Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
Thursday 21 August 2008
We will intuitively know how
to handle situations
which used to baffle us.
--- from _ the "Promises" _
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Recycler CI 6:40pm EST
Hi Intuitive Pro Buddies!
Wow, this is the first evening I have felt GREAT since last Thursday. I think tonight it is because of the sense of Impending Weekend that I have ;) Hee hee! ;)
Today: walked, stretched, work. Completed newsletter & sent out. Completed small tasks. Totally Off Track in lunchtime errands, lol -- I actually ate lunch, instead of doing errands, ha ha! Other small tasks & phone calls. Had to work a little late, but also needed to make up time from dentist appt this week. Rode train home. Started 1 load of clothes to wash. Next: brush & floss teeth, use fancy new mouthwash :) Wash & moisturize face. Do stretching, etc, before bedtime. Will I edit my Check In later? We'll see! ;)
Have a great night, everyone! :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
Journey 5:30
First work day after vacation is at an end FINALLY! I spent almost all day on MIT #1, which was a good thing. I spent a couple hours on administrative stuff, email and the like, which had to be caught up on after vacation, and of course I goofed off a little bit too, maybe an hour total. All in all not a bad day.
Now, to face the traffic, pick up dinner, spend at least 30 minutes on chores and prepare gym bag for tomorrow BEFORE sitting down in front of the computer or the tv. Early to bed, and early to rise. Try to be at the gym at 5:15 for cycle class in the am.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Nice start
I like your start movingalong.
Journey 11:45 Update 1 pm 1:30 3:00
Well, I have not gotten as much done as I would have liked on MIT #1, as much of the info I needed was buried in the 300 emails in my inbox! But I have made a start, and since I had to dig through the email anyway, I went ahead and processed all the email. Most of it was scan and delete stuff.
Back to MIT #1
Update 1 pm: lunch break, back at 1:30. I need another vacation.
Update 1:30 Back from lunch. Continuing MIT #1! onward . . . is it 5:30 yet?
Update 3:00 Still working on MIT #1 - this is the longest day in the history of the universe, but staying on task pretty much. I did cave in to reading the news online for about 1/2 hour though :)
I'm actually enjoying the task I'm working on, and I hit my stride every day about 3 pm. I think I'd be more productive if I could work 3-7 pm and just goof off the rest of the time. But this productivity stuff is all about doing work when you DON'T feel like it, right ?
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Lark at 11:05am, 10:33pm
I had an early start this morning, and almost decided not to post today. But... I discovered that my impending financial plunge wasn't as severe as I thought, but it's in need of remedying. By the time my client gets caught up with me, the bill will be significant if I'm not cautious. Best to put the brakes on, huh?
Today:
(X)morning routine
(X)spiritual period
(X)finish first section of work project A
(X)mow some grass
(X)begin next section of project A (only if first gets done)
make a brief "do not do" list for today and tomorrow
tidy kitchen
(X)check back later
Journey 10 am updated 10:25
Ahhh . . . first day back in the office after vacation. I had a very nice vacation, took a few days to relax at the lake, and spent a few days around the house. Did a bit of decluttering, got routine maintenance done on dd's car, and dealt with a bunch of financial aid stuff for college. I took some time to do some Deep Thinking also and I feel refreshed and rededicated to my goals.
So far today I have been to the gym, scanned my overflowing email inbox, attended a short meeting at 9:30, and set my MITs for the rest of the day. I'm going to pretend that I'm an efficient and organized person and get on with MIT #1. I plan to abstain from online news reading today so that I don't get caught up in reading about airline crashes, hurricanes, and athletic competitions. There's plenty of time to catch up on the news when I get home tonight.
Coffee Break time! Back at 10:30 to say I've started on MIT #1.
Jo
10:25 I'm back, Have Coffee, Will Compute.
(anybody here old enough to remember Paladin? Have Gun, Will Travel?)
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
glad you had a good vacation, Journey :)
Hi Journey!
I'm glad you had a good vacation :) I'm glad it was nice at the lake :)
Good luck diving back in :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
oops, duplicate post, pls excuse
oops, duplicate post, please excuse!
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
Agnus 9:34am
Good morning, everyone! Dad is safely (I think) in the care of a rehab center which, tho not flawless, is about 1000x better than the horrible general hospital...once he was out of Intensive Care and on a regular ward, the "care" almost disappeared. It looked like the staff:patient ratio was about 1:20. Yesterday the Discharge office gave us 2 hours' notice and then failed to order transportation to the rehab but refused to delay his discharge. So we literally had to load my 79-year-old Dad with Alzheimer's and bad knees into Mom's car, catheter and all, and drive him to rehab ourselves. The poor man had been in bed 7 straight days, and they forced him to sit, stand, walk, endure 2 wheelchair rides, 2 transfers into/out of a sedan, and a car ride in Washington DC rush hour. And, my parents have 100% insurance coverage so that wasn't even the issue.
