Today I really need to practice methodical next-right-thing-doing.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job and I am anxious and overwhelmed. I feel like there are suddenly so many things to juggle. David suddenly has more work for me and I accepted it because I need the cash, and I haven’t told him that I got the P/T work at the corporate place, because I don’t need him having a meltdown on me about how I won’t be available. And I am 3 weeks behind on my school assignments.

• take photo w/ white background for work badge
• work on the PT class assignment
• find social security card
• iron a shirt for tomorrow – get clothes laid out
• pack a lunch

• Meeting
• Shopping
• 9-10 clean
• 10:15 drive to Gym
• Noon – go to the mall and buy an outfit for my first day of work so I don’t have to keep obsessing about what I will wear.

• 7:30pm HF Class

• Get up-to-speed on the reading in Ware text
• Get up-to-speed on the reading in Wickens text

• Get up-to-speed on the reading in Prototyping textbook
  • 3 chapters to go! Then tackle the articles.
  • Open the collected piles of mail
  • Pay labcorp bills

• Give myself the gift of a pleasant home-office area to ENABLE me to concentrate and work effectively on my school goals
  • Pick up the papers on the floor and vacuum
  • Sweep up the leaves from the dead plant

• LAUNDRY
  • Just collect up ONE bag of laundry.
  • Wash and put in the drawer some gym clothes to ENABLE me to make it to the gym without riffling around in piles of clothes on the floor
  • Wash the duvet cover and put it back on the comforter
  • Get some work-appropriate clothes washed and ironed and hung in the closet

• Work for david, not really for him tho, but for me, for the money I’ll earn. Leave feelings about him out of it. He’s really got nothing to do with it.
  • Complete the Fx presentation
  • Complete the UPA presentation
  • Update invoice immediately and bill him.

• Porch
  • throw out all the dead herbs
  • Put the green tarpy thing back down

Okay folks. I don’t want to turn into a proselytizer or anything, but HOLY COW! This whole business of just doing the one step right in front of you, and then the next one after that…. IT’S REALLY WORKING!

You guys remember this scene, right? The song has been rolling around in my head. “just put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking cross the floor. just put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door.” It’s catchy AND good advice!

Life – which has seemed pretty ridiculously unmanageable for the last 35 years or so suddenly seems not quite so impossible! This is very encouraging.

I am noticing that it is better to just have a tiny number of things in front of me, so that it’s clear which one is the next right one. With that in mind:

Next right things

• Call Kate about school credit
• collect up a bag of laundry
• Go to shrink

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It was cloudy and gray. I woke too late to hit the cheery morning meeting and so instead hit the floor in a kind of self-recriminating silent funk. And the car wouldn’t start. And then I got the call about the big scary job!

• Handle the car
  * Call Triple A.
  * Clean out the horrible mess in the car ALL OF IT
  * Get dressed and go down and meet the tow guy (and let him fix my car which is actually not broken afterall)-
• Call IBM to get the details (scary! just do it.)

• EAT

• Get dressed and go to class.

• Handle financial mess
  * Call cooking.com about the broken teapot they sent
  * Pay the parking ticket (damnit! correction: pay TWO parking tixx)
  * Open the collected piles of mail
  * Pay labcorp

• Get the office cleaned up and usable before I have to start my new work schedule!!
  * Pick up the papers on the floor and vacuum
  * Sweep up the leaves from the dead plant

• LAUNDRY
  * Get some work-appropriate clothes washed and ironed and hung in the closet
  * Wash all gym clothes so I have no excuse for skipping the gym again
  * Wash the duvet cover and put it back on the comforter

• Porch
  * throw out all the dead herbs
  * Put the green tarpy thing back down

• Open the collected piles of mail
• Pay labcorp
• Pay the parking ticket
• Pick up the papers on the floor and vacuum
• Wash all gym clothes so I have no excuse for skipping the gym again
• Wash the duvet cover and put it back on the comforter
• Put the green tarpy thing back down on the porch

• Make a cleaning dent in the mess in the back seat of the car

(What’s nice about this goal is you can just move the unfinished right things from the previous day to the new day.)

UPDATE: Today, I did NONE of my next right things. But, I did go to a meeting, which was a next right thing I neglected to list, and I socialized afterward, which was also a next right thing. AND when I was going to go to the meeting and found my car was once again dead, I got my butt down the street to the bus and went to one that was walking distance of the bus line. Which was a very good next right thing to do. So, all in all, I’m okay with how I did on my next right things today.

• Return the DeCordova pass
• Get school to cut me a check for the financial aid credit
• Buy a new car battery

• Take a nice hot bath and read something nice and relaxing.

• Open the collected piles of mail
• Pay the delinquent accounts
• Pay the parking ticket
• Pick up the papers on the floor and vacuum
• Swap car battery
• Wash all gym clothes so I have no excuse for skipping the gym again
• Take books and markers and magazines off the bed
• Put clean sheets on the bed and duvet cover on duvet
• Throw out dead herbs, melted candle and broken candle lantern on the porch
• Put the green tarpy thing back down

“I TOOK A LONG, DEEP BREATH AND WONDERED AS USUAL WHERE TO START. YOU START WHERE YOU ARE, IS THE SECRET OF LIFE. YOU DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING YOU CAN SEE. THEN THE NEXT.”

Anne Lamott

• commune with people
• clean a little and listen to music
• eat something healthy and delicious (cabbage, red peppers, carrots, sardines, almonds)
• rearrange debts to postpone crisis
• go to the gym (off I go right now) (i went)

• Read through all my goals
• Prayer/meditation/get centered
• Check in with K.
• Meeting
• MAIL CHECKS….!
• Put together B.P.M. report – team is counting on me!! Be accountable
• Prep for negotiation (read chapter and case)
• To class

Basics

• Get out of bed.
• CALL MOM AND WISH HER HAPPY BDAY
• Go outside and walk/jog 20-30 mins
• 30 minutes house keeping (today, laundry + put up blinds. Thurs, Books/move shelves. Fri, Office. Saturday, Kitchen.)

Finances

• Invoice Steve
• Invoice David
• Mail checks
• Call Barbara
• Finish Financial Aid paperwork

School

• Finish homework
• Read article for BPM
• MEET group at school, 5PM