Planning for Productivity

I had every intention to post a new recipe today. I baked up a storm this afternoon and I have a picture of the mess here to prove it. Yes, I am a messy cook. I know it is better to clean as you go, but I figure if everything is out and dirty anyway, might as well see how far you can go before you have to wash or put something away :). Perhaps a somewhat flawed, but for me, very effective philosophy. However, I only cook like that when I am by myself. haha Oddly enough, I am usually the one keeping things neat and clean when I am cooking with others. Go figure.

I made banana coconut chocolate chip cookies (or rather the dough as I haven't baked them yet).

Apple Crisp

Buckwheat Apple Date Coffee Cake topped with Coconut and Pumpkin seeds

Unfortunately, though they were all good, they were not post-worthy. The apple crisp was a great concept, but turned out too crumbly and the apples a bit rubbery. I do look forward to eating it the rest of the week for breakfast though :).  

As for the coffee cake, I need to make some alterations on that as well. I only used buckwheat flour and the flavor was a bit too earthy for my taste. I think adding carrots as well as using only half buckwheat and half oat flour would make it superb. I will have to try that soon! 

Since I have no recipe, I want to share something else that has been percolating lately. Currently I am a stay at home wife :). We moved here in August and I plan to start college classes full-time in January. I have kept from applying to find part-time work in hopes of being able to accomplish more at home. I spent the first several weeks working on the house, unpacking, and organizing. I have most of that done now, and don't want to waste the blessing of having so much time at home. I want to take advantage of this time and learn and grow as much as I can personally before things get crazy and busy again. 

I don't know about you, but the problem that I have is wanting to do too much. I felt pulled in so many directions and couldn't focus on anything long enough to get anywhere. My brain was constantly going a 100 miles an hour, I had a hard time sleeping, and I was exhausted! So, with Chris' help, I came up with a plan to write down everything I wanted to accomplish before January next year. I have them categorized by relationships, money, home improvement, self-improvement, and green living. Each of those has sub-categories where I wrote specific goals. For example I have concrete things like switch to natural house cleaning products, use re-usable containers and towels instead of ziplocs and paper towels, start a worm compost system, adhere to a stricter budget, learn to crochet, and learn how to effectively use coupons. Some of them are more like habits I want to cultivate such as practicing yoga, scripture memorization, read more classic literature and being a better listener. 

Then, I made a schedule to write out what I will do each week. Today was my first day on the schedule and I quite like it. I am curious to see how well I follow it. For now this is an experiment to ascertain what motivates me and the best way to plan. I am not looking to be too strict, I just needed to provide for myself from structure to be more productive and help make my abstract goals a bit more tangible. I will check back and let you know if this endeavor succeeds in helping me get more done. 

How do you organize your day? What motivates you to get things done?