To Do Board Tour
This post is dedicated to my sister, who cracked me up when she showed me the first thing on her To Do List every day: something like W&CC - Wake up and have a Cup of Coffee. I thought this was a hilariously obsessive way of making sure you always complete SOMETHING.
But I really should not call anyone else’s To Do process “obsessive” when this is mine! Welcome to the color-coded inside of my brain.
We have had this vertical whiteboard (bulletin board on back) for quite awhile now. We originally invested in it when we were thinking of starting a small wind business Way Back When. But then we decided I was going into the professor business, and I started my doctorate instead. This board has been in four different houses and to/from campus at least once since then. So I was happy to rescue it from Steve’s loft and put it to good use in my office.
The dark green projects started out as our outdoor projects, but then I added in our “shared” project of sorting through our used book inventory. Goat shed gets a red, because we don’t have a firm plan for how on earth we are going to disassemble it.
That little pink Herbal Projects has probably been taking up more time this summer than anything else on the board. I’m loving it. But of course, it has no actual POINT other than experimenting with different things. Oh, and giving me JOY!
The pink projects are my personal hobby projects. Let’s see how I’m doing… Okay on my NP cross-stitches - at least that’s started and in the camper ready for next week’s travels. The mini watercolors are going to get used next month, as I have promised myself a mini painting of each of the 15 herbs I am working with on my herbal projects. Health, well, not too bad actually! Crochet “reboot” just sits there and stares at me, accusingly. I have to (AGAIN) re-learn the pattern for my daisy granny quilt afgan, but I just can’t being myself to face it, with failure (AGAIN) looming as a real possibility. I really haven’t been reading at all this summer. NPL Flats is a nerdy thing I am doing (Yes, I am a longtime member of the National Puzzlers League, thank you). Oh, and those Laminated Cards is a winter activity, so more about that later.
The dark purple are random non-profit items. My board stint on Village Cohousing Works officially starts in October. Strategic Advisory Services is my non-profit strategy consulting work. I had a busy spring as usual, but I haven’t really pushed this given I’m already too busy with the rest of this To Do board! My Life Change Technology has been a long-time “maybe I should…”, and one of the ways I have thought about reviving that idea was to do a year-long series of articles in the Gazette. But honestly, all on hold!
Sorry about the glare - impossible to get glareless angles in this office! The orange are two of our upcoming trips - Icefields in Canada next week, and Olympic NP in October. I need to add Lassen Volcanic National Park, as we have a trip planned there in September.
The dark blue ones above are kind of an extension of those dark green property projects. Not sure what’s going on with my color coding on those!
Ah, yes - the Work corner! While it does not get much attention in the summer, this is what I do for a living: The light blue items are my annual course preps. Two of my courses are getting quite a bit redesign this year - my undergrad because it is their Capstone course and I continue to look for ways to help students experience “good” and “poor” choices when it comes to AI-assisted decision making. My MBA class is moving to a “low residency” format next year, which means my curated strategy topics for that one need to be reworked for all-day weekend workshops vs. weekly evening classes. I love a challenge!
The red items are my two active research projects, named after my research partners on each. Both are green status which means they are plugging along!
The yellow items are my Whitworth service activities, the “third-leg” requirement for any academic career. If you saw a copy of my vita you would see PAGES and PAGES of these over the years. I really used to overdo it! Nowadays, in my “pre-retirement” chapter, I have only three major service commitments: I co-lead the university strategic planning with our President (“University Council”); I am service on the committee that grants tenure and completes all the faculty reviews (“Faculty Promotion & Tenure” committee); and I am leading a task force on some new potential evaluative lenses, Teacher-Servant and Servant-Teacher. I have another half dozen minor service commitments, but they are much less intense and more sporadic than these three. Just doing my part!
I have annual “bucket list” sheets for each season, activities and events and places to go, things to do for fun.
Light green are my Green Bluff items - My Tiles on the Bluff mahjong circle is going great guns. Everyone is having a blast, and I enjoy having the group over each Wednesday. I need to set up a simple Instagram account for it. And it’s time for another quarterly Green Bluff Gazette - this quarter I’m writing an article about the Grange Pancake Patrol.
You also see my birds eye garden plan and one of the trackers I use to confirm what does/does not thrive. I actually came up with a NEW system for that last week, which I’m sure you’ll be seeing in a THRILLING future redhawk.farm posting!
And tucked in the lower right is our “Legacy List”, which basically means property To Dos that USED to be on this board before I turned it into my own personal Monopoly game.
So you may ask whether this giant, colorful board actually helps me GET more DONE? Probably not. But I like looking at it each week to see the balance in different types of “work” that I enjoy doing.
