Gwen D's Check In

I have had the luxury of time to myself, without a lot of deadline or work pressure these last few months. I think I feel better for many different reasons, this site and the consciousness of this problem is one. It's been a very internal and concerted couple of years. Things that used to seem beyond me are becoming do-able. I have made some progress on my own life and taken care of a lot that has weighed on me for years, actually! Including, in no particular order

paying a big chunk of student loan (with help from mom, lucky me) -- but the offer had been there for over 2 years and I was too fragmented to take her up on it

getting rid of boxes of old clothes and books and clearing out my closet and making more room in my tiny apartment

putting some bills on automatic payment and getting into a much better routine of paying things on time, or early! with the help of iCal alarms

I got a lot of business in order for my own web development business, (I finally got my own domain and hosting) and have been keeping a running list of things to do to make it more viable.

I get up at 7 nearly every morning (with the help of my cat) to go do Tai Chi. It's amazing to see the sun rise.

I put OS X Tiger on my Mac and have been downloading widgets like candy. All time related!! I love them so much. It's kind of hilarious how good having them makes me feel. One shows a map of the whole world (the globe stretched out) and you can see where the sun is, and another shows how much time is left before sunrise.

I've got a Meditation timer that I use when I have tasks I am resisting or work that I am likely to binge on. I set it for 15 minutes and it waits a second before it makes a pleasant ring, then I start my task and work on it for the whole time. It alleviates a lot of anxiety when I work with the timer running, as opposed to not knowing how long I've been concentrating or working on something. Very interesting.

Oh, and I can't forget the amazing ToDoList widget. I use that a lot. It's so cute, and when you check a box it's so satisfying. You can just look at all the check boxes before you delete the done tasks and start again. The challenge is to keep the ToDos really concise. I read somewhere (maybe 43 folders?) that this should be your criteria for what goes on a to-do list:

1. it is a physical action
2. it can be done in one sitting
3. it is progress toward a stated goal

That's about it for now. But I check in here every week or so too. I will come back to do some bookending I think. It might be really helpful for some of the next things on my list. Glad we're here! Thank you!