Later:

Two Little Things

Two Little Things is a website I conceived of, designed, then launched the first week of January 2014. Although a personal experimental project meant to help me add more mindfulness to my daily life, I recognize the value in sharing my process with others. If others find some value in trying such a practice for themselves, and even choose to share it, even better.

And so for a month or two, a bit longer perhaps, I half-heartedly focused on blogging my process of finding two little things every day to accomplish. And by May, I realized it was time to let it go.

To be clear: I'm not giving up on accomplishing multiple things every day... even achieving things that have long eluded me. But maintaining a whole site around it? Blogging about it? No. that didn't work.

Why Didn't It Work?

There are lots of reasons I decided to let this project go. I'll elaborate a bit:

I wasn't committed enough. That's the most succinct truth I can offer. With other obligations and responsibilities, what was perhaps meant to take the place of New Years' Resolutions in the end went exactly where those ill-fated items go - to the bottom of the priority list, and ultimately into the ether.
It wasn't quite as short-and-sweet as that, of course. There were some other realities that made this harder for me to maintain than I'd expected. Such as the fact that it's tricky to choose two little things to post about every single day when you work for yourself and are expected to complete many, many things - little AND large - before the end of each day. How to choose what makes the cut???
Sometimes I resented it. It had seemed like such a good idea, but having so many good ideas I was already committed to made it hard to even care about this Seemingly Good Idea from the start of the year.
My overachiever tendencies sometimes jumped in the way. Initially I'd thought I could focus on two truly small things to achieve great overall things in my year. But sometimes I would find myself working toward something for this list that might require an hour or even more to complete. It got in the way of my required stuff. Not good when you work for yourself.

I could go on, but by now - May 4 - I'm just tired of the idea. I don't know if I'll bring it back, here on this site, or not. One day I like to think I might. It's hard to say. For now, I have many more than two little things to accomplish today. Best get working on those again.

Here's to your success... with whatever format you choose to approach it. It's important that we test our ideas. See if they work! Sometimes they will and at other times we'll realize they weren't meant to be, after all. Best to at least try anyway, no?

Two Little Things

How Does it Work?

Very simply. Every day, do two small things that push me outside my comfort level in some way or other. A "qualifying thing" might be as simple as meditating or stretching for five little minutes. Alternately, such as the first official day for my site, when I worked steadily to launch (soft launch - not a big splashy launch) the Two Little Things website. Which means that while only I and two others even knew about it, it was live and in the world with pages and links and initial copy intact.

Other things that "count" could be:

Doing something I've put off for a very long time,
Or something I finally recognize I'm dreading,
Perhaps instead, I'll make the extra time to send a card to someone I've been thinking about,

There is a nearly-endless list of ways I might choose to interpret the experiment.

And then? Then I'll track these two things, in a very public way, on the new site I published on January 6, 2014. Others are invited to weigh in, too. You may share your "two little things" in the comments of my blog there or create your own version of the practice. It certainly doesn't have to be public!

Ultimately, I recognized while writing one of the first posts, that:

Search Here

Perhaps you read something here before and want to quickly look it up.
This form's for you! The more time that passes, the more handy this page will become. Might as well start out right, though, ya? Prepare for success and...

Back Stories & Themes

Like yours, my particular life is similar and different from others' lives. It's these differences about which I'm concerning myself here. It could be useful for readers to know, for example, why some days I might mention walking down to (or around) a lake and others I could mention brushing a small dog, reading in a hammock, or not showering until lunchtime on a workday. As I wrap up my first week of posts related to activities I initially resisted, some context seems useful. Though not necessary to know these things about my life, without this context some of my details could otherwise become confusing over time.

Some of the themes likely to emerge often in my posts:

Once I've written the back story blog post, too, the items below will become links to those back stories. Enjoy!

