A Winning Battle in the War of UFOs (part 3)

Hello everyone. I am sorry that I kept a few of you hanging on this post. I have honestly been quite busy doing all of the normal things that you are supposed to do to keep a house in order. Well, at least I gave it some thought and a little effort. So without going into that and boring the crap out of you all; instead, I will give my last day of information to you all about UFOs.

This next picture is just another example of the calendar, except it is a view of your week.

This is what I do...you don't have to do the same thing, but it makes me realize my goals if I know where I am in the week. Before beginning my week on my one project, I write a goal on the last day of the week. If you do this, make sure it is a realistic goal, or you will just set yourself up for failure, giving you no sense of accomplishment.

If you never use a calendar, that is OK. Like I said earlier, I don't really use one anymore now that I have the system down. But one thing that is VERY important is the 5-subject notebook. I use it as a kind of journal and note keeper on the 4 projects. Each section is dedicated to one project. As I am working on a project, I will add an entry about what I was able to finish. This comes in handy when I pull the project out the next month. I can see that I left off needing to make 52 more churn dash blocks, for example. Before I started doing my projects this way, I would waste so much time trying to figure out what size I had to cut each piece, how much fabric I would need, what finished measurements I would have, what fabric options I would use, what quilting design I was going to put where...the list is long and tedious. I wasted so much time; in fact, that I would only finish a few things on that project and 'put it away' not bothering to write any of that information down. OH MY GOODNESS! This seems like a no-brainer, but it saves so much time. I love pulling a project down now. It is so nice to have all of that info right there for you to just jump in to start quilting.

The pocket dividers are a nice addition to the notebook if you are able to find one that way. I tend to throw magazine patterns, idea clippings, swatches, pictures, post-its or whatever in there.

When I finish a project, I pull out all of the pages, notes, pictures, etc. and I put them in my scrapbook. I then use that empty section of the notebook for the next project replacing it. (you will be able to go through quite a few projects in each section before having to buy a new notebook. The 5th section, I use for my cheater project notes, but I am sure there may be a lot of other uses for it.

That's it. That's all I have. It doesn't seem that hard, does it? It is all just a matter of disciplining yourself a little bit. You don't have to get too anal-retentive here, but just tiny bits of organization helps a whole lot. Good luck with your projects. Please do not hesitate to give me updates and please tell me what worked for you better. Any tips and hints that I can get will help me get rid of the aliens in my closet.