Listing

Leonardo's bones and a parrot. It's in process. Don't know where that's going.

Anymore than we usually know where a day is going, right?

Every day I start out with a list - some items so priority one that they actually get done - - others are bounced around and even bumped by things that come up.

Its not a great system - but its the one I worked out years ago and I am used to it.

The best thing about it is - once something is on the list - - it will be done.

The first "organizer" book I ever noticed was a blue fabric covered, smallish 3 ring binder that a student in one of my 1970s art history classes at American University had devised. She was also pursuing her Masters in Fine Art and was preparing for her Comprehensive exams. She explained how she had sectioned it for topics she thought would be covered on the exams - and added new information as she studied.  Low cost. Easy to use. I still have the faded blue fabric covered note books I bought at the American University Bookstore 37 years ago - to make a system like hers for myself.

Later in the 70s I discovered "Day Timers". That's a more expensive system which sends you a set of 12  smallish calender- books, one for each month. I chose two pages for each day style. It arrived in a black or brown plastic box - a house to keep the books in. Your life for the year. I used those until 2000. Convenient record books - when you are really using them. "Day Timers" saw me through the ERA Campaign, and several other heavy-duty administrative jobs.

Once I started full time storytelling - I switched to a cheaper system. Now I use quad-ruled composition books from Staples - as a brain - along with a cheap, small monthly calendar that fits in my purse.

I write everything in my brain- appointments, telephone numbers, conversations, ideas, plans, LISTS. I use one brain a month. Not a very organized system I admit - and its cumbersome - because I store them in large cardboard file boxes.

Lately I am keeping calendars on my iPod and iPad too.  And, I use an Apple app, Notes, to keep my lists.

But you know someting? Organization is hard. Try as I do, something always slips through. Often leaving me with egg on my face.