Tag Archives: Journel

Reflections on 2013

At the end of the year I like to reflect on the last year and look at the accomplishments and failures. If you do not know what you completed this last year, how will you know what needs to be completed this next year.

The beginning of the year is a great time for new beginnings like new goals and habits. And what is really important to you.

How much have I done on the whole idea of prepping?

How many new skills have I learned?

How much has been added to food and other storage?

How much time have I practiced with equipment that I already have?

How much have I researched on products or procedures we want to use?

How much money and time has been just blown away on things that do not last?

Do you get the idea? If you have a journal to write the answers to these questions in it. If you don’t have a journal, now is the time to start one, just use a spiral notebook or composition book, it will make you accountable for the time that is spent. Also if you did not do well on the spending of money, now is a good time to start budgeting and keeping track of how your money is spent.

With as fast as our time goes the only way to really keep track of time and money is to write the information down daily. Okay, if you can’t do it daily then at least weekly.

Now, before the next year starts, decide a time daily or weekly that you can sit down and write down your time and money spent for the day or week and put it on the calendar just like an appointment along with how long it will take.

Also decide on a place to keep receipts and your paperwork and keep it there all year.  If you always know where it is, including a pencil and/or pen then you have no excuse to not write the information down.  Get all of your supplies now and put them in that space and do not move them from there. Your supplies can be as simple as a spiral notebook and a pencil, or as expensive as a computer program like QuickBooks. Whatever you use, decide now to use it throughout the whole year.  After you use it for the year, you can decide at the end of 2014 that you might want to use something else next year. But continue to use the same process for the whole year, so you are not beginning over and over again, which adds to the amount of time needed to complete the project and then you get frustrated & decide that it is not worth the time and effort.

This can be done in other areas of your life as well, however, I am concentrating on your Prepping area. Write down your goals on a sticky note or on a 3X5 card and tape them up in different areas of your home so that Prepping goals stay at the front of your mind. The bathroom mirror is a good spot to do this.