Hey Everyone,
I mentioned a few days ago that we would reach a point when I would recommend reviewing the things that didn’t get done this December.
I usually hate doing that kind of thing because I don’t like how it feels (yes, I know it can be beneficial but I still don’t like it!) but I think it can be very useful from a Making Space perspective.
In fact, it can be useful for making space this year (freeing yourself from feeling badly about tasks you didn’t get to) and for next year (identifying tasks that can be done at other times, by other people, or in a different way AND tasks that you don’t want to include in future lists.)
For starters, if we look at those tasks in the context of what *did* get done, then we can immediately see that, for various reasons, we probably didn’t actually have a lot of space to fit those tasks in.
And we can see if there are any tasks on there that seemed like a good idea at the beginning but that we weren’t actually all that interested in doing. If we want, we can spend a little time thinking about why we felt the need to put them on the list in the first place but we can also feel free to put them on a ‘don’t bother with these’ list for next year.
We can also see if there are any tasks or projects that would have been fun but that we didn’t have the time, capacity, or resources to do in December. For those, we may be able to choose another time of year to start those tasks or to gather resources to do them next December.
And if there are projects or tasks that could be done by other people, we may want to take some time now to make some notes so the people we ask to take on those tasks will have the resources they need to complete them without getting on our nerves too much. (ha!)
Finally, while we are in note-making mode, we can also jot down some info for ourselves about how we did certain things, anything we would like to do in a different way or at a different time, things we forgot this year that we’d like to remember next year, basically anything that would make December 2026 easier on ourselves.
When I make notes for my future self, I either 1) put them in a Google Doc, invite myself to edit it, and then snooze it to a good date when the invite arrives in my email or 2) create an event in my online calendar for a specific future date and then put the notes directly in the notes section or 3) put a note on a specific future date on my digital or analog calendar that tells me where the notes are.
Yes, this is another set of tasks for our current selves but organizing information in this way often helps me to create brain space right now – I assume it is because I am giving the information a container rather than letting it float around.
Also, I’m pretty sure that thinking this through will help our future selves have more brain space AND to make more space in their schedules for the things they want to do because some of the thinking will already be done for them.
But, as the same time, I recognize that everyone has their own way of doing things so if this process isn’t something that appeals to you or if it doesn’t seem useful, please ditch it entirely and do something else that feels spacious and good.
And I am wishing you ease today and always.
Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:
And here’s our suggested mindfulness practice:
