The Ultimate Organization Tool

Hello my lovely readers! I had this blog ready last week however I forgot to post it. I will not be posting an extra blog this week because of my mental health but I will work on something for next week! So without further ado let's begin!

Have you ever heard of a bullet journal? It’s not a journal shaped like a Bullet Bill (although that would be cool) it’s a system invented by a guy named Ryder Carroll to make the world’s most

customizable and organized to-do list. If you’re the kind of person who writes stuff down like dates, appointments, to-dos, etc and then promptly loses them or leaves them in a pile of said notes then this system will be a life saver. The point of a bullet journal (or bujo) is to keep all of your scribbles in a single notebook with an index so that when you want to look for Aunt Marge’s birthday all you have to do is flip to page 78. It’s made up of and index, daily log, yearly log, future log, and general pages. Sound complicated? It’s not as bad as it seems.

Let’s start with the most basic stuff first. Get a notebook and a pen, any notebook and any pen. My favorite notebooks have graph paper but that is completely optional! This is meant to be for everybody and anybody to use. 

Next create a key. This is basically a set of symbols you use to show you what the note is about. I’ll link to a video of Carroll’s key here but you don’t have to use his, I’ve modified it to suit my needs. The big part is to STAY SIMPLE. If you make it too complicated you won’t want to use it.

Then we have the annoying part, numbering your pages. You’ll see why it’s super important later but for now just go ahead and number them. I chose to number every other page and only do 20 or so at a time. That’s just me though, you do you.

The first four or so pages are your index so label them accordingly. Whenever you add something to your bujo you add it to the index, more on that later. The next four are your future log which is basically a yearly to-do list. You’re sister’s birthday is in June? Stick it in the future log. Know you have a dentist appointment in august? Log it.

Now is where you’re free to organize this however you want. If you wanted to stop and write down some plans for world domination in page 9, do that! The only thing you have to remember is to log it in your index. If, down the road you ran out of room on page nine and wanted to add some on page 53 you can do that too. Just add ‘,53’ to the ‘world domination’ log in your index.

Wherever you feel like stopping at is where we’ll do the next section, the monthly log. The monthly log is basically you’re to-do list for that month. All of the tasks, events and gift planning you have to do this December can be added here. The way the original creator set his up is a two page spread with a monthly overview on one side and a more detailed list on the other. Mine is slightly different as my Monthly log and future log have become kind of blended together. That’s the cool thing about this system. It’s so customizable!

Now comes my favorite part of this system, the daily log. This is

where you put everything you have to do each day. Divide your page into sections large enough to put your list, for me it’s three as that’s how big my notebook is. Then write the day and its date on each section, this is the start of your daily log. Don’t forget to put it in your index and let’s move on to how to make the Bullet Journal system actually work.

Just having the setup doesn’t make it useable, you have to have instructions right? The bujo system has a process called migration which is what makes it so useful. Basically when you start a new day’s to-do list you look back yesterday’s to-do’s and move them to where they need to go. If you’re done with it, cross it out. If you need to do it today, put an > to show that you’ve moved it to another day. If is doesn’t need to be done this month, use < to show that it’s been moved to the monthly log. This way you never miss a to-do. It either gets done, moved, or deleted.

And there’s the basics. Still confused? I had a hard time making everything seem organised so I’m sorry if it’s hard to follow. Look at this video which does a good job of using visuals to explain it. It's where I got my original inspiration to start using the system. I hope I could help you get more organized along with me so tell me if you’re wanting to start using the bullet journal down in the comments section and for now…

TTFN! That’s Ta Ta For Now!

Millennials SUCK. Right?

Hello my lovely readers, Happy Thanksgiving! Week one of my end-of-year-resolution has come and gone with pretty good success considering I was traveling half the week. I still am traveling as a matter of fact but I said I’d post every week and I meant it!

Have you heard of the wage gap? Supposedly women earn $0.75 to a man’s $1.00. I wouldn’t know I haven’t researched it. I have however researched an even more important wage gap that I find spoken about quite a bit less; the problem with minimum wage.

So many Americans are working full-time for a minimum wage and yet they aren’t able to get by. You hear older people say ‘back in my day I earned a living on $2.50 an hour’ and that’s true, the minimum wage was $2.30 an hour and was acceptable working pay for somebody working in the 1970s. But adjusting for inflation they were being paid the equivalent of $9.47 an hour, $2.17 more than minimum wage today. Remember when you could buy a bar of chocolate for ten cents? That’s a dollar plus tax today which is the product of inflation. A Dollar is worth a lot less in today’s economy than it was when my grandpa was a kid.

