(not necessarily in that order)
I’m not entirely fluent in Italian, but I’ve spent enough almost fluent years that some phrases come to me in Italian instead of English. They just feel more right.
“Ecco fatto” is an example. I finally went through my accumulation of notes on random slips of paper and got them organized them into categories, which certainly feels like an accomplishment.
In English I could say, “done!” or “finished!” But “ecco fatto” somehow captures much more completely the utter satisfaction of the moment.
Music notes are one thing. I never find them overwhelming.
Well, certainly not now, when I never play music of any real difficulty. But even when I was a professional flutist, I had to learn lots of music that was extremely complex and downright hard. But I never found it overwhelming.
These kind of notes are another story altogether.
This is a stock photo, of course. Trust me, my accumulation of notes isn’t nearly this neat and colorful and fun.
I know, I know — there are better ways to jot down reminders and random thoughts than on little slips of paper, but I’ve never yet been able to consistently adopt a better approach.
So, I write the things I need to remember on a slip of paper. Then I remember something else that goes on another (but the same color) slip of paper. And I maybe accomplish one item from the first slip and two items from the second, but I can’t throw away the slips of paper because there are items that haven’t been completed yet. Which means I’ve already got a couple of slips at the start of the next day…and on and on it goes.
Until after a week (or a month…or more), I’ve got separate little mounds of notes waiting to be sorted through, organized, and discarded. Meanwhile, my brain is busy trying to remember the really important items for which I can no longer find the darn slip of paper!
And that’s what makes it overwhelming. But tomorrow I’m going to sit down with a notepad and the current accumulation and JUST DO IT!
(Wish me luck.)
This year I’m determined to do this.
I’ve got the jars. I’ve got the paper. And once a week is totally doable (as opposed to aiming for every day).
I’m looking forward to reading the notes next New Year’s Eve!