Date: 5th April 2021
Location: Isle of Wight
Category: Simply Everyday Delights
We all have to-do lists, right? And sadly they never seem to end. Mine usually contain lists of things to be done that focus on work, family and our homes – the humdrum of life. There’s usually a huge gap in self-care and creativity to-dos i.e. that time we need for ourselves to re-charge, reflect and relax. And, for me at least, they are not something I take delight it. I’ve recently re-started my practice of making Focus Lists and Joy Lists – which do help me focus on delights!
What’s a Focus List?
Back in February 2019, I decided to do something different – intentional planning. Every Sunday, I think about what I want to focus on in these areas of my life with intentionality. Note the intentional inclusion of creativity and self / spirituality categories. I use an A4 page and divide it into sections, adding only the things for the week ahead (I have also done a Focus List for the year before now!).
- Prosperity and Work (financials, passive income etc)
- Home Space (expression of myself)
- Creativity (art, photography, writing – includes blogging and social media ideas)
- Self and Spirituality (nourishing myself, artist dates, morning pages, yoga, mediation, walks etc)
- Experiences and people
My practice wasn’t so successful when I wasn’t working during the COVID pandemic, but I’ve begun again since I started working. It’s still a to-do list but for me it does make me think about about other aspects of my life and how I want them to be. These are the small actions that I need to take on a regular basis to work towards my broader life intentions i.e. they do not get forgotten in the living of life!
And a Joy List?
I also used to make a “beautiful moments to have” list for the week ahead – small, simple things that I was looking forward to that would bring joy to my days. But that also fell by the wayside in the last year. Sigh. An recent Instagram post reminded me to try it again. So far I’m keeping this list separate from my big Focus List but actually the items come out of putting that list together – some of the delights that I want have in the week ahead. Maybe they could become a collection of Delight Diaries!
Here’s the lists for the last 2 weeks.
What small things are you anticipating this week?
I’d love to hear about your approaches to list making and if they include space for self-care, creativity and the small joys in life. Oh, if you are on Instagram, I’m hoping to share my Joy List every Monday. Find me at PracticingEverydayDelights.
I am a major list maker. Lately, I have begun to incorporate them into my new hobby of creative journaling. I love your idea of listing small things that you are anticipating!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for reading and commenting, it means a lot.
How lovely you incorporate them into your creative journal. I art journal too, but find if I put my lists in there I never look at them! So I keep mine separate. I tried bullet journaling a while back but couldn’t keep it up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you ever done any sort of journaling with old magazines? I have a bunch of issues of Victoria that I just can’t bring myself to get rid of. I’ve been thinking about ways I could maybe incorporate the beautiful images and important text into some sort of junk journal format.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I dont do much but theres a woman on Instagram called junkjournaljoy who has amazing videos and does all sorts of mixed media stuff. Her YouTube is also Junk Journal Joy. I’ll send the link separately
LikeLike
Junk Journal Joy link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1lfDffonQoAk3g-UQEOtW5bvbgPfY3BM
LikeLike
Also Kasia Avery of Everything Art does a lot of mixed media with magazines
https://everything-art.tv/
LikeLike
Hope you find something – let me know how you get on!
LikeLike
Another thought… you could try a scraps diary with your magazines. See my post about this today…
LikeLike
Thank you for the links! Your scrap diary is gorgeous. What do you end up doing with yours? Do you use them to write in or are they more just for visual enjoyment?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure. At the moment my scraps diaries are all in a journal just for visual and tactile enjoyment – a record / journal of my art journaling journey so far, so diaries in their own right I suppose.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice! I think it’s a great idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a great idea … moving out of survival mode and into purposeful delighting in the gift of life. I really enjoy yoir newsletters and ideas and watching your development reminds me that it IS possible xxx.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. It feels like that, getting back to thriving instead of surfing. I’m honoured that my wobbly development helps you!
LikeLike