The Accomplishment List

Back when I worked as a librarian at Lorillard Tobacco, my supervisor (Hi Larry!) had each of us on his team submit our list of accomplishments at month's end. It wasn't a "big brother is watching" tactic but more of a way for him to keep up-to-date on what we were doing. 

I fell in love with this practice. Hello, it's a list, right? I kept a sheet of paper on my desk and just jotted a quick bullet point every time I completed a task. A lot of them were minor things that never made it into my report to Larry but there was still a huge satisfaction in looking over the list and thinking, "Hell yeah, I got all that done." 

I recently decided to readopt this practice. I think it was Blair coming home one day and innocently asking, "What did you do today?" I knew I'd done something, I just couldn't put my finger on what, exactly.

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Perhaps Medication Would Help

Today's blog post is more for my benefit than yours. I don't know if we're in some weird phase of the moon or if perhaps latent ADD has kicked in, but scattered is the only word to describe my mental processes these days. I have an abundance of "stuff" begging to be checked off the list but I'm paddling with one oar and going in circles. I thought maybe taking a little breather to just sit back and list what needs to happen in my life might calm me down and provide a little focus.

Dena's "I Must Be In Control & Do Everything Or Die Trying" List

Arts Council - Type and submit Membership/Fundraising committee notes, follow-up with member on hosting radio show, prepare press release, friend on FB fan page

Blue Ridge Relay - 208 mile race starts this Friday! To buy: headlamp, socks, travel pillow DO LAUNDRY! Bring: sheet, cash, towel, blanket, pillowcase, video recorder, reflective vest and light, notebook/pen, travel games, extra shoes...

Animal Protection Society/Western Rockingham Chamber of Commerce coffee - The APSRC is hosting a chamber coffee this Thursday from 8-9 AM at the Hunter House Bed & Breakfast (my neighbors!). I'm the rep for our group. WED: pick up bagels at Panera. Buy regular coffee to make. Check with B&B about using their coffeepot. Buy orange juice, fruit. Review recent stats of animals helped for mini-speech as coffee host. 

Book Promotion: Finish going through Twitter pals to send postcards to. Arrange blog tour. Compile list of people willing to write reviews and send to publicist. E-mail nice woman who has been waiting over a week for my response about appearing on her pod cast. 

Decide what to write for my next book. (No, I can't even think about it now. My brain will explode.) 

November Speech - I'm a guest speaker in November at the international Cat Writer's Association in NY. Haven't started on my talk and quite a bit of research is involved. Yeah. Also, contact hotel and make sure room has Wi-Fi capabilities

Buy plane ticket. Flying to Chicago in October to visit my sister and then will drive back to NC with my Mom, her cat, and her overweight Maltese who is afraid of the car. Call sister & mom to coordinate arrival/departure dates.

Answer e-mails - Friends and clients are waiting for responses. Book project for client is on hold. Must. Do. Now.

Dinner: Needs to sit in fridge at least an hour to mix flavors and will take about 30 minutes to make. 

Okay, all of the above needs to happen before Thursday at 2:30 PM. After that, I'm gone to Blue Ridge to test my legs against some hills. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel calmer seeing it all written out. Now it's just a matter of focusing and going down the list one by one, until everything is done. 

Deep breaths,

Dena 

No Time To Blog

My apologies for the slow blog week. The days keep slipping away from me. For about two weeks now I've been walking around thinking, "By tomorrow I'll be caught up." You'd think at some point I'd clue in that I'm lying to myself, but it turns out I'm pretty gullible...

What have I been up to? Survey says:

  •  Art Council Open House. I sit on the board of the Rockingham County Arts Council and we're launching a kickoff gallery party on Sunday, December 13th, from 1-5 at the Dan River Art Gallery in Wentworth. Lots of meetings, planning, phone calls, editing brochures and invitations, etc. 
  • Along with that, I discovered that I am the worst fundraiser on the planet. Yes, on the entire planet. I had to make some fundraising calls...
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