At Year's End | Three

When you have a big de-cluttering project to tackle, it can be helpful to set-up three bins: one for stuff you want to keep, another for trash, and one for stuff you want to give away.

I'm taking the same approach to de-cluttering my life in the year ahead. I've labeled my personal bins according to what I want to Keep Doing, Stop Doing, and Start Doing. Once a season I plan to go through this process again to reaffirm, reassess, and re-commit.

Keep Doing:

• A few months ago I bought a small weekly planner that I use as a diary. Each morning I write a sentence or two about what happened the day before. It's not reflective like a journal...it's just a chronicle of things like the first snowfall of the season, places I visited, people I talked to, stuff I did. The small spaces force me to be brief and succinct. This diary habit has been very valuable to me. 
• Singing and praying first thing in the morning with my children.
• A crossword puzzle everyday--it's really important for me to find little ways to amuse my nervous brain, especially during the winter months. 
• Give more focused time and attention to my children, their goals, and learning. My time with them is passing so quickly; I want to make every hour count. Our home learning is going really well, and I want to keep the momentum going with good plans for the winter and spring terms.
• Nurturing the Light within by chasing away all dark thoughts and practicing a spirit of cheerfulness.

Stop Doing:

• Wasting time and mental energy on things that don't matter.
• Eating sugary foods.
• Drinking too much tea--I'm going to limit myself to five cups a day: two in the morning, one in the afternoon, and two in the evening.
• Buying books. In 2013 my goal is to use the library exclusively (my house is full of books, which I plan to clean-out and donate this year). 
• Stashing yarn. The plan is to only buy yarn for the next project. No more someday yarn purchases!
• Reading books that make me anxious and sad. I am a highly sensitive person; I need to be really careful about what I expose myself to.
• Staying up past eleven o'clock.

Start Doing: 

• Keep in better touch with people. Send more hand-written notes and letters. In this age of quick and thoughtless communication nothing says, You matter to me, more than a little bit of real mail.
• Read more classic literature, histories, biographies, and nature writings. I have a too-active brain--if I don't engage and challenge my mind, my thinking becomes muddled and obsessive.
• Get more exercise. I walk a mile and a half most days and swim and hike all summer long, but I need more physical activity during the winter months. 
• Try new recipes. I've fallen into a rut with cooking. It's time to try new dishes that have fresh greens and vegetables as the primary ingredients.
• Be smarter about garden planning. I grew too many carrots and cucumbers last year...not enough tomatoes and broccoli...and the wrong kind of beans.
• Take notes--on everything. This is the year I want to begin a habit of making lists of gift ideas, book lists, quotes I want to remember, observations. At almost forty-five my memory is not as finely-tuned as it once was. I know that good notes are the key to being highly effective and reducing a whole lot of stress.