Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Goals for Week of Dec 5th

I have gotten into a bad habit of late. I am very driven by lists; they help me focus on what I need to do and when I need to do it. If something is just floating around in my head, it often disappears when I actually get down to work. Now what was that I thought I needed to do today? There's also I real sense of accomplishment as items get crossed off a list. I seem to need concrete evidence that I have been productive. Making and managing lists is one way I can track that.

Whenever I get the sense I've been drifting, I can often trace it back to neglecting to make a list. Lists are a way of setting goals, and without goals, we really are apt to drift in a most unproductive way. My reading of The Creative Habit has reminded me I've been lax about making my weekly "to do" lists lately, and have totally neglected setting out definite goals for my quilting. No wonder I've been floundering in the studio.

So I started yesterday off by making out my general list of things to do this week, and then took it one step further by grabbing a fresh notebook and titling it: Project Lists/Weekly Goals. It's been too long since I listed all the in-process projects and yet-to-be started ones and prioritized them. I've just been carrying them around in my head and letting them weigh me down. The notebook is a safe place to put them so my mind can deal with now.

As for the weekly goals, I've not done this much, except if I'm working to deadline and need to make a certain amount of progress each day in order to meet it. In the book, Twyla talks about managing your time and how it is trickier to do when you have all the time in the world. Limits and limitations really do make us more productive and creative, in spite of our grousing about it. I'm in one of those periods with nothing immediately pressing so setting some arbitrary weekly deadlines, or goals, is just what I need to get motivated and moving, I think.

So here are this week's goals:
  1. Experiment with 3-pocket purse idea
  2. Finish out reunion photo printed on fabric
  3. Experiment with stamping?
  4. Complete 1/2 of hand quilting on corner square of Lone Star Quilt
I was only going to put the first two on the list, but thought perhaps I should challenge myself a little more. I'm hoping that the first two will be done quickly so that Friday will feel like a free play day, and I'll tackle that stamping. As for the hand quilting, that's my time in front of the TV at night and I've been lazy about pulling over the hoop and working on it. Perhaps if I expect to get so far this week, I actually will.

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