Year at a Glance

The New Year has rung in. The ball has dropped. 2025 is here! In my lifelong quest for self improvement, organization, accomplishment and success I sit down once again at my desk to see where I am.  As I approach my eighth decade (I can’t believe I just wrote that!), this task seems more daunting than in years past.  For one thing — the distractions.

I block time off in my calendar, make a date with myself, put my phone in flight mode, but who knew that phone calls seem to get through via the internet. And while I have promised myself not to get swept away by emails and WhatsApps, there are several that manage to get through and throw me off track.  It is what we would call in Talmudic language – תרתי דסתרא- a contradiction within a contradiction. I am trying to work on untangling myself from all the daily distractions so that I can accomplish some real work, and here I am getting distracted nevertheless.  Next time I sit down to work, I will try to turn off my phone completely or leave it in another room. The operative word here is try.

So where have I gotten in this quest- this move towards organization, self-improvement and productivity?  I have started with a yearly calendar that I can see at a glance. 2025. January 1. Why now? As a practicing Jew we have this opportunity every Rosh Hashana, and I try to avail myself of it.  But when I get a second chance on January first, I take that as well! Everything seems possible, once again. The slate is wiped clean? Hardly. But it is an opportunity, once again to take stock and look both backwards and forward. Today, I choose to start with the forward look.

I have decided to work on a yearly calendar. I think that a yearly calendar that I can actually look at all at once, or almost all at once,  will actually be quite helpful in this digital age where Google Calendar has taken over my life. I used to love my Google Calendar. It always told me what was next, where I needed to be, and for how long. Connecting to maps and travel directions seemed to simplify things. I could even write little notes to myself, reminders to help jog my memory. But now I am not sure how enthralled I am with this seemingly innocuous calendar. While Google Calendar does have its place, its shortcomings are becoming abundantly clear to me. As I think about it, I am becoming annoyed that I have fallen into the Google abyss without considering how it impacts my ability to get some perspective, see what’s around the corner or over the horizon.  Google Calendar has kept me very much in the day, the minute the hour with no sense of where this fits in to the flow of my life.  Thanks and a shout out to Ali Abdaal , a doctor turned productivity guru who suggested the year at a glance approach and even provided a free template to help smooth the way.

So after setting aside time to create this yearly calendar, and plotting in many of the dates that can be counted on, Jewish holidays, fast days, yahrzeits (memorial days), planned family vacations, work commitments,  I have definitely gained a sense of some control over my life.  Did I say control?? Now I get it!  Now I understand what I am up to on January 1, 2025.  This is my meager attempt to put some control back into my life, a life that has been thrown totally out of control, for a while now.  Did I mention that? That our lives on a national level have been turned upside down since October 7, 2023? And our family earthquake the year before? How has that impacted me, my life, what I am doing?  A little? A lot? Sometimes it feels that just  hanging in there takes all the energy I can summon.  Maybe it is time for a self compassion break before moving into goal setting for the coming year!

So how does a life out of control measure up with trying to plan for the future? On the one hand, it is actually quite scary when considering the bigger picture of  all that might happen, a paralyzing thought, indeed.  I choose to get on with it, and bask in the perhaps imaginary sense of control that goal setting and planning bring.   With that optimistic approach all that remains is to wish all of us a better 2025!