So why are millennials that are asking for a decent wage getting painted as lazy and entitled? Why is

it that somebody with a bachelor’s degree can be told they’re just not trying hard enough when they can’t seem to get a better job?

This is a video interviewing a woman who; was working for yelp; found both her and her coworkers were struggling financially; sent a professional letter to her CEO; and promptly got fired. She then posted a blog about her experience which caused an absolute uproar. Another woman wrote a scathing blog about her which was then quoted by Ben Sasse in his book The Vanishing American Adult. You tell me if they were correct in thinking that Millennials are entitled pricks.

Whew, I did it! First blog of the end of the year. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!

TTFN! That’s ta ta for now!

End of Year Resolution

2018 is coming up and I don't know about you guys but I am determined to beat some sanity into the Picasso painting that is my life. The problem is that I say this every year and every year I completely and utterly fail. So I am embarking on a journey of self discovery and organization and I would love for you, my wonderful readers to join me.

Just kidding! I know the only person who reads my blogs is imaginary friend Bob. (hi bob! how's the wife?) So today I’m gonna tell y’all my game plan because if I don’t put it out there for the world (or bob) to see then it will NOT get done.

My biggest problem when it comes to my productivity is my mental and physical health. In case some of you don’t know, I have been diagnosed with clinical depression and I am also trying to get a diagnosis for various physical problems as well, the biggest of which is my digestion. I have very unpredictable stomach aches that have caused me to practically avoid eating altogether. In a typical day I probably consume around 300 calories which is a VERY BAD THING and it’s probably the reason I am so tired all the time. No fuel = no working engine. So I’m going to change this.

my problems and while I don’t fully think that it’s going to fix everything I am going to start exercising. I’m super lucky that my college has a free fitness center for me to go to and while I love taking walks around campus I’d really love to watch videos on my phone while I’m in an air-conditioned room. What can I say? I’m a nerd.

At the moment my pantry is absolutely bursting full of food I don’t

want and will probably never eat; it’s basically the equivalent of looking at a full closet and saying I have nothing to wear. So it’s getting donated and we are starting over! As of right now I will only be buying foods that I definitely will eat and that are good for me in some way. I’m gonna ask some friends for good meals to make during the weekend and eat over the week because my lunch at the moment is a cup of ramen and I promise you right now I will not have the patience to make my lunch every day for school!

As for my depression, I think planning my day out and having a set schedule is going to be a key to lessening the stress in my life, however, as a child my family tried to implement one and it ended up causing more harm than good. Stress to get everything done in the time I was given and the pressure of being grounded if I didn’t get it all done made everything so much more stressful than it needed to be. When I finally get my schedule implemented I will make sure to give you whatever advice I can. (even though I have no idea what I’m doing)

It’s also been told to me time and time again that exercise is the cure-

all for all that ails me and while I don't necessarily believe it'll fix everything I know it's supposed to help with depression and it's just something that's important to do. I am fortunate enough to have a free fitness center on my campus and I am going to bring my phone to watch videos which will make the experience more enjoyable. Yes I'm a nerd, don't judge me.

And finally I am going to declutter! I am a hoarder of things I don’t need or want. My bathroom is agony to clean because I never throw away a single jar, bottle, or box. My bedroom is covered in junk that I used once and never bothered to look at again. And my closet is full to bursting with clothes I’ve either outgrown or feel uncomfortable in. So we are cleaning house! Goodbye nearly empty lotion bottles, hello bathroom cabinet with neatly organized feminine hygiene products! I can’t wait to have all my hair ties color coordinated.

Now since I am bringing you on this journey with me I am making a decision to post something every week for the rest of 2017. I want to document the experience and keep myself accountable. As I begin to organize I will share the process and how it works for me since the goal here is to set up a working system that I can take with me into the rest of my adulthood.

If you’re still here thanks for reading! It means a lot to me. (seriously bob it means a ton) I also apologise for the weird formatting. Blogger really doesn't like it when I move things over from Microsoft Word.

TTFN

That’s tata for now!

