Dear Planner

I received you, a beautiful soft pink planner for Christmas, and created my plan for 5 years on the 28th December. I even bought myself a sparkly pink pen to use when I sat down to plan. All looked good until March. Then lockdown happened and life hasn’t been the same again.

I like the idea of planning, I’m reasonably organised but hate lists; they terrify me actually. There is something about putting things down on paper that I don’t like; is it commitment issues or am I frightened to share what I should be doing. Anyway it’s something I want to get better at so I really did have good intentions in January. I had enjoyed setting up my “passion roadmap” for the next 5 years. I actually wrote things I hadn’t shared with anyone; the most surprising one to me was planning to have a cottage by the sea. Although I live close to the sea, and I visit a lot, since a child I have always been excited when travelling to a holiday destination to see the first sight of the ocean. Memories of Bude when I was younger, the sea in Jamaica as Chris and I enjoyed our first evening meal in the outside restaurant (even if I was struggling to keep my eyes open) and last year, the sparkling turquoise sea of Punta Prima. I think the idea of waking up seeing the ocean is a lovely dream for the future.

I would love to tell you Planner, that 8 months after setting out my short term plans, I had completed them but I would be lying. The one I circled in 3 months will always be there forever: declutter! Why can’t I do this job. I need to do this. I’m going to have a good talk to myself about this. The current situation means that some of the other items were not possible: visit my sister in law in Belgium and see more of family and friends.

You will be more impressed with my 1 year plans though I’ve had a change of mind about one: be rid of working from home. Life changed a lot in March and there are a lot of empty offices at the moment. It was something forced on me, something I rebelled about at first but now, I have a work space I like and maybe it’s the way forward for me! 2020 is definitely the year we are allowed to change our minds! Two items that I semi- achieved for the year but still have a long way to go: confidence in riding a bike and driving a car.

When I wrote confidence in riding a bike, I had a bit of a problem. I didn’t have a bike. I soon changed that and on the 5th January, I was the proud owner of an Apollo Elyse hybrid bike. I had a basket put on and enjoy casual rides to the beach and exploring the area. I am so glad a purchased my bike at the beginning of the year as there is now a high demand for bike sales.

Due to the COVID situation, I did find myself driving to Chichester to work in April. It was the best time to get some confidence in driving; the roads were empty. I have repeated it several times now but I still need to work on that one. What I do know is that I can do it!

So Planner, please don’t give up on me. I can say that whilst my plans (and many other people’s plans) haven’t gone as expected for the beginning of 2020, I have created a new roadmap and intend to plan, plan, plan!

Yours hoping

Tina

P.S. Declutter has not made it on my roadmap this time. I promise to write to you before the end of the year and let you know how I’m getting on.