Actually, I’m not a fan of cleaning. I do it, and if company is coming, I do it thoroughly, but there are a ton of things I’d rather be doing. If you like to clean, that’s cool. I think for most of us, cleaning is a chore and chores are boring.

However, a super clean can bring happiness, not in the doing, but in the finishing. There is a sense of contentment and accomplishment when you can sit on your sofa and know the cleaning is done and done well.

It’s Saturday. No one wants to clean on Saturday, so make a schedule today, and over the next week, dedicate yourself to cleaning one room a day. In a short amount of time, you’ll have your spring cleaning done. Be sure to enjoy the results. Plus, clean is vital in 2020, so it has a double reward.

If you have a way to make cleaning more enjoyable, let me know. I’m sure I’ll have to do more of it.

Two weeks an ideal length of time. It’s long enough to complete a goal, but short enough to keep your momentum going.

Why not pick a goal or project that you can finish in two weeks, and get started today. Break it into fourteen chunks and put it on your daily calendar. You’ll leap for joy on leap day when you reach your goal.

My 2018 scrapbook has been sitting in Shutterfly, unfinished, for a while now. It is fifty pages long, so if I journal and decorate four pages a day, I’ll be done by February 29th. I got behind on my scrapbooking, so it will feel good to get one done. Then I can use those 50% coupons Shutterfly keeps sending me.

Good luck with your project. Setting deadlines for goals is a great way to beat procrastination, something most of us need to conquer.

I was looking for a February poem and stumbled across a fun poetry style. The poem is called “28 Word Poem for February.” What a clever idea. Here it is.

“Freezing
cold winds,
biting chills, and
white snow fluffed hills
Valentine’s day, oh how gay!
presidents’ day is coming our way.
February, sweet and small, greatest month of all.”

Eric Lies, "28 Word Poem for February"

I wanted to write a poem about February. Of course, since it is a leap year, my poem has 29 words. I titled it “A Recipe for February in 29 Words.”

Start with a rodent,
Add a dash of love.
Toss in a president
or two.
Mix it with cold and snow
and just a dash of spring.
It's February!

Jennifer Vandenberg, "A Recipe for February in 29 Words"

That was quick and fun! Why not write your own 29-word February poem and share it in the comments. I’ll also post this on my Facebook page, and you can leave your poem there too. If you need a fun project for a group, this would be perfect. Everyone can be a poet.

February is the month for love. Saturday is a day for having fun. Why not combine the two and do something you love today. Better yet, why not plan to do something you love every day this month. You even get a bonus day because of Leap Day.

“Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~ Lucille Ball

I love watching Disney shows, and I signed up for Disney+ because I wanted to see my favorites, but I haven’t watched many this year. I plan to make a list of shows I want to see and watch them throughout February.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Do you have something you love to do, something fun that you have neglected because you’re busy? (Aren’t we all.) Why not plan to do it often in February? If you love doing it so much, you could continue doing it in March. And in April. And the rest of 2020.

I don’t know why but I like the pattern that today’s date makes. 1 – 10 – 20. It makes me want to use those numbers to get something done. So today I will finish one task I’ve been procrastinating on, declutter ten items, and work on cleaning my back porch for twenty minutes. Fun!!!

I’ve been having a problem receiving comments on this blog (I do get emails from some readers.) I’m going to work on that today, so I’d love it if you left a comment. Let me know what your 1 – 10 – 20 plan will be. It’s fun to go into the weekend with a smaller to-do list. Or maybe you’ll have your fun today using this plan.

If I successfully do this, I’ll be impressed. I tend to start projects like this and then stop after the first day. Perhaps if I tell you what I’m doing, you can hold me accountable.

I have mentioned the Before Breakfast podcast before. Laura Vanderkam is a time management expert, and her short, daily podcast provides real-life ideas for making the most of our time. She suggests that people track their time for a week to see how it is actually being used.

It’s easy to say, “I have no time,” but that probably isn’t true. You’re probably spending your time on things that don’t matter to you. One way to find out where your time is going is to write down everything you do for a week. I decided to attempt this because I want to manage my time better.

