Painful, Plodding Planning

     When it comes to planning my work and setting goals for the new year, I find it very painful. I don't think in a linear manner because I forget what went before. I need to see the whole picture, the aerial shot- global thinking, to grasp the particulars. If you don't understand this, that is ok, it is my problem. I have to mind map every big task in order to understand what is involved- whether it was my master's thesis or planning a quilt program to teach.
      I am good at making lists, so I made all sorts all year: what quilts are in progress, logging each one in, what quilts need backings, what need piecing, what needs quilting, what new ones I would like to do, etc. The problem is when I see all the lists, I have no idea where to go from there. I sat down with all my lists and mapped it out to see where I was. Then I made another map what I would like to accomplish this year. 
     I asked my husband, a professional urban planner, to look at all the papers and give me his plan how to handle the tasks. I asked him to look over the lists telling him I want to finish quilts and want to stretch myself in new things. Of course, the excellent linear thinker he is, said finish all the quilting and do all the backings before you do or look at anything else- not what I want to hear or do. I need to creatively stretch- along with finishing- or it will just become mechanical. I just wanted help planning that. Sigh.

Log in Quilts chart

Progress of Quilts list

Lists of quilts in categories

All categories together in mind map. New ones to start and have patterns for are purple underlined.

Areas I want to work in this year

     I probed why I have so many quilts that need backing. I think it is (1) they either require so much fabric to buy (4-6 yds. each) or (2) it takes lots of time piecing the backs with tons of figuring (math) and makes a huge mess pulling fabric. Most of my quilts are comfort/giveaway quilts and I try to keep the costs reasonable and quality high. I recently bought a huge roll of batting wholesale financing it with machine cleaning/restoring for people as I do it on a donation basis for the comfort quilts. No machines have showed up since. I know I need to drag out the big pieces I do have and figure out backs. Could take days. Find some reasonable backing fabric. Ok.
     Quilting backlog. Why? I think because I continue to have so many bobbin tension issues on the longram that I get discouraged. I still think the bobbins are warped, but the dealer says they can't all be warped. I quilt free motion with copious varieties of designs, so more time for each quilt.
      So I think that is why I have this big bottleneck with backings and quilting. I did finish over 22 quilts this year. 
      I will put these sheets up on my wall and ponder them more trying to come up with a reasonable plan to finish yet move ahead. Any global thinkers out there? Or do I have you recoiling from my honest muddle?