Calendar of Firsts - The Before

Earlier this year, I had grand plans to start a Calendar of Firsts at the turn of the new year.  Here's what mine looks like right now:

Isn't it lovely?  ;)  No, a scrawled list of random sightings on scratch paper stuffed into my nature journal isn't quite what I had in mind!  But Christmas preparations and celebrating got the best of me, and I never had a chance to think through the format options and begin one in earnest before January arrived.  I too often fall into the trap of what I lovingly think of as perfectionist paralysis, which, in my head sounds a little something like this: "What format is best?  A binder?  A notebook?  A desk calendar?  A virtual calendar?  And how should I organize it all?  By month?  By sighting?  By date?  I want to get it just right--I'll be using this for years!!!!"  Cue many months of thinking and researching, with very little to show for it.  Does this happen to you too, or is it just me? :) 

 

And then I remind myself, "Perfection is the enemy of the good."  So I keep scribbling a few notes as I see "firsts" outdoors, and I vow to just start something by spring.  Well, spring is here!  And a recent conversation on the Ambleside Online forums reminded me of this to-do.  So I'll be back very soon with a little transformation of this jumbled list into a maybe-not-perfect-but-good-enough Calendar of Firsts.