Through the Seasons

Flooded

The amount of information received from personnel in Tanzania so far is beyond overwhelming.  For a few different reasons. 

First, it comes piecemeal – a little one day, a little a few weeks later…  Secondly, some goes to Jonathan only and other stuff comes to both of us.  Another issue is that much of it is in paragraph form so you sort of have to search to find the item that needs to be done.  Lastly, there are so many different subjects addressed it’s hard to keep it all straight.  I’ve had quite the time trying to stay on top of all this.  Sometimes within a document it’ll say “more on this later” and it makes me wonder, has ‘later’ arrived and I’ve just missed it or is this something I’m waiting on?  Because I thrive on organization my mind is screaming at me over this stuff.

So here’s what I did…

I sorted my email by sender and printed everything I’ve received from personnel.  Then I went through all my emails from Jonathan to print the ones he forwarded me from personnel.  Then I asked him if there were any others he hadn’t yet forwarded me.  At the end of all that, I had a big stack of papers.  Ah.  A definite body of information.  I would know exactly when I reached the end of it and would know I went through it ALL thoroughly.  Sometimes life’s about the little things.

Then I took my papers, computer, and highlighter and set to work.  I created a spreadsheet with a different tab for each subject.  As I entered the information from paragraph form to list form I highlighted what I had transferred.  When I got to the end I had a big stack of highlighted papers.  What a relief.  In front of me then stood a list of things that need to be done before we get to Tanzania.  So, I created a brand new, blank tab and put a section for each month between now and our departure.  Under each month I listed the tasks (from the adjacent tabs) that needed to be done.  Now all I have to really think about is my March list – and I can be fairly sure I have everything in order.

But here’s the best part…

Hoping I wouldn’t offend anyone, I emailed personnel in Tanzania and offered to send them my spreadsheet when I’m done with it (after they’ve sent all the information they plan to).  They were EXCITED about it!  Yay!  I love being useful and helpful.  Now I really want to get it done and maybe even improve it. 

The only problem is that I skipped anything that wasn’t relevant to our particular situation.  Drats.  I’ll have to search through those emails again and make the spreadsheet complete.  Nothing like being thorough…