The “Me” Binder

After weeks of not being able to get around to setting this up, I have finally created my “Me” binder. (I feel like I need a better name for this binder, but alas, this is what it is.) I am using my personal Jade Finchley for this project. This idea sprang from my “Me” project that I have been working on. I decided that a small section wasn’t enough, that I wanted to expand the things I’m working and focusing on just for me. So this is what emerged.

Currently, it is not packed with information but I am hoping to add to it as time goes on. Since I know everyone is so anxious to find out, here are the details:

I have nothing in the pockets as of yet. My tabs are as follows:

• Health – For the last two plus months I have been battling terrible allergies. Since the middle of August I have had problem after problem and this is not like me at all. I’m usually very healthy and only go to the doctor for checkups, minus the occasional cold or something similar. So you can imagine my frustration with not one, but two respiratory infections, a sinus infection and ears that have been backed up for an entire month now. After visiting my primary care doctor numerous times, two rounds of antibiotics, a reaction to a third, two visits to the ENT, a hearing test, a visit to the allergist and a skin prick test, I have found the culprit – an allergy to ragweed, which comes out in the middle of August and does not go away until the first frost (and here on Long Island, that can last into the middle of November). Thankfully we just had our first frost. Anyway, from the beginning of this whole debacle I’ve been keeping detailed notes of who I’ve seen and what they’ve said and prescribed, and anything new that popped up between doctor visits. This proved to be very helpful when going to new doctors – when going over the history of the last few weeks, I simply pulled out my Filo and rattled off the specifics. So when this entire mess is over (and God help me, it better be soon), I will move my notes from my every day planner (the almighty Malden) to my Me binder. I will keep these notes in case something crops up again and I need to refer back to them (like next August). I also keep a very short list of doctor visits on my computer – this is a running list of all visits but doesn’t go into detail the way these notes do. Plus, I can always put them into my Malden and take them with me without first having to remember to print them. Each issue will get its own color so that I can easily see which pages go with what issue (so this entire history is on peach paper; the next will be on a different color to differentiate).
• Running – In the beginning of the summer I participated in two races. This was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was unable to run later in the summer due to shin splints (and then being sick) but I hope to return to it soon. I have already started running again, so at this point, it’s just a matter of getting up to running the races again. I would like for this to be a long-term thing and so I want to keep notes on which races I run and my stats for each so that I can see how I’m progressing.
• Resistance – Here I have a list of training circuits that I can do at home. It’s been a while since I’ve done these, mainly because I hate it. I’d rather get outside and go somewhere. But with the winter coming, I would like to try and do more of this. So it’s a good place to keep the information.
• Yoga – I have been doing yoga for the last 3 years. I absolutely love it, for many reasons. I mainly go to classes at my local studio. It’s not easy for me to do yoga at home with all the distractions that arise. However, there are some practices that I’d like to do at home. I have a practice for running and will soon have one to balance all of my systems (or so I’m told). With this information in my Me binder I can quickly run through these poses. It’s also great because I can take them on vacation with me to make sure I get some yoga in while away. All I have to do is move the inserts to whatever binder I’m taking with me.  (I could have put my Running, Resistance and Yoga information under one big “Exercise” tab and I did think about doing that. Right now, however, I don’t have enough items to do that and use all six blank tabs. So for now I broke it down. In the future, if I have other tabs to add, I will definitely do this.)
• Project Me – This section is dedicated to my Me Project. I am keeping detailed notes on everything that I’m working on for this. I have broken it down into weekly items and so for whatever I’m doing for the current week goes into my Malden under the “Notes” tab (see updated Malden tab information below). When I move to the next week, I will move the old sheet to the Me binder and put a fresh sheet into the Malden for the upcoming week.
• Notes – This tab will house any other information that I want to hold on to. Right now I have a list of goals that I created for 2010, a list of body lotions that I love (I’m very much into skin products for some reason), goals for weight management, and information on another specific goal that I’m working towards. I will also keep magazine articles here. I had put a picture from a magazine in here originally but I ended up moving it to the front of the binder so that I would have something pretty to look at when I opened it.

Of course, after moving items from my every day binder to the Me binder, I needed up update the Malden’s tabs. My new tabs include Contacts, To Do, To Buy, Projects, Notes and Diary. These are straight forward and self-explanatory. I still need to tweak my To Do list a little, but for the most part, it’s good to go.

I don’t exactly know what my Me binder will eventually evolve into. But like every binder I have, I’m sure it will change at least a little over time. And of course I will update you all when I do.