The Journey Begins Online

I decided it would be a good idea to start a blog and share my experience with anyone interested. Sounds typical, right?

Well here's what I'm proposing - a summer long project where I remove procrastination from my life. Big goal - and yes, I wonder how much I'll achieve, and how long it will last - but that's why I have you (if you are out there!), you'll keep me honest.

I've always succeeded when I put my mind to something, but it was a lot more fun when I had a partner. Six years ago, I trained for my first long distance running event, a half-marathon, and then a full marathon (26.2 miles). I trained on the weekend with CARA (a Chicago area running group), and during the week, I trained with a friend that lived close to me. We ran at the same pace, both enjoyed talking during runs, and I didn't want to let her down with an excuse to not work out, and she also experienced the same accountability to me. We trained for months together, and then right at the halfway point of training, I had to have surgery.


The surgery was major enough to take me out of the rest of training, but I did run a few miles with her during the marathon to support her. The following year she moved, and I found a different training partner. Again, a great friend, we were dedicated to running together, and we both successfully completed the Chicago Marathon.

So I'm looking to you for support, advice, thoughts, feelings on how procrastination has affected your life. Here's what I've been experiencing and why I decided to start this project.


Two months ago, I heard a podcast about the Happiness Project, and thought it was an interesting idea. I thought about my life and what isn't going as smoothly as I liked (and trust me, there's a lot!), and I realized my To Do list is never ending. At times it can be overwhelming.


My husband and I have a spreadsheet called a brain dump. The idea is to free your mind of all the things you need to do, assign importance to them (to do now, next week, in the future, never do), and tackle the list when you have time. Who has time?! Our latest brain dump had 100+ items on it, anything from change a light bulb to create baby album (my son is now 2+ years old - whoops!).


I also live in an apt with a lot of clutter. My husband may be a borderline hoarder. He attaches sentimental value to items, when he sells things on ebay he wants to be sure it goes to a good home (things, not animals), and he doesn't have the organization gene in him. Opposites attract indeed!


Our home has eight closets that are decked out in the Elfa system. These closets (two are walk-ins) are packed to the gills with stuff that we never or rarely use. My husband has agreed that this summer we will go through every closet and every room and declutter. He has incentive to do this on several accounts, 1) it will keep me from going completely crazy, and 2) I will not even think of a second child until I can live in a clutter free.

I don't blame my husband for all the clutter, but I would guess the 80/20 rule is in effect here. I just can't even see my 20%!


I did have some extra time on my hands this month, and decided to tackle a project I've wanted to do for at least 10 years. I have collected hundreds of recipes that looked tasty, but never got around to actually cooking them. I knew I wanted to organize all of them in a binder, and I am happy to say it took me about 5 hours to cut, tape, organize and create a 3-4 inch thick binder of delicious sounding recipes. When I think of all the years this project has been in the back of my mind, and it only took 5 hours, well, I realized how silly it was to waste all that energy all those years thinking about it - instead of doing it.

So that's when I decided to do this blog. Instead of talking about it for a few more months/years, I'd just start and see where this journey takes me. My hypothesis is that I will focus on the things that are important, and the clutter in my life will be reduced greatly. Won't it be nice to live a life that truly focuses on the important things?

Speaking of, I have my cousins in town visiting so I'm off to meet up with them and spend some good quality time catching up.

So much to share - and I can't wait to hear from you. What do you find is cluttering your life? What did you do from your old to do list that made you happy you did it?