From gardening, to remembering birthdays, God enabled me to find expert advice and succeed in implementing it, even though I have a “low structure,” spontaneous personality. Organizing and planning don’t come naturally for me. I needed to understand two things: the strengths and weaknesses of my personality and my need for experts. With their ideas I adapted organizational methods that even I could follow. If you also have a less than organized personality, join me, because I may have ideas that could be fun and easy to use for anything, not just gardens and birthdays.
According to the Myer’s and Briggs team (mother and daughter experts on the human mind/reasoning), some people can naturally organize, maintain structure and follow directions flawlessly. Others (like me) are spontaneous, nontraditional, great problem solvers, but very weak in structure and organization. While Myers and Briggs looked at three other areas of life, I will only discuss this one area (order vs. spontaneity). You can learn more about the other three aspects of personality they examine in my posts “Difficult Person or Different Personality?” and “No Favorite Child: Intro to personalities and temperament.”
I have had to create my own methods for structure so I could actually use the expert’s great ideas. Then I could have things like a healthy garden, without stifling my creative, free spirit. But I have failed when I tried to follow “organizing experts.” Those experts don’t help me, because becoming super organized is not my life’s goal. I have achieved some seemingly impossible dreams, not by trying to change myself and become completely structured, but by listening to experts in the areas where I wanted to achieve (like expert gardeners who understand chemistry and soil quality.) Then I learned to do some basic organizing, just enough to do the things these exerts suggested.
I have been amazed at how much easier my life has been when I created only enough structure to get these goals accomplished, and today I’ll share a few of these fun successes (for brevity’s sake I will only include gardening, and the ability to remember birthdays/anniverseraries.)
These goals required the “structure” of two, simple and cheap tools: a perpetual calendar (does not have weekdays or the year), and a paper wall calendar (does have weekdays and the year). Yes, these two puny tools have enabled me to remember the exact amount of fertilizer to give my trees, when to use anti-fungal spray, when to prune and more. I’ll limit what I share about my garden and just discuss the trees in my garden (not the smaller plants and their needs.)
Here is an Ebay affiliate link to the perpetual calendar–one of those listed is the same calendar I have, which is from 1985:
And here is an affiliate link to Walmart’s listings for hardback (book) perpetual calendars:
OK, the experts helped me by explaining how much fertilizer a tree needs, based upon its size, age and location in the USA. They explained when stone fruit trees need anti-fungal spray, when to prune, etc. Since I live in Southern California near the coast, I used Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening A month-by-month guide. I have attached a Walmart (affiliate) link for the book below:
And here is an affiliate link to the same book via Ebay (used but good condition):
I prefer my hardback book perpetual calendar, but with those links, you can also peruse soft cover and wire bound perpetual calendars too.
You will want to find a gardening book that is based upon your location, and I am happy to reassure you they exist. Out of curiosity, I typed “Ohio Gardening book,” and titles popped up. So if you live anywhere else, please peruse the titles and look at the reviews. I have found that if I read reviews, I get a very good idea whether I am a good fit for a product.
Pat Welsh’s book also showed me what each plant needed, based upon the month of the year. In some months the trees do not need fertilizer. Citrus trees have different needs than avocado trees, which differ from stone fruit trees. How would I remember how much fertilizer the three different kinds of trees needed each month? How would I remember which months they did not need fertilizer? I didn’t want to memorize those lists.
In pen I wrote the tree’s description (citrus, stone fruit, avocado) on a slip of paper. Then I wrote the name of each month when the tree needed fertilizer. Then I jotted down how much it needed that month. Despite my terrible handwriting, I wrote as neatly as I could, because these three slips would become permanent.
Then I paper clipped each slip into my perpetual calendar at the start of whichever month the trees would need to be cared for. A perpetual calendar never expires, since it has only the month at the top and then on each line, the number of the days of that month . In this perpetual calendar, I also write the birthdays and anniversaries of my loved ones. You can use your perpetual calendar over and over, year after year. My mom gave me my perpetual calendar book in 1985, and I still use it.
Next, I put a tiny post-it note on the big wall calendar that matches the month where my notes are clipped. For example, one post-it note says “b-day.” On the first of each month, I instantly see that post-it note. Until I have prepared the birthday cards for that month, I leave that post-it note on the wall calendar where I see it. Once I have the cards written up, I move the post-it note to the future month (which is hidden, since it is covered up by the current month’s page). I also write “fertilize” on a second post-it note, and I put that on the correct month too.
As simple as this sounds, it has enabled me to follow those fertilizing, spraying and pruning directions. As a result, I can write other notes for re-occurring events too, such as the bi-yearly tax bill we must pay which I post to that month’s page (for us, it is November and April).
I have the names of my loved ones already written in the perpetual calendar. So when the new month comes (on my wall calendar), I will go to the page of my perpetual calendar for that month, because my wall calendar has that tiny post-it note that says, “b-day.” I am forced to remember the cards (emails or calls—whatever I choose to use to wish them happy birthday.)
Because the gardening book told me how much fertilizer each tree needs monthly and for how many months, I can multiply those two figures and find how much I need yearly and buy it before January. I do this for the three different kinds of fertilizer I need (the 3 types of trees need different fertilizer.) This way I have all the fertilizer I need for a year, and all I have to do is follow my own directions on the months the tree needs attention. I used to carelessly toss a little fertilize at my trees, never giving them enough or on a schedule, because I never learned from the experts. Once I read what they suggested, I realized these experts were right, that trees like a schedule (mine do), and this schedule is easy to follow.
Although I have written about gardening and remembering birthdays, this two-calendar method might work for other things you need to accomplish but tend to dread or even forget. I won’t discuss more organizing ideas this week so I don’t turn this week’s post into something too long so you dread this too. I do have a few more fun ideas, but they can wait until next week.
I pray we have blessed you with this post. I am thankful God enabled me to work around my weaknesses to find some structure, and to take the time to listen to those who are wiser than me about gardens. If you have some fun ideas like this, please let me know. Feel free to use the new share buttons I’ve installed for Face Book and Twitter and share this with anyone you know who struggles with getting organized.
May God bless you this week, and may you have fun too.