My need to plan . . .

So I love calendars. I love planning. I love lists. I love applications to allow me to make calendars and lists. I just signed up for Evernote, where you can link online, on a desktop app, and on my phone (and maybe Chris's phone) all sorts of notes and lists. There is also a web clipper where I can bookmark a website and add notes. It's coming in handy for making Christmas lists.

There are a lot of things I need to plan, Christmas probably being the least important actually. Last month I printed out blank calendar pages from November through April and began filling them in with things like "sign up for childbirth classes", "finish painting the living room", and "don't freak out that you're overdue".

Today I took it one step further and planned one for all the knitting that needs to get done before April.

According to this, I should be done with my Alphabet Blanket squares by March 30, taking appropriate breaks for Christmas gifts, Doula Training weekends, baby birthday-presents, and having something do over of New Years (we're going to St. Paul for a wedding . . . in December . . . it's going to be -20 degrees. I need a project to keep me in-doors!). Also, I took into account my commute; between now and January, the commute needs to be reading time to get through the required books for my training; after that, I think I can take some time for knitting squares. Now I know which colors I need to pack when I leave town for Christmas and New Years.

And finally, on a more micro level, I feel the need to fill my calendar with the minutia that I have to get done on any given day. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything, but somehow "finish painting the living room" is less overwhelming than thinking "on Monday, take off the grates and paint behind them", and "on Tuesday take out the A/C and paint the rest of the trim". I'm hoping that if I write it all down, I can see the small steps as just small steps, and not freak out about the whole.