I am often asked how I am able to get so many things done in life....  Quite frankly, it's all smoke and mirrors... I generally don't talk about all of the things that I wanted to do, but didn't get to.  I prefer not to mention my shortcomings for everyone to know...it's just one of those things.

And while many of you who may think you know me think that I hate "writing things down"... I am a chronic list maker, and always have been.  My first week of college, nursing school, we were taught to make an organizational schedule.  I think that this was one of the most valuable lessons I learned during those three years.  We were to write down every single thing we planned on accomplishing that shift... take notes of important things to remember, because in an emergent situation you may not be able to think about some small detail, but it may be something that is important to someone else's wellbeing.  We were also told that when the task was done to cross it off as a reminder, but also as validation of accomplishment (IMO).

I hate to have a formal calender so what I rely on the most is a single piece of printer paper, or sometimes a big envelope.    I tend to write out the days of the week and put the mandatory appointments such as work, dentists or hair appointements, etc. and then fill in what chores I plan on doing each day.  I schedule in exercise and school lessons...any task that I aspire to this week goes on this list.  I also generally start a grocery list on it too as the week's menu is also listed.   Then each morning over breakfast I sit down with the big list and plan out my day. 
I also realize that some days I am just not going to feel like doing everything on the list.  But then I think, "It's my job to take care of these things, do I just not go to work if I don't feel like it?"  I try to keep this attitude, but often I do just reschedule.

I also take the same approach with household budgeting.  I list every payday for a year and everything we need to spend on over the next year. 

I once read the flylady book about organizing, and while I think she has some valid ideas I don't agree with one of her primary principles.  She stresses how bad perfectionism is.   This was the first time I had ever heard this idea... I always thought that we should want to be perfect and try to be perfect....

Now, I'm not completely delusional; I know that I am far from perfect.   I realize that being caught up in having the "perfect" life and being the "perfect wife, mother, Christian, or fill-in-the-blank" is out there, but I always thought, and still believe that just because we can't get there doesn't mean we shouldn't try.  I think that alot of it comes down to our attitudes and how we react when we don't meet out goals.  I believe in setting my goals really high...  if I make my goals, great, and if I only make half of my daily goals, great...

For me, I would prefer to reach half of a high standard that to shoot too low and reach them all.  I like to push my potential and see what I really can accomplish in life.

I guess my feeling is this: make high goals, but don't become a slave to them.  Don't let your plan make you feel held back from enjoying life.  You tend to spend your time where your priorities really are.... if you really want to accomplish more with school... plan out how you are going to do it and then do it. 

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When I was a kid my parents were divorced and while we lived in Georgia with my mother, my natural father lived in Seattle.  We would be shipped out there every summer and generally had fun with nannies.  I remember Mt Ranier looming over the city and how magnificient it was...

As an adult I moved to Seattle a short time as a nurse traveler (Really cool job, BTW).  I had lived in Seattle for about a week and would drive down I-5 every morning to my job at Harborview Medical Center.  It was dark at first, but I never saw the mountain.  I was really disappointed as I figured that it was just so huge in my memory as a kid... you know how things seem so big to you as a kid, but then don't when you're grown?

Well, one morning the sun was coming up and I was looking for the mountain, when I saw it suddenly.... I hadn't been looking high enough.  I was setting my sights just above the skyline of the city, and it loomed more amazingly high that even I had remembered.

Don't set your sights too low, you might reach them.