Quasi-Nomadery - My home is all over the place.
Self-Employment - I design websites, write, edit, and train.
A.D.H.D. - The upside is unbridled creativity. It's good to minimize the downside.
Fitness & Weight Loss - More room for improvement here than pretty much anything else.
Relationship (Big R) - I'm in the longest-running committed relationship of my life.

Maybe it's best to stop with these, then add more if I discover there's more info that will be useful. Otherwise it could just seem like self-indulgence. And we try to keep that to a minimum, most days, around here.

Hello. I'm Melody.

I created Two Little Things to kick-start my 2014.
And I did this because I sometimes have trouble remembering
that I actually have specific goals.
Perhaps it's related to having Just. So. Many. Many. Things. I. Want. To. Do. In. Life.
Regardless of why, I'm someone who needed a new technique.
So I made one up!
And when I did, it seemed so potentially interesting
that I wondered if others might not find it useful, too.
We'll figure it out as we go, why don't we?

A few things about me. In no particular order:

I believe creativity is among the most important personal traits I possess.
I created this site in less than a week.
Even though I'm already working on a different - massive - redesign project.
Whatever.
I design websites using Squarespace, and love my work.
I drive a pickup truck. (An old one.)
And promote live events.
I fall in love with half my clients and turn them into friends.
I have a pretty aggressive case of A.D.H.D.
I don't have children.
But my nephew keeps me on my toes, any time I like.
My life is, in fact, filled with incredible people.
Myers Briggs labels me E.N.F.P.
It's pretty accurate.
I'm an Aquarius.
That label often fits, too.
My honeyman sometimes says to me, "You can be Polly, or you can be Anna. But today, you can't be both."
He's a patient charmer. With a great sense of humor.
He's actually just great all around.
I'm going to stop now.
If you need to know more, it'll likely come out in the blog. Or in the daily log.
Or you can go visit my website.
That would be the one I'm redesigning (when I'm not impulsively creating new ones, that is.)

In a Nutshell

As I mentioned on the home page, there are no real rules. Inasmuch as I'm making this up as I go along, and all. Still, some clarity is emerging on what feels right for me, as I move forward. And while I'll be the first to encourage anyone trying this out for themselves to find their own set of parameters to go by, I need to capture these into some sort of structure as they come up for me, and so this page will present "the latest" on that front, as these "rules" emerge. Got it? Yay. Go...

The Gist

This site is a where I chronicle the journey of a project conceived in the first week of 2014, in which I commit to doing two little things a day that I might not have otherwise completed. In declaring my intention to choose only two small things (sometimes they're kinda' big, but it's not necessary,) daily, I'm exploring the thought that I'll learn to live more mindfully and deliberately. I also believe that I'll achieve more of my goals than I did before coming up with this practice. The "things" can be anything I want, as long as I've observed enough resistance to doing them that I would likely have otherwise not done them. That's it! (There's actually way more; you can peek around and follow the links in the navigation above and learn more, if you're interested.)

The "Rules" for MY Version of the Practice

As you read on the home page, there are actually no rules. You get to find your way through this, if you choose to try it out, as well, and find the groove that works for you. But it seems I wants me some rules. So here's what's emerging for me, as I move through the days. (I'm writing the first draft of this on the 7th day, after completing my 7th daily log entry.)

In order to qualify for one of my 2 things, I must have had some amount of resistance to doing each thing. Even if it's not much, but I find that nonetheless I've continued to put it off, that would count. Otherwise, might I not have already done it???
It can't be something I've promised someone else I'd do and am therefore already obligated to complete. Like a task for a client project that they've hired me to do.
It can't be something nice I did throughout the day without really thinking about it, then found myself jogging my memory to find something that will "count" - at the end of the day, when I didn't, in fact, deliberately intend to do that thing.

That's it. that's all I've got so far. I honestly do prefer to keep this as loose and simple as possible. So while it's possible other "rules" will make their way onto my radar, that feels perfectly fine as a starter list for now.

Cheers!