Learning New Things

I've been spending a lot of time lately on what I suppose you could call "continuing education." I spent a lot of the last 6 years in college, so you'd think I was tired of any kind of school. This is the kind of learning I like the best, though: self-paced, self-assigned, and not graded! Well, I say self-paced, but that doesn't apply to CreativeLive classes, at least not when you're in the audience! I'm so glad that I have the videos and half a ream of notes to refer back to, because trying to remember 3 jam-packed days' worth of information would be impossible for me.

I always laugh when people talk about losing their memory with age, and forgetting really simple things. I've been forgetting every other thing since I was really little! My mom likes to tell a story about how she was leaving the house when I was about 5 and she'd left her keys inside, so she sent me to get them off the dresser in her room. I got as far as the dresser and had no idea what I was supposed to get, so I brought back a little pot of artificial violets! As a teenager she asked me to back the car out of the garage, and I had to go back and ask her which pedal was which... twice. Ah, good times. I think part of it is a certain amount of ADHD, though it's never been diagnosed. I just know that I have to concentrate really hard on what I'm doing and I get distracted by almost anything!

But still, I'm learning a crazy amount of new things lately, and one of the things I'm most excited about is having a daily schedule. I think it's going to take a bit of time to get into a real groove with my daily life. I have never, ever been very good with staying on task and keeping up with a to-do list, but I'm really very psyched (do people say that anymore? is it just me?) about having a set time for doing everything. I found a cool little app for my phone called Calephant, and I really like it so far. It lets me set up repeating tasks with reminders and a little color-coded calendar. I'm not following it too strictly, but it has been a huge help with getting things done.

One of the things that I'm working on with this new schedule is actually writing these blog posts. I'm trying to be a good boss to myself, as Kari Chapin says, but I still want to attempt some kind of consistency. I get distracted so easily, even while I'm working I usually have too many projects going at once. So I think weekly posting to start will be good, while I'm getting used to little things getting up at 4:00am and doing the dishes twice a day! 

Do you have something you have to remind yourself to do on a regular basis? How do you stay focused? I'd love to hear what works!