternoon (sometimes watching House on Netflix while eating chocolate doughnuts). But then I'm frustrated by my lack of progress in many areas of my life (on the upside I could probably diagnose Sarcoidosis or Wegner's Disease with just a bit of bloodwork).

I've bought myself a new, fresh notebook, and I plan to make a list each morning of things I want to accomplish throughout the day. I'm going to purposely keep my list short (still working on three main things a day), but I'm also going to focus on being more specific within those three big things (ie exactly WHAT I will research/write that day, WHAT I will do to entertain the kiddos). Then, in the evening, I'll evaluate what ACTUALLY happened during the day and make notes about what is working and what isn't. Hopefully, this will make me more productive and give me some insight into those activities that are trivial or redundant or just not working. 

In the past there have been times when I've been a semi-planner in the morning -- jotting down a rough list of to do's. However, I've never finished the day with an evaluation/planning session, so that will be completely new. I'm committed to trying this out for two weeks (M-F, and then Saturday morning and Sunday evening), and I'll report my findings on Monday, May 19th. I know you'll all be waiting with baited breath!