Laura has a free spreadsheet on her website, so I didn’t have to create my own. (Click here if you want to try this exercise for yourself.) I chose to measure my time in 15-minute chunks. I could have done thirty, but I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

I’ve been recording my time for just a few hours, and I’ve already learned something. I’m a flitter. I flit from task to task, often before anything is finished. For example, while I wrote this blog, I trimmed Hela’s nails, talked to my hubby, answered an email, and changed the kitty litter. I’ve read a lot of self-help books, so I know I’m not being productive. Or maybe I am. I’ll finish the chart and see.

As I stated above, I’m horrible at filling out charts on a long term basis. This is why I don’t record what I eat. I occasionally download a food app and use it for a day or two, and then I forget. I’d like to fill out my time chart for the whole week, so I set my phone timer to ding every half hour. Hopefully, that will keep me going.

If I actually fill out this chart, I’ll let you know what I learned. Ideally, I’ll see where I’m wasting time and make some changes, but that is a whole different focus. Right now, I’m just going to write down my activities. It shouldn’t take too much time.

This isn’t a chore I enjoy, so usually I procrastinate. I’m try to do less of that (we’ll discuss that on a different post) so I got them done.

I’ve had to write thank you cards all my life. I can remember my mom hounding me when I was a kid to finish my cards. My writing font is small, and I thought I’d never have enough to say to fill the entire card. Back then, I didn’t understand. All I had to say was thank you.

Nowadays, I handwrite my thank you cards because people like to get mail that isn’t bills or ads. I don’t expect the receipent to keep the card (don’t let me add to your clutter.) Read and recycle should be the goal. I expressed my thanks and the gift giver received a bit of special mail.

I’ve said this before, but the method of sending a thank you is less important than making sure you that you do. Text, email, or phone. It all works.

It’s nice to get a thank you card for a gift given, but I’m going to try and say thank you for all the nice things people do for me throughout the year. It’s easy, free, and much appreciated.

I’ll start right here. Thank you for reading my blog. I write them with you in mind.

I’m going to run at least one mile every day in 2020. The reason makes perfect sense to me. I have been planning this for more than a year.

Streaks are a lot of fun and easier than you think. When you’re doing a streak, all the excuses disappear. I’m going for a run each morning because I’m doing a streak. Not lacing up my shoes is not an option.

While running streaks are popular (the longest streak was for 52 years and 39 days), there are other streaks out there. You could journal every day, or take a photo of the same tree. Or you could read a book for fifteen minutes. Anything that you do every day of the year is a streak. It’s incredibly satisfying to see how much you did at the end of the year.

The most important thing to do, besides your challenge, is to record your daily efforts. A gold sticker on a calendar or a spreadsheet with Xs is all you need. If you want to do a running streak, I recommend recording it on  Smashrun. This website gives virtual badges for various runs and is why I’m running every day in 2020.

Join me in streaking. You don’t even have to take your clothes off.

After several ideas floated around my mind, I settled on the following plan. Many years ago, I made advent quilts for family members. This hanging quilt had twenty-four pockets, and each pocket held an index card. The cards had the day on one side and an activity on the other. The idea was that you would put the card in the pocket and do whatever activity was listed.

I didn’t make one for myself, but I still have my list of activities. So each day, I will blog about one of the activities. This will be fun for me because I haven’t read the list in years, so it will be a surprise and possibly a challenge to write about the activity of the day. Hopefu,lly, it will be fun for you because you’ll have an idea for a festive activity and you’ll learn something about the holidays.

The quilts I made were large, two feet by four feet. I think I’ll design a new, smaller advent calendar that incorporates the activities. That could be a nice gift for people next year. As you know, I like to get my gifts done as early as possible.

Thanksgiving is over. Hang the lights, decorate the house, and play the carols. It’s finally Christmastime!

It’s not as bad as it used to be, but I’m in the middle of finishing gifts, wrapping gifts, shipping gifts, occupying cats, hiding hubby’s papers from the cats, and reading a huge stack of books. All these projects are out in the open, so my office is a mess.

“If your desk isn’t cluttered, you probably aren’t doing your job.”

Harold S. Geneen

There is some debate as to whether a messy desk (or office) encourages or discourages creativity. For me, a messy office brings my creativity to a halt. But what am I do? I can’t finish everything today, so I have to ignore the mess and type on.

“Then there’s the joy of getting your desk clean, and knowing that all your letters are answered, and you can see the wood again.”

Lady Bird Johnson

I can’t handle it. I’m going to clean my office today. Otherwise, nothing will get done.

Do you work better with a messy desk or a clean one? I need your input because I can’t think anymore.