What Worked For Me: 2016

How are you doing on your new year's resolutions? Good, I hope? Did you indulge in an end-of-year-review before you chose them? I know most people got this kind of thing posted in December, but I thought I'd throw mine up now anyway.

I grappled with a lot of things that just didn't work for me in 2016 and what to do about them, which wasn't fun. At the same time, I (re)discovered/ implemented a few things that turned out to be amazing. Here are a few of the good things I stumbled on that I'm rolling forward into this year.

1. A Rotating Menu (Full of 'Peasant Food'). Food is a big thing for me. When I've got it under control, it makes me feel better about everything else. When it's not under control, all of life instantly gets more stressful; it's just how I'm wired. Enter a rotating menu. By plugging favorite foods in to cover dinner three days every week, I instantly (drastically) simplified planning, shopping, and prep. That, in turn, bought me time and energy to explore and play with new things on the other days. It's stupid simple, but totally working for me… and there's a lot to be said for that.

2. Asana. Generally speaking, I'm a pen-and-paper kind of girl when it comes to organization. I still use a paper planner, sticky notes, and colored sharpies to keep my life in order most of the time. But Asana (a free online project-management program) has been a huge help in working efficiently when there's been a lot of little stuff going on. Best part? I can make multiple sub-lists (e.g. 'must do', 'ideally do' and 'reminders') under one main heading ('stuff to get done this weekend'), and one click swaps items between columns if plans or timing changes.

3. AO3. Archive of Our Own is like the perfect book club for writers and busy introverts. Tags (both standardized and customized) make it easy to see what you're getting before you click, and easy to sort when you're in the mood to read something in particular. It's free (always good), and the comments sections can easily evolve into the kind of involved, intellectually stimulating conversations you wish you could find at book clubs. As a bonus, you get to engage from your own couch (wearing your pajamas if you want) while completely avoiding the pitfalls of obnoxious people and bad book club selections, and you can do it all on your own time schedule.

4. Take No Prisoners Snow Tires. Because I live in an area that does a terrible job of plowing. Always. And I still want/need to go places between October and May.

5. Couch Coffee. There is no substitute for time spent with something really good to drink, someone you love beside you, and deep, rambling conversations. Period. 

What's working for you right now?