stick to a schedule

but I still think I’m doing a pretty good job. And I need to make room for a more important goal right now.

A friend of mine gave me an idea: making a chart of all the things I want and need to do, and giving myself a gold star when I’ve done them. I’m taking it one step further, and giving myself stars (or whatever stickers I find) based on a ranking system – if I do some of the items, I get a silver star, for example, but if I do them all, I get a gold one. I’ve just created a chart, complete with ranking scale…and discovered I’m out of ink. So I’m off to the office supply store to buy ink and stickers. I’m going to try this for a month and see how it goes.

For various reasons, I’ve not kept much to any schedule as of late. I’m ok with that, though – it’s been a lot of fun, kind of like the holidays. However, it’s high time to buckle down and get to work. First, though, I need to (re)figure out what my priorities are.

Yeah, so there’s been no such thing as a schedule for the past week. R came over last Saturday night, and just left. And in those 8 days, I’ve not read my email, done my exercises, cleaned the house…actually, I’ve done nothing outside of the bare minimum of required to keep me functioning as a “responsible” adult.

Ask me if I care. :D

But yeah, reality had to set in at some point. He’s going to apply for a job tomorrow, so he had to go home. And I need to clean the house, do my exercises, clear out my inbox, and get moving on these goals. After all, I did say that I was no longer going to allow a guy to interfere with the things I need to do…but throw one my way, and I do just that. I’m back now, though.

I’ll pick this back up again. (The cleaning part’s a must…I’ve been sneezing all evening!) In the meantime, I will revamp my schedule to incorporate my new exercise equipment, and round out my 43t with the new year’s goals to reflect the new schedule.

I’ve been feeling really crappy as of late. The stuff with my uncle (and related discussions) kind of started me on a downward slide, mood-wise. There’s been some tension with my friends that hasn’t helped the situation. And for the past week I’ve been dealing with a series of headaches. I don’t know if they’re migraines, eyestrain, or sinus related…and I don’t really care; I’d just like them to stop, please. So I have a sink full of dishes, a hamper full of clothes, a trash can that’s nearly overflowing. I’ve not done a bit of exercising since we heard about Jim’s heart attacks. I’ve got a stack of bills to pay, and my inbox just keeps filling up with emails to answer. (Thank god no one ever calls me.)

So in a nutshell, I’ve dropped the ball on this one. And these were just the normal things…I’m not counting all the stuff I was going to work in. As crazy as these next couple of weeks are shaping up to be, I don’t think I’m getting back on track before the end of the year.

...when you’ve scheduled doing laundry, fixing dinner, and washing dishes, and you come home to find you have no water.

I swear I paid the bill. (It’s not due til tomorrow anyway.) I have no idea what’s going on. Nor when it will come back. If it doesn’t come back soon, though, I’m going to end up staying at my parents’ tonight-an hour away-so there will be no exercising tonight either.

I’m done whining now. :D

I’ve used a calendar to note when I wanted to do certain tasks, but had yet to assign times and durations to these things. Well, I just mapped out everything I’m already doing, plus a few I’d like to do on particular days so I’ll keep up with them (grocery shopping, for one) and it doesn’t allow for much wiggle room! I think what I’ll have to do is work my way into a compromise. For example, instead of exercising for an hour and fifteen minutes each day, I could increase the difficulty of the exercises and drop it down to an hour or so three times a week. (PT every day, of course.) But I think I’ll continue on with the current schedule for a while, putting the focus on my body until I feel I’m really making progress. Then I’ll add in the other stuff.

Tonight I was supposed to go to the store, clean the house, do the laundry, and start packing for my trip (in addition to the usual exercise and tidying routine). Only I feel like crap. I don’t know if it’s the change in the weather, if I’ve run myself down, or if my body can’t accept the fact that I’m taking time off when I’m well for once and is working to correct the situation. Anyway, the store was a wash…I foraged in the cupboards and came up with something for dinner there. I really do have to do the rest of it; tomorrow and Saturday are booked, and I leave Sunday morning. I just really wish I’d done some of it last night.

I think the exercises are going to get skipped. Yes, I recognize the irony of that, having just added ‘get in great shape’ as a goal. I’ll do that next week.

Somehow “I’ll play a few levels while I eat” turned into “let’s just spend the whole evening making myself crazy solving puzzles on the internet.” On the upside, I did learn some neat tricks in Picasa2.

I have no discipline when it comes to these things. All those comics you see about people playing the Sims at 3 in the morning muttering about how they have to get their Sims to bed on time so they’ll be in a good mood the next morning…that is so me. In fact, I’ve not been allowing myself to play because my Sims have better lives than I do.

And then, of course, another game comes along. Maybe I should schedule time to play. And stop when that time is up.