(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 33)

It’s been a while since I wrote about my organizational tools.

So long, in fact, that I can’t remember if I’ve used that title pun before.

And the truth is, the reason I haven’t written about how I’ve been organizing my work is because I have'n’t really been doing a good job with it.

I went from a planner that I used all the time for less work to a lot of work with less reliance on the planner.

But I’m trying to get better at it.

A couple of things to tell you first: 1) I’ve never been much of a digital planner guy. I love the idea of having a digital calendar or having all of my life on my phone in synched up calendars, but I’m just that much on the wrong side of the digital age divide. I prefer pen and paper. And 2) I think I have particular planner preferences because of my teaching days. I liked the planners I used to plan classes and have yet to find something I love with my writing.

That’s not for lack of trying.

I’ve gone through a couple of different styles of calendar, and when I went looking for a new calendar this week I thought about making a drastic switch to a notebook that didn’t have any dates in it and that I could use more flexibly.

I didn’t do it…but I still might.

When I wasn’t out doing comedy all the time in 2020 and 2021 I felt less of a need to get a calendar…so I went a couple of years without one.

By the middle of 2022 I was back to being busy (though not comedy…another story for another day), so I got an academic year calendar that went July 2022 through August 2023.

So here we are in August of 2023, and I needed another calendar.

I decided to go with the one you see pictured above - that’s the same style as the one I had last year. I’m trying to get in the habit of planning out my weeks again so I can keep track of what I have to do - I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed lately with the amount of work I have over the next few months. (Again, this is always a good thing. The work always gets done, and it’s always better to have work and make money than the alternative.)

I took this picture before I wrote down my assignments but trust me there will be more on there. (And as you can see I also need to factor in my runs, since some days they take up a lot of time.)

So for now I have the academic calendar again, but it allows for me to make a switch in January if I decide I’d rather do something else…or I can punt to next summer if I want to try that notebook idea and sort of fill in blank calendar pages that way.

Either way, as you can see in the picture above, I need somewhere to put my dentist appointments.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but they opened a Jersey Mike’s near here. The closest one previously was in Brighton, which is not convenient to here…but when my friend Kevin was in town we were in the area and made sure to hit it for lunch. He’s the one who turned me on to Jersey Mike’s…and now I have my very own not five minutes from the house. It’s one of the few places that I have the app (instead of Kathy), and I earn the points and it’s something I really look forward to some days as a little treat…especially after particularly long runs.

Notes

*Saturday’s long run was 17 miles. I didn’t make as big of a deal about it this week because, well, the numbers are starting to get intimidating again. Also, I did the run in Framingham but it wasn’t entirely new streets, so although I made some good progress on Framingham streets, it’s not like last week when they were all new. On Saturday, I had to double back for long stretches to reach some streets that I had to fill in in areas I had already run by. Slowly but surely, though, we’re making progress.

*I will once again remind you - or maybe tell you for the first time! - that I’m running the Chicago Marathon in October with Team RMHC, to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities. If you’d like to donate to my fundraising, you can do so at this link. Thank you!

*Yes, I did get Jersey Mike’s Saturday afternoon after my 17-mile run.

*Wordle got me this week. They didn’t get me with ‘brook’, which was a hard one for me that I almost missed…but they did get me the next day with ‘bully.’ My streak was at something like 75…and I realized afterwards that I was close to my record streak of 79. Oh well. We’ll just begin it again.

*I’ve been putting more details about the runs - and Running Every Street in Framingham, including the updated map - on the Instagram. You can keep tabs on it all by following the social media links below.