Moving things along
Next week is going to be hectic for me, so it was nice to have a Saturday with no plans. What that actually means is that I made myself get stuff done. I purposely kept the iPad off so I wouldn't be tempted to screw around online, which is how I lose a lot of time on the weekends. That's not to say I stayed off of technology entirely, because I was on my laptop, but that's used more for work than anything.
I have a big project I've undertaken involving my Regular Band music. I had a spreadsheet on the old computer that listed all the music I had for it, and every year I'd print out lists that corresponded with my music binders, so I'd have one for marches, and for musicals, and for overtures, and what have you. The last time I printed those out was 2019. Then, while I believe I was still updating my spreadsheets, I didn't get a chance to print out any subsequent ones after that, and eventually I couldn't access the spreadsheets once the computer went down. It was only a couple years ago when I bought my laptop that I was able to start a new spreadsheet. The old one had something like 1100 entries, so there's no way I'm taking the time to integrate that into the new one since I'd have to type it from scratch, but at least I have the old printouts and I can double-check what's on those lists versus what's on the new ones. I have several years' worth of music missing between the lists, and it's really helpful to double-check stuff before I copy the most recent music I've gotten for band. Why duplicate it if I've already done so? It's also been helpful to make sure I have everything I'm supposed to, because every so often I come across something that isn't in the right place. I'm going in order of categories, so when I did the marches, I found one that I knew had to have been on the original list and it was confusing that I didn't find it. Well, it was a march that came from a movie, and I'd originally listed it with that category, so when I did that one earlier today I was able to grab the song from the march binder and put it where it was supposed to be. Some stuff also got alphabetized wrong. And, anything that slipped through the cracks is now being accounted for, which makes me happy. I'm doing it in small chunks so that it's manageable, but it's pretty satisfying and I'm probably 2/3 of the way done. I hope to finish that by the end of the year.
Another thing I've wanted to do is to go through some of the music books I've acquired over the years and donate/recycle them. There's a number of things I've gotten for free that I just never did anything with, and there's no point in hanging on to them. I have our old hi-fi cabinet that I use as a TV stand, and the storage area underneath holds lots of music and books and binders from camp and such. The camp stuff is being left alone, but the various books, I went through some of them today. Why keep them if they might do someone else some good? I've gotten to the point where I've realized some things are more of a burden and they're weighing me down. Lightening up my load will likely help with my anxiety, you know? I need calm, I want calm, calm will come when I have less to worry about and what's left is neat and in its place, so I'm glad I took a step in dealing with a little bit of that. Even just setting a 10-minute timer and working for a small amount of time makes a difference for me. Does my room need more work? Yes. Is it all going to happen in one day? No. Do I still feel accomplished? Yes. That's what counts.
I have a big project I've undertaken involving my Regular Band music. I had a spreadsheet on the old computer that listed all the music I had for it, and every year I'd print out lists that corresponded with my music binders, so I'd have one for marches, and for musicals, and for overtures, and what have you. The last time I printed those out was 2019. Then, while I believe I was still updating my spreadsheets, I didn't get a chance to print out any subsequent ones after that, and eventually I couldn't access the spreadsheets once the computer went down. It was only a couple years ago when I bought my laptop that I was able to start a new spreadsheet. The old one had something like 1100 entries, so there's no way I'm taking the time to integrate that into the new one since I'd have to type it from scratch, but at least I have the old printouts and I can double-check what's on those lists versus what's on the new ones. I have several years' worth of music missing between the lists, and it's really helpful to double-check stuff before I copy the most recent music I've gotten for band. Why duplicate it if I've already done so? It's also been helpful to make sure I have everything I'm supposed to, because every so often I come across something that isn't in the right place. I'm going in order of categories, so when I did the marches, I found one that I knew had to have been on the original list and it was confusing that I didn't find it. Well, it was a march that came from a movie, and I'd originally listed it with that category, so when I did that one earlier today I was able to grab the song from the march binder and put it where it was supposed to be. Some stuff also got alphabetized wrong. And, anything that slipped through the cracks is now being accounted for, which makes me happy. I'm doing it in small chunks so that it's manageable, but it's pretty satisfying and I'm probably 2/3 of the way done. I hope to finish that by the end of the year.
Another thing I've wanted to do is to go through some of the music books I've acquired over the years and donate/recycle them. There's a number of things I've gotten for free that I just never did anything with, and there's no point in hanging on to them. I have our old hi-fi cabinet that I use as a TV stand, and the storage area underneath holds lots of music and books and binders from camp and such. The camp stuff is being left alone, but the various books, I went through some of them today. Why keep them if they might do someone else some good? I've gotten to the point where I've realized some things are more of a burden and they're weighing me down. Lightening up my load will likely help with my anxiety, you know? I need calm, I want calm, calm will come when I have less to worry about and what's left is neat and in its place, so I'm glad I took a step in dealing with a little bit of that. Even just setting a 10-minute timer and working for a small amount of time makes a difference for me. Does my room need more work? Yes. Is it all going to happen in one day? No. Do I still feel accomplished? Yes. That's what counts.