Monday - creating order

I knew Monday evening was going to be busy, as we were having a family dinner at my daughter's to celebrate Zoey's actual birthday (Happy 7th birthday, Zoey!).  So I spent my lunch hour at work creating an Excel spreadsheet of what projects I have on the go and started prioritizing them.

It's hard to read here, but if you click on the picture you should be able to see a close-up of the format I've used.

My headings are:

START DATE (if I can remember)

NAME (of project)

TYPE (Quilt, Wallhanging, Bag, etc.)

PRIORITY (see below for explanation how I have prioritized)

FOR (recipient)

FABRICS CHOSEN (this will help find fabrics for other projects if it's stuck in a bag)

CUT (check mark if fully cut out, copyright symbol if in progress, blank if not started)

PIECED (into blocks, same as above)

ASSEMBLED (flimsy assembled, ")

BACKING (assembled, ")

BASTED (")

QUILTED (")

BINDING (")

FINISHED DATE (")

The last column contains a GLOSSARY of symbols and acronyms used, which will probably grow. Currently, it has the following:

© - Ongoing

10/100 - number of blocks completed/total

🗸 - Done !

LA - quilt by Longarmer

BG - Background fabric

SAL - Sew-along

Once I started creating the list, I realized I needed categories. The part of the list you see above is my priority category, in other projects that have to get done (or before I work on other things. The other categories are: 

CHRISTMAS

NO DEADLINE

WISH LIST

Now, how I prioritize.  Years ago, I did a course on Time Management when my employer started us all on the Franklin-Covey day planners. I need to start using that system all over again, it was a life-saver at the time.  We were taught to prioritize by A, B, C and numbering each of the items in those categories. We're supposed to have no more than 3 in A, 5 in B and I've forgotten how many in C.  On my list I have 4 A's,  4 B's and 9 C's. At least I have the same total number in A & B! I can live with these figures for now. 

In Category A are gifts I have promised but failed to deliver - these are my number one priority! All of them are at the quilting stage - pretty much where I fail. A1 is a gift I promised a year ago, which the baby will outgrow soon. It is adapted from Pat Sloan's Winter Solstice challenge last year. I had started the challenge, but quickly realized I was in too deep with other projects so I finished it off as a baby quilt.

I'm still going to finish it and deliver it, because it is perfect for in the car or travelling, but I am also going to follow up with one of my signature I-Spy quilts. 

Apparently, I need to update my photos as I don't even have one of the completed top. I'll update more of the list this week!

I've spent 1 hour putting the list together, and another hour writing the post, so I have overachieved my 15 minute goal on Monday!