#followalibrary

A couple things of note: Today is #followalibrary day on twitter. The rules are simple: if you have a twitter account, tweet your favorite library that you follow on twitter. Or, in my case, look at over a dozen libraries you've been to and find less than a third that do indeed have twitter accounts. It surprised me that Chicago PL (public library) doesn't have one. Or the Library of Michigan. Highland Park (@hplibrary) and Glencoe (@GlencoePL) PLs have them which is expected, and then there's Kalamazoo PL (@KzooLibrary) and IUB's (Indiana University - Bloomington) libraries (@libnlearn). Oh, and for those of you who would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me here: @deafelephant

Second, it's the first day of October! Yay! I love pumpkin spiced lattes and apple cider and watching the leaves put on a show. And cuddling under heaps of blankets and taking walks in the crispy air without the muck of snow or mud. This October, as I mentioned in my previous post, is the "Month of Getting Things Done." It unofficially started a few days ago. I've got the scanner to work with my new Linux Mint OS (that took more time than I'd expected). I made zucchini bread, vacuumed upstairs and the stairs, did laundry, booked plane tickets for San Francisco and did some touristy research, finally mailed stuff to Mom, started looking into more volunteer opps, keep chipping away at the massive amount of unread library blog entries I've neglected, organized my backup hard drive, figured out what to do with the huge vob files, converted two movies and inserted subtitles, made naan twice (I think I'm getting a better idea how to make them less cake-y), took a couple of hikes ...

Some I usually do during the week anyway but others I'd been meaning to get around to doing or at least do more of them. I've also been slowly adding bits and pieces to my nanowrimo story idea. Yesterday I felt frustrated because between my volunteering hours, a nap, and getting the scanner hooked up, I felt like I hadn't accomplished as much as I would've liked. I've already started to feel a time-pressure anxiety which I'm not dealing with well. I've got the mindset that I need to constantly wonder what else I should be doing just then, how to better use my time. I need a bit more adjusting.

Today has ended up being one of those other kind of days. The kind where I seemed to purposely not do anything. Sometimes this works in weird ways and you end up feeling refreshed and actually do get stuff done. It's hard not doing things. But instead of planning out the day and making to do lists, I simply do what I want. This doesn't mean going on a shopping spree or running through the streets screaming my head off (neither of these activities really appeal to me, if you must know). This involves more of an id approach to things. For instance, "hey, I want to go outside." So I go outside. "I don't need to dry my hair just yet." So I put it in a loss ponytail and leave out my aids for a couple hours. "Hey, I want tea." So I get up and make tea, and while waiting I do the dishes. Or I put on some day clothes but keep my pajama pants on and wear wool socks. It's not that big of a difference, but it is a difference. I try hard not to feel bad that I'm not doing certain things and I don't think things through and wonder what I should do instead or beforehand.

This may seem like a contradictory way to start my "Getting Things Done Month" but the challenge is not going to work if I don't try to balance things out and ease anxiety. It's a process and I hope to bring today's method into a productivity method. Now I'm going to go stare out the window while sipping tea.