We have a new music minister at our church.
He made nice, new music folders for each and every choir member.
I assume he recycled all the old ones but mine. Mine had been lost for who-knows-how-long before he came.
When I saw my pretty new folder (with my NAME on it and everything), I determined to change my music-losing ways.
I’m known for misplacing my music. I’m also known for having two (or six) copies after misplacing the replacements.
But in an effort to impress the new guy and enjoy my new, never-been-lost folder, I kept up with it. I was ever-so-purposeful about putting it back in my slot every Wednesday night.
But then, one week . . . I forgot.
I carried it somewhere else, got out of my routine . . . and it never found its way back to to Slot Number Two.
The next Wednesday night, I was without it. And the next.
And then the next.
Thankfully, I finally found it and put it back in its proper home.
Choir folders are not that big of a deal, but it’s the same way with so many things.
Newness is the very best feature of a system that works.
Unfortunately, it’s the one feature that has an expiration date.
I have the same problem with new systems. The expiration date hits me when I least expect it.
I have this problem again and again. I will feel like I finally have control of something and will give myself a pat on the back for being able to stick with something for so long. Then something happens and I fall off the organizational wagon and find myself wondering where I went wrong. Fortunately, I am learning that not giving up and getting back on as soon as possible extends the expiration date further and further each time.
I feel ya. I just re-organized under my bathroom sink for the 3rd time! It looks so nice now, but wait a week and see if it stays like that.
I soooo understand – moved into my new apartment (theres a long story of WHY I had to move, too much drama for now) and THIS recovering hoarder promised NOT to have “those” kind of issues. I hung an over the door wreath hanger facing INSIDE the house for the sole purpose of hanging my keys, on a lanyard, right their, EVERY time. since November of 2012 I have only misplaced them a few times, mostly in the winter in the “coat basket” i implemented by the door, to catch coats, hats, and gloves I KNEW would not make it back into the closet between outings. Summer is coming, the winter wear is stowed, and the basket is back in the laundry room. The keys showed up by the kitchen sink last week, but I WILL SUCCEED!!!
Love those last two sentences. So, so true!!
I use those little stick up hooks for keys, and everything else I possibly can. I literally have watched myself put something down over and over so I know where I want to put it down, then put a hook there.
Now I have a few things, like car keys, I can almost always find, because they are nearly always right where they’re supposed to be.
Systems work best if you fit the system to what you’re going to do anyway, rather than set up a system and try to force yourself to use it and fail and fail and fail.
Did you know that there is at least one web site that will call your phone when you can’t find it and there is no one at home to call it for you? I identify with losing things when I break my routine. It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one. While waiting for the page to load, all I could see was a cute red shoe. If I can’t share that easily-distracted moment here…
As a church choir director I think that your folder is VERY important. If it makes you feel better our minister is in the choir and she has at least two folders and up to 4 copies of a song sometimes and still does not have music. There is one in every choir!!!! And we will love you none the less.
I’m so thankful to have/had choir directors who love me anyway!
It’s weird, but for me, choir is the one place where I’m super-organized and on the top of my game.
At home, my after pictures often look like your before pictures – slob doesn’t begin to cover it. Though I’m seeing some hints of improvement with trying to form daily habits (THANK YOU!). But at choir? All of my music goes straight into my folder in its proper order, complete with tabs to organize it into groups by service. The folder has a pencil in the pocket. It and my hymnal go straight into their slot at the end of the rehearsal, unless I need to practice at home (not uncommon) – in which case they come straight home and to the piano. In five years, I have not had my music folder once – and I knew where it was, I’d just forgotten that I’d taken it home as I was running out the door Sunday morning. So now I check Saturday night, and put the folder in my car if I brought it home.
Reading your blog, though, is teaching me how some of what I do automatically with my music works, and how I might transfer it to my home management. Because I know where my music is (in the folder, not just where the folder is), I can go straight there when I need it. So I’m not still shuffling paper when we start singing, so I learn my stuff that little bit faster, so I’m that much more confident – it all adds up bit by bit into making me a better singer and choir member. Which seems very like your dishes, and how doing them every night ends up meaning the whole house is cleaner by small increments.