The Garden

I want to sit in the garden by my Jesus and lay in the sun at his feet. We don’t talk. We just sit. Listening to the sounds of the garden. All of you can wait while I’m with my Daddy. Your problems are no longer mine. Because He’s here. And He loves me. And the voices stop. I can think again. But I don’t want to think, I want to listen. To the birds my Daddy made just for me, to sing my cares away. He made them for you too. You can come to the garden with me. Just don’t talk to me there. It’s not a place for words. It’s a place to lay at His feet and let him hold your heart.

In the garden He doesn’t care what you do, He just wants you to be there. Because everything about you is perfect to Him. You can laugh or cry or scream or sing but my favorite thing to do is just be. In his garden where nobody cares what you are, you’re just His. And no matter what you say, he knows what you mean.

It’s peaceful here in the garden. It’s just the way He wanted it. Just the way He planned it to be for you. Come into Daddy’s garden and lay at His feet.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God: and so we are. 1John 3:1

Think

There is a story I’ve started that I will someday publish about three girls. The first girl is named Muse. She is motherly and caring and capable of keeping them together. The second girl is Chrystal. She is strong and stable, mastering discipline and self-control. The final girl is Kida, her name means warrior. She has lost who she is, or if she ever was. She must learn how to live again. They are all very different but not one can exist without the other.

Because each one of them is me. I am the first girl, the one who loves like a mother and cares for everyone she meets. I am the second girl, the one who is a leader and a protector. I am stronger than I look and wiser than my age. Lastly I am the third girl, I have lost myself, everything I used to be is now gone.

I have forgotten how to be me. 

The first girl will have to teach the other girls how to be a family. The second will have to learn how to lead them. The third will have to find a new person to be, because she had her old identity ripped from her. These are all struggles I have to go through; I will be a mother to the broken, a leader to the lost, and a new being in Christ.

But don’t forget that even though I am the mother and a leader I am still trying to find what was stolen from me. My identity was taken from me in the form of an abusive relationship and a broken home. I am a mother to my own mother, do you think I could come away from that unscathed? I cannot clean my home, I cannot brush my teeth, I cannot remember who I am!

My depression comes from brokenness and sadness but it also comes from making myself again from scratch. I have to learn basic tasks again as if they were never taught to me before. I have to force myself to breathe on occasion. 

And at times it feels like you’re all talking at once. All telling me something I have to do, someone I have to be, and some expectation that you pushed upon me and it ends up that I am in a whirlwind of emotions; a hurricane of words all crashing around me and I’m scared and confused and frustrated and suffocated and all I can do is scream because maybe if I’m loud enough the words will stop and I can just-

Think.

Just let me think.

The dishes will get done. My homework will be finished. And I will talk to you eventually. Soon. When I’ve had a chance to think. But for now.

Just let me.

Think.

The Death Of Heroin

There was a man I once knew. He was a good man with a good heart. But he was from a lost family in a lost world and he felt like he had lost something deep inside himself. Desperately he searched for something to replace what he'd lost. But, as is always the case when you go looking to fill your emptiness in the wrong places, he found himself in the clutches of a great monster: heroin.
Now heroin is a parasite that promises to fill your emptiness. But all it ever does is devour your life, health and happiness. And this is exactly what it proceeded to do to the man. Eventually his wife divorced him for the sake of their children and he lost everything he ever had. His sons were broken, his wife was empty and they were all too hurt and angry to let him come back. The monster was continuing to consume their lives, even when they thought it was gone. Many more things were lost: one son lost his freedom, the other lost his faith, and his wife lost her sight. But the most tragic loss of all by far is that of the man himself. You see the parasite wasn't just taking away the man's life on the outside, it was sucking his life from the inside also.
And this is what makes this story so so sad. The man, the good man with a good heart, died.
He never got to find what he was looking for. And his children will always know him this way, the broken man with the parasite. His wife will always look for another man, and never find one quite like him.
I will go to his funeral tomorrow, I and his two sons and his wife. And I will see for the first time what this monster has done to him. I will cry for him because he will not get to show his children he's sorry. I will cry more, I think, for his family because they have lost yet another thing and therefore have something else to search for. But I will cry most for a wasted life.
The man was my uncle. And this is his story. He seemed unimportant but he was not. Because his story is my cousin's story. And they cannot escape it. It's not a story to them, it's a living nightmare. So if you have a moment think about the man. Pray for his children. Pray for his wife. Pray that this monster, this parasite will die. Pray for the death of Heroin.

R.I.P. Danny 1/19/2017