Last updated on January 6th, 2015 at 11:48 am
And out of nowhere, like a dreaded cold that chills your bones, The Months of Ber have fallen upon us, signalling the time to check on our affairs and tie up loose ends wherever we can.
With summer wrapped up but a wealth of work still sitting on my plate, I looked at my desk and didn’t even know where to start. When I added cleaning my desk to The 2014 100 back in January, it was no joke—the pressed wood of my 2% stake in my home has long vanished under piles of unfinished ideas, half-read books, and a plethora of resources I got with good intentions, but ultimately used them so seldom that all they do is take up space.
It’s time to figure out what really needs doing in my life, and with luck, I can enter 2015 much farther ahead than I was a mere 9 months ago.
What’s Another 73 Things To Do?
Though not much of a planner—ironic, considering the wealth of project management experience I get from my 9-5—to-do lists have always served me well, helping bring my head down from the clouds, turning a multitude of ideas into tangible tasks that I need to do if I want to get anywhere.
I’m admittedly not the greatest at sticking to the list—long-forgotten ones keep popping up when I start digging through my files—but if ever I feel like there’s nothing to do or I’m suffering a lack of guidance, it’s easy enough to pick up a task and try to move forward if even a bit, getting rid of the things that haunt me in my sleep, knowing I’ll need to deal with them eventually.
So I sat down and started another list. I went through the scrawled notes in my backpack, the piles on my desk, and the years of digital clutter that makes my laptop groan and started putting together one solid list of things to do that, for one reason or another, I never got around to, and my life would be better if I could only get my act together.
So take a look! Peruse! See all the outstanding facets of my 5-9 lifestyle and see whether you can help with all these things I’m trying to do! Maybe you could even talk some sense into me and give me a bit of perspective so I stop trying to do all the things all the time, hoping to balance it out with a day job, parenthood and my marriage. Any way you look at it, these are the things I want to see done, and I doubt one man alone can bring it all to conclusion.
- Invest in some Copic markers
- Draw more so I have a reason to invest in some Copic markers
- Write my 25-post series
- Write my 31-post series
- Record more audio content
- Optimize the old content on my site
- Upload all the missing photos to my old posts
- Redesign the blog:
- Calls to action
- Complete my redesign sketch
- Create an email newsletter
- Interview the world’s greatest bloggers and social medialites to find out what a year in their lives looks like
- Start my Spiritual Sunday series
- PBPGINFWMY
- Run a seminar on how bloggers successfully finance their alternative lifestyles
- Submit my attendance at work
- Sort out my music collection. Again.
- Create the Candy Crush map, including:
- landmarks where you first encounter obstacles
- tips
Install Chromecast at home- Put a Men’s Group together for Walmer Road Baptist Church
- Record more video content
- Draw gvanka
- Work on more photo styling
- colour schemes
- props
Replace the CO2 canister for our SodaStream Source- Get an iPad Air so I can draw on the go with my Adonit Jot Touch 4
- Drink more water
- Get in shape with Beachbody P90X3
- Rebuild my old Fish ‘n’ Chimps strips to match current imaging standards
- make them higher resolution
- tag them in a “yyyy-mm-dd-title-of-comic.jpg” format
- Watch
- The entire Flintstones run
- The Leftovers, Season 1
- Defiance
- Nerdcore Rising
- Chicago Hope
- Hill Street Blues
- The Insider
House of Lies- The Flight of the Phoenix
- Crimson Tide
- Read
- One-Punch Man
- Bakuman
- Talk
- To Solmaz
- To “JP” about freelancing
- Create an infographic on charities
- mandates
- overlaps
- earnings
- Learn to cook even better
- Write an eBook
- Create an infographic on fatherhood
- active fathers vs. absentee fathers
- Create an infographic on Toronto
- average Torontonian
- average Torontonian per ward
- neighbourhoods in the GTA vs. Toronto
- age distribution of parents
- most popular names
- DRINK
- Rogue Farms’ Ore-Gasmic Ale
- Double Trouble Brewing Company’s Fire in the Rye
- eat a sandwich at the Black Camel
- WRITE THESE POSTS
- Cirque du Soleil—Kurios
- Stupid People Need to Stay Off of Social Media
- Why I Write
- build myFreeMe app
- status page
- rollback option
- load tests
- never deploy in the late afternoon or a Friday
write instructions for how to work the sound board for an upcoming partyget a new leather band for my Michael Kors watch- get a new vacuum for the Ford Edge
- design for Threadless
