procrastinate less

I did it. For once I actually made a to do list for myself, and did everything on it, and even then some. And well it helps when your first thing just happens to do itself. Granted it wasn’t a long list, or terribly complicated things to do. But I did them all. I think that this is cause to be proud of myself. No I haven’t written another one since my small victory on Monday. But hey all good things in time. Besides the goal is just less, not stopping completely, cause yeah, that’ll never happen.

They were everywhere. So much so that grandpa even said, “I hate to say this, but I think the floor needs swept.” Pretty bad when he notices something like that. We have all hard wood floors, except for in his room and the bathroom (carpet in the bathroom, yuck), and vinyl in the kitchen. When I moved in I talked to my aunt about it and we got one of those Floormates, those things are pretty handy. Kind of heavy to push around the house three times, but it beats scrubbing on your hands and knees.

Yesterday and today I’ve been a housework fool. Course you wouldn’t really know it by looking. I didn’t dust, and I’m sure there are small spider webs in the corners, and if I really wanted to get crazy some of the walls need scrubbed and/or painted. But to be reasonable, and lazy me, I just want to make sure the house stays livable. None of that cleaning the molding on the walls with a toothbrush or anything.

I took all of the rugs out of the kitchen and dining room area, out towards the living room along with all the chairs. I used the dust mop to get all the dust bunnies away from the walls so that the Floormate could pick it up easier, and I’d be less likely to miss anything. I swept those areas, and mopped the kitchen. It needed it; bad thing is I won’t be surprised if it needs it again tomorrow. Two days seems to be my “well it was clean while it lasted period.” The living room wasn’t that bad, so I just used the dust mop, and shook it outside. Roam free dust bunnies.

I also picked up some of the stuff that made its way out across my bedroom during and after the construction of the Death Star. My room still isn’t finished. I still have a few things that need to be put away, things that need to be organized and haven’t been since I moved in, and I definitely need to dust in here.

Today I’ve been finishing up the laundry I started yesterday. All my clothes are on hangers, they just need hung up. I need to pair my socks, fold my pajamas and the towels, and put all that away and I’m more or less done with that. Unless I decide to actually wash the two shirts that I need to do by hand. That might be pushing it.

I did the dishes today. I might actually try to be the one to put the clean ones away, or maybe I should just leave a thimble or something shiny for my house elf that usually does it for me. Even though that’s about the only thing that they do. I also managed to clean the bathroom. The bad part of all of this is if I try to put myself on a schedule to do it every so often now, everything will need to be done again on the same day. I am glad I got the big things like the bathroom out of the way though. That way I won’t have to worry about it so much when I finally get a job, till the next time rolls around.

I’ll start with the bad part; no I didn’t get my paperwork filed yesterday. I did get my job list going though, and I fixed up my resume a little bit. Both the copy on my computer and the one posted at careerbuilder.com. But yesterday is not the day I’m proud of myself for. It’s today. I got up and the first thing I did, while resisting the urge to see if anyone posted back to me on Thistle Meadow, was to go through my careerbuilder.com email’s and check the jobs there, because I hadn’t checked the ones from this weekend yet. Then I went through the whole list of websites that I put together on Monday. I did some comparison shopping online for a Christmas present my mom wants to get someone like I told her I would. And I looked up my tires again, called the store to see if they have them, waited on hold for a long time, and I’m not even sure the lady was connecting me to the right place because she said something about Diana, and then ordered them online cause they are special order tires. Then I checked TMI. Took a shower, and went to the grocery store. Didn’t read today like I thought I might. But hey, I got a lot done for me today, and even better than that I did it first. Maybe I’m making some progress after all.

Monday is another day! Scarlet O’Hara what a great procrastinator she was. Everything’s piling up around me. Literally. I really need to get my room cleaned up. There’s chaos left over from when I moved and that was months ago, and I’ve just been adding too it. It doesn’t look so bad because the way everything is situated. But it really is awful. The thing that needs cleaned up the most is my paper work. I couldn’t do it at first because I didn’t have the file folders. Couldn’t tell you when I actually bought those. But it’s making it hard to keep track of the few bills I need to pay and such. The other issue is clothes. I take them off or try them on, and don’t put them away. There goes half my futon. Still haven’t put away the laundry I was talking about before. I did get the dishes done, but not on Friday of course. That wasn’t my fault entirely, had to help out a friend.

So here’s the plan. On Monday, cause today would make too much sense, I’m going to at least get started on my room. Starting with my files since that is the most important. I’m also going to job search with a new fervor as time is running out. I am going to compile a list of all the good places and companies to look at online, and check them everyday.

So much for all the laundry. I managed to get all my dark shirts hung up, so they don’t get wrinkled. But I still have 3 baskets worth on my bedroom floor. One has stuff already on hangers that I didn’t put away last time I did laundry. I also have towels, but only a few, in the dryer, and my futon has a pile of clothes on it as well. Ugh. Maybe it was the pressure. I couldn’t really be a procrastinator if I actually did everything the first time I posted about it. So I have to prove I have a problem, before I can fix it. Yeah, that’s it.

I did watch Star Wars. Imagine that. But it was much more work that I though. My Playstation wanted the parental code. Parental code?!? I’ve never set the parental code. I tried 0 0 0 0. Didn’t work. Called my brother in law, cause his always does the same thing, and mine never has. He asked if I still had the box and I said no. I ended up finding out what to do online. Still was kind of complicated, cause they don’t tell you that you need to hit select first. Who knew watching a movie could be so tough? Did sound great with my surround sound system though. And it was pretty cool watching it after playing Battlefront 2 so many times.

So I’ll make things even easier on myself today. Do the dishes. There aren’t so many of them, but the sink is disgusting. I could have two dishes in there and the sink would be gross. Because my grandpa always manages to dump stuff out into other dishes, instead of the side where there is a straight shot down the drain. Go figure.

I woke up kind of early this morning. 7:30 the first time, but I managed to go back to sleep for a while, which was good cause I was up past 2 am. I was proud of myself, because I went straight to the washer, took the clothes out, and put them in the dryer. Easy enough, sure, but I have left them in there long enough before that they start to smell all moldy. I don’t so much mind doing the laundry, it’s the putting it away part that bothers me. Have to go out there and hang it all up before it gets wrinkled. And I cheat even; I hang just about everything up. Jeans even. Less folding the better. Takes time and I suck at it. So here are my goals for the day. Finish the laundry and get it all put away. There’s quite a lot of it too, cause it’s been while since I’ve done any. And I need to watch Star Wars Episode III. I do realize that I just put a movie on my don’t procrastinate list, but it’s cause it belongs to someone else and I need to return it. This is how bad of a procrastinator I am, there’s something I want to do and I’ll do it later. I was thinking about putting my entire list of things I need to do on here, but it’s a bit overwhelming at the moment. It’s probably best to start small.

I love that line. This is a serious issue for me. I wonder if procrastination is the true source of my being a bum, or is it my lack of ambition. I suppose that you could argue that these are the same thing. But it’s not even the important or task wise stuff that I procrastinate about, like my sink full of dishes. It’s stuff I could do to keep from being bored. For example, instead of staring at the computer screen having nothing to do, I could learn how to play the guitar, which is going to be another item on my list. But that would be productive, so I can’t do it. I really feel like I could have so many more talents, be more intelligent about so many more things. If I just had the drive. Some procrastination is definitely a good thing. My trick is to learn to use it in moderation.