Words. Again.

Back at the end of 2015 I posted about the words I had highlighted on a doodled mind-map of how I wanted to prioritise my time. I still have the mind-map, front and centre under the heading Big Picture on the Trello board on which I attempt to organise my life. The words are just as relevant now as they were when I first drew the mind-map two years ago and it seems a good time to do a stock take and look at how I am doing ...

Margin - working part time instead of full time has been the key to giving myself margin. It took me a little while to wind down and learn to just "be", but these days there is margin in my life and time to spend just puttering. The downside is that puttering time easily becomes screen time and I get sucked into a social media and Google vortex. Having time to waste is a good thing to a point, in that it is truly downtime; mindlessly looking at pictures of sleeping dogs or reading click-bait is not good.

Declutter - the stuff is going. Slowly. It still feels as though there is a lot more to do, but I hope that in another year or so I may feel that the clutter monster is, if not defeated, at least definitiely on the losing side. 

Family - again, working part time has definitely meant more time for my family. M and I now have free time together during the week while our youngest daughter is at school, and I have far more energy to do things with her at weekends and in school holidays.  Time spent with her older sisters tends to be more a matter of their schedule than mine, and it is good that I have more flexibility to fit round their busy lives. 

Friends - I am still not as good at organising myself to get together with friends as I should be, but at least I now have the energy and time to make it much easier. 

Music - more time, more music, though as I find it hard to resist the temptation to add in extras I probably end up doing more than I should. I hoped that with more time I would get round to taking some lessons, but it hasn't happened.  

Read - yes! finally! I said that I struggled to get into the habit of reading, but this year I think I have cracked it. I challenged myself on GoodReads to read 52 books this year and so far I am keeping up - a third of the year and 17 books in. One thing that has helped me to read more is starting the day by picking up a book and reading in bed for a while before getting up, rather than turning on my iPad and catching up on Facebook ... and the news ... and a bit of Twitter ... and whatever else I click through. There are still days where social media wins, but most days I read a book. I have come to the conclusion that reading "real" books works better for me than ebooks. Once I step away from a screen I am more inclined to stay away from it. 

Create - not much writing done lately, but I have the possibility of a major project on the horizon. I said I wanted to bake more, but it hasn't happened. This year's new creative outlet has been making bobbin lace, which I am finding slow but satisfying. 

Yoga - I know yoga still makes me feel better but I struggle to do it regularly, particularly since I gave up gym membership and can no longer take classes there. I have been doing classes at a yoga studio rather erratically, but have signed up for a new local weekly classes which are starting at the end of the month.

Outdoors - M and I have been walking more or less regularly since the beginning of last year, trying to get out at least once a week. It tends not to happen in school holidays and sometimes life gets in the way, but it has definitely become a priority for us. 

Breathe - still trying to just breathe! My Apple Watch reminds me to breathe, but I am afraid I usually ignore it.