I'm moving overseas!

No, I'm not moving overseas. Though Scott knows I dream of it daily. Well, not moving overseas, but sailing overseas for an extended amount of time. The current, biggest obstacle is that our boat is not exactly the one we'd like to take over the sea in order to be overseas.

I mentioned before that I follow the blog Unclutterer. Earlier this week I found a fun, past post titled, Reader suggested clutter-busting game: I’m moving overseas!

I found much of what this person was doing as a game is what Scott and I are actually doing in order to get down to as few of possessions as possible. I could relate, however, to the fantasy aspect of it. It is easier for me to organize my stuff and ditch a fair amount of it when I picture us, not on Insegrevious in the Salish Sea, but on some future boat in the Adriatic. Yes, that is much more fun to prepare for.

My paring down of possessions and simplifying of systems is coming along nicely. My email inbox now sits at an all-time low of 290 (getting closer to the goal of 50). Four boxes of kitchen items got sent to Tennessee to their new home last Tuesday. New digital files get organized into proper folders as they are created. It even spills over to who I follow on Twitter and the RSS feeds in Google Reader. Only feeds that truly add to my life get to have a spot in it. "Unfollow" is my friend!

Thanks to Leo on ZenHabits and his ideas of Big Rocks first, I now have what I call "creativity hour" first thing in the morning. (I know, Creativity Hour is a cheesy name, but I didn't need a cool name, I just needed the concept.) I usually decide the night before what I will work on during Creativity Hour. It has to be something that is new. I may create a new lesson or write a podcast or do some creative planning for the new grammar website Scott and I are working on. I can't do maintenance-type activities during Creativity Hour, and I can't just edit something that was already written. Creativity Hour is only for things that require my freshest, most creative brain. Often, Creativity Hour spills over into two or more hours, but that's okay with me. My key to making Creativity Hour work is not checking email, Twitter, Wave, or Google Reader during it. No distractions.

Even Creativity Hour is based in the notion of preparing for the sailing lifestyle. Based on my and Scott's extended sails the past two summers, I know that it can be difficult to get the work done that needs to when the opportunity arises to be able to do it. This is meant to get me in the habit of getting through the most important work as quickly as possible so I can be ready to take watch, or just go and have a look around, when I want to or need to.

Lately, the afternoon has been for the less creative aspects of work. That is when I edit past stuff, create the visuals for the videos on the website, do paperwork, create quizzes. It works out well, because my brain can handle these rote-type activities even when I don't have a fresh attention span. I'm trying to work out ways to have less of those kinds of activities at all. That way, when Scott and I find ourselves in the Adriatic, it won't be for a vacation; it'll just be the sailing life we have!