- WRITE THESE POSTS FOR THE GREENWOOD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
- Stock in Trade
- Safety Walk
- Sweet Serendipity
- claim taxi expenses from church
- create The Visual Bible
- finish adding alt text to my images
- transfer my TD RSP stocks from my old employee account
- create an infographic-rich guide to blogging
- follow-up with a potential client to see whether they want a business plan and cash flow report written for them
- use more Pinterest
- restart Mansformation
lower the crib- find out how many straight people go to Toronto Pride
fix my friend’s computer- design Chimp City
finish scheduling posts for the Danforth East Arts Fair- create my media/marketing kit
- create the “One Piece in One Piece” infographic
- data setup
- sketch the layout
- convert my 100+ post ideas into publishable posts
- register CaseyPalmer.com as a business and figure out everything I need to do as a small business owner
- upgrade Advanced Custom Fields on my development site
replace my earphone cable at Bay Bloor Radio- try Spreaker
- use Kimono to build some data sets
- get my kiddo to review some restaurants in upcoming years
- Replace my ancient external hard drive bay
- Finally finish the Jay-Z 99 Problems infographic
- Learn to code web apps/find a consistent developer/designer duo
- Finish editing sound files for Walmer Road Baptist Church
- Finish the “SWIRV” infographic
- Edit the audio from the kiddo’s baby dedication
- Finish Brandgasm 101
- Plan a trip for our parental leave (Chicago? Mexico?)
- Plan the little guy’s first birthday
- Try the V-Moda Remix Remote
Do you have a to-do list? Is it as ridiculously ambitious as mine? Are there 12-step programs for people like me? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know!
As for me, I’m dabbling away, always working on something on this list. The nights are long and the progress slow, but I hope that one day down the line, I’ll look back on all of this and smile for the future all that work created.
Wish me luck,
–case p.
20 replies on “THE MONTHS OF BER: Once More, With FEELING.”
I was exhausted just reading through your list! What I love is that you’ve listed everything – big or small. Good luck and enjoy these BER months 🙂
You’ve never had a Black Camel sandwich?!? This shall be our first bro-lunch date when you’re back downtown.
I’ve done many things, sir, but I haven’t done all the things! Let us make this so 🙂
First, I’ll commiserate with you, my desk looks like the remnants of an air raid mated with the bottom bits of the toy bin. Now for the encouragement — I’m really keen to read about Fan Expo, so commence to writing sir!
Ahhh! Casey! I miss you, my friend!!!! Your posts always make me laugh…and smile!
To add to your “watch” list: CHUCK!!! My husband and I binge-watched 3 seasons in 1 week! 2 more to go and we’re done 🙁 Such a funny show!
JTFC!
i think you forgot to add breathe, and sleep.
(and MORE BABY PICTURES!)
Holy ambitious list Batman! I wish you luck my friend 🙂 Have to ask though, what’s with the Candy Crush need to draw the map?
Well, it would’ve made more sense at the game’s peak, but essentially I think it would be cool to have a look at how massive the map’s gotten and what evils are ahead for those who haven’t made it far into the game. I’m currently at level 651 and just felt it’d be an interesting project 🙂
Okay, now I get it… Wow 651! I am just at 201, LOL. long way to go!
You know when you’ve worked at something for so long, and then you get there and you’re like “oh… that’s it?”
That’s what getting to the last level in Candy Crush is like. And then they just come out with more 😐
Lists are how I get things done. There is something amazing and fulfilling about crossing off a task.
I’m making mine later this afternoon 🙂
I think we discussed this before, where you wouldn’t be able to operate in chaos, whereas chaos is all that I know 😛
If you feel like your list is lacking, I’m more than happy to have someone take a few of these over 😉
WOW! !! That is quite a list! I’m not going to say I’m surprised that you can’t get it all done! Very ambitious! Best of luck!
Great post! My list isn’t as long as yours but I do have quite a list to get through as well! When you create your media kit, let me know! That’s on my to-do list also 🙂
Your list is really cool! I need to do this as well!
This is quite the list! Lol, I’m so unorganized, just reading through your list leaves me exhausted!! 🙂
I totally hear you on the “drink more water” thing man. I took to drinking water just over a year ago, when I stopped drinking soda pop. In the past couple months, I started drinking more and more. Now, I am up to 5 or 6 of my Contigo water bottles a day.
Copic markers are some great stuff
Those things colour like a DREAM! I just need to draw like a madman until I can merit shelling out on them. I’m practicing, though!