The Dashing! The Daring! The Fly-By-The-Seat-Of-Your-Pants People!

Every once in a while, I get crazy.

I think that everyone else in the universe is organized, know exactly what they want to do, have just five hobbies and they space out those hobbies evenly throughout the week so that by the end of the month, there is some real progress.

And I think that I can be one of those people.

So I scourer the internet and the library and bookstore for books on how to organize the chaos. Time tables, to do lists, file cabinets, the works.

I enjoy the books, but I think in my head, it's fiction. It's a dream to be so organized.

And then after the organization-furry has faded, I'm left with how I normally do things.

I've 20-billion things I want to do in this life, and some I tried and stopped because it wasn't as fun as I thought. Some I try, stop, try again, stop, take a course, stop for years, pick it up and realize I'm no Picasso, watch a YouTube video on how to do it, try, stop, try. Some I just learn about, think it's so awesome and then forget about it until the next time I hear someone else did it, and think, "I could do that if I only had the time/resources."

And that's most of the things I do.

I'll get obsessions. Temporary ones. Like Chinese cooking. I'll drop everything for these obsessions and spend hours researching. And then I drop it when I am just picking up the gist, incorporating what I learned occasionally by picking it up again some night when I'm in the mood.

I suck at schedules and agendas and using those sometimes-irresistible black books. I buy the stupid things and then fill out some of the pages, but then I'll leave it at home or never open it up for months. I don't have time for it.

I've had to learn to accept that chaos is the only working nature in my life. Don't get me wrong, my house isn't messy. My desk is cluttered with the projects and books and stacks of things I'll clean out once in a while. That my to do lists get ignored for a reason. My best lists are my grocery store lists, I manage to stick to those, somewhat.

I think I feel better about it when I realize not everyone has an organized person inside waiting to spring forth, if only I find the right Excel spreadsheet.

Anyone else unable to keep up with the organizers and work better on whim-guidance?

I used to open a diary, write five pages of stuff, and then shut it and never look at it again.

Maybe it's because I can't read my own handwriting, anyway.

I LOVE Office Depot. I just know I won't use half the stuff in there.

But I'll pick up a box, so I can pile it on my other boxes of things to file, later.

I love Post-Its.

I write my grocery lists on them and then stick them to my wallet.

That's the extent of my usage.

Somehow I just remember homework and work I have to do. Maybe not perfectly but I do remember.

Weird!

Gugland, that's the awesomest idea ever.

I'm jealous of people who can keep track of things in a diary or notebook. I have notebooks for school for taking notes, but I bet by the end of the semester I'll be using scraps of paper and the notes bury themselves in my bag, only to be taken out a month after school is over.

I LOVE the pile idea. I am going to start that. Usually everything I work on tries to spread out over my desk. One pile might actually work.