As I continue to reset my cozy life, I’m returning to something I learned a number of years ago that serves me well. When tempted to feel overwhelmed by how many things I need (or want) to do, focusing on one item at a time and completing that task is usually the best way to go. Some people have described it as AAA BBB CCC.

If you have multiple projects you need to tackle (each represented by a different letter), your days can end up looking like this:

• ACDBAF
• BFAADA
• AAFFEC
• BBEAAA

Even though you are trying to get Task A done, either you allow other things either to creep in or they force their way in due to necessity. None of the tasks ever get completed and so you live with multiple open mental tabs. I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly draining. Switching from task to task is inefficient. If you are someone who struggles with needing time to settle in after transitioning from one project to another, this will be especially true. It’s far more effective to determine what the most important task is for that day and make it a priority.

• AAAAAA
• BBBBBB
• CCCCCC

I decided the best way to tackle all of the things that are half done around here is to pick one “big” project per day to focus on. By big I don’t mean things like painting a room. I mean tasks that are important and can probably be done in several hours of focused time in one day. That way at the end of the day I have a feeling of accomplishment and can cross something off my mental to do list.

So for me that has included one day devoted to each of these things during the past week:

• Making summer appointments and ordering things that are needed
• Tidying my office/homeschool room
• Updating my other website with a few weeks of content I hadn’t posted so I’m back in “real time” with my posting (now closed and here in the News category)

Today’s focused project is to figure out the audio posts on this website. I discovered recently that my older A Quiet Simple Life podcast is no longer connected to Apple, etc. correctly and instead random things I’ve shared in posts are going there. Sigh. No idea how long that has been going on. So I need to fix that. It would make the most sense to simply get rid of all the outside connections since I don’t see myself doing a distributed podcast again any time soon due to time constraints. At the same time, it was a lot of work to set those up to the various distributors so I’m not certain I want to just pull the plug. I DO want to fix the feed problem at the very least. I don’t mind older podcasts just sitting there. Someone might find them helpful since they are evergreen content. I just don’t want random things from my website ending up there.

I also need to determine what to do with the various audio playlists I set up before the school year started and the video posts I’ve done. I set up those playlists so I could easily add content during the year. Well, we can all see how that went. (It didn’t.) However, I do still want to do them so I need to think through that. I’m not deleting them, but I need to figure it out. They do get listened to most days and I’m sure if I had more content, they would get used even more. I could add all the podcasts and video content I’ve done to them. I’m not sure. That’s why it’s my project for today.

So that’s my AAA BBB CCC recommendation. I know it works, especially if you feel like your life is in a triage-type situation. If you’ve used this approach and have any additional suggestions, feel free to leave them in a comment. Someone might find your insights helpful!

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