My major MIT today is to find a constructive way to deal with my anger, so I don't meltdown myself. Everyone in the family is getting frayed at this point, and I have the added stress that TS Fay is camped over our Florida home and my house-sitter is freaking out.
I am going to refill my coffee (I'm at a cafe that has free wifi) and spend a few minutes searching for a 12-Step meeting in the area today, and praying that I'll be able to attend it. Back in 15.
hugs to Agnus!
Hi Agnus!
Sending hugs & prayers,
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
Good to see you agnus!
Prayers for your dad, and glad that he's at the rehab center.
Agnus 10:02
Done with MIT#1, took longer than expected but it's ok, no dawdling. Next: set other MITs and to-do's. I learned alot from all of you in reading through the last few days' postings; thank you for sharing! One of the posts (Kromer, I think) comes to mind as I realize I have three domains of MITs and it will be helpful to sort them accordingly. I want to complete my MIT-setting in 20 minutes. Setting timer.
Agnus 11:30
Three long phone call interruptions regarding keeping my housesitter, pets and home safe in the rising floods...and longer-than-expected refamiliarizing myself with work-related projects after a week, so my 20-minute timer did not hold at all. I forgive myself because the present circumstances are so uncontrollable. Here are my to-do's and MITs:
GS Rolling check in Thursday.
7:22 AM Again this is going to be the kind of day that can really set me back if I let it.
My MIT#1 is not to let it.
I have a very long to-do list today. There is no way I can get it all done, but I'm at high risk of freezing up as I try to decide what to do first. It's in exactly this situation when I in the past have shut down, turned on FreeCell or gone 'Net surfing and just zoned out, often telling myself "I just need to clear my head for a few minutes and then I'll decide what to do."
Also, this is another day that will be broken up by a significant mid-day errands excursion. The break is always good, but the routine disruption can (doesn't have to) put me off my game.
So to start, I just need to move forward.
My MIT#2: I've got three pieces of paper on my desk that either need to get turned into tasks or thrown away or filed.
I'll check back by 7:45
I'm trying the "make one post and edit it as the day goes on" approach.
7:55 AM: I'm actually doing pretty well at staying with the program so far.
My MIT#2: I've got three pieces of paper on my desk that either need to get turned into tasks or thrown away or filed.Did that, with one left over.
MIT#3: Turn series of tasks on the last piece of paper into Outlook items and tie them to dates and deadlines.8:15 AM: OK, did that.
Doing so I realized I'm going to need to leave and run around even earlier to move on the tasks that were on that last piece of paper.
MIT#4: Tweak Project P, per discussion with an editor earlier this week
8:49 AM: Put out a phone call for Project P. Nothing new, so the tweak gets postponed until tomorrow, when I'll check again.
MIT#5: Check into several calls I put out Tuesday on Project R.
3:24 PM: Here's what's good: I got several errands finished driving around, starting with picking up my son from a school orientation and ending with a lunch interview for Project R. Since then I bounced between transcribing the interview and goofing off in various ways. But i've transcribed the interview.
MIT #6: More calls for project R.
6:10 PM:
After I entered the above, somone I'd called this AM actually returned my call. Good thing.
But then, I got stuck. And pretty soon was doing everything but the tasks at hand. I became subject to whatever distraction came along--whether self-generated or externally generated. (One big one: a sudden urge to find out whether there's any new news, factual news, on who Barack Obama has picked to be his VP candidate. And next thing you know it I'm off looking at political blogs instead of focusing on my MIT's.)
Late today--just before this entry-- I did get another return call. So that was good. But for the most part it's been a very distracted late afternoon.
I'm unlikely to be on later tonight, but I want to try to sign on early tomorrow and process where things broke down today, and what I can do to prevent it in the future.
Peace...
GeorgeSmiley
kromer 8:15 CI, latest update 2:30
Have been having a bad streak...last night, went to bed super-early withou completing my MITs.
Oh well, today is a new day.
Grad school prep
*
1 hr WM doc MIT*
email about ace2tamo MIT*
1 hr who I want to work with MIT*2nd hr WM doc
*
read a paperWork:
*
Document 2 datasets MIT*Document another 2 datasets
*
1 hr working on setting parameters MIT*
2nd hr working on setting parameters*Try to fix clustering
*Read papers for journal club.
Moving:
*
Figure out how to switch drivers' license MIT*pack books
Misc:
*
Food order MIT*
Get movie for NR MIT*Look for jobs sheet
*
email AG*
Dinner with friends*TH's bday party
I'll start by figuring out how to switch licenses, then I'll spend an hour researching who I want to work with, then I'll check back in.
Update 10:05--Figured out how to switch licenses, then stalled out, so I decided to come to lab (hoping it would be more conducive to work than my room). Now I'm in lab. I'm still feeling stalled, so I'm going to try a smaller goal of 30 min on who I want to work with.
Update 10:35--did 30 min, that wasn't bad! Another 30 min coming up...
Update 11:35--did another hour (I actually got interested, yay!), now it's time to take a break and move on. I'm going to take a 10-min walk, then work for an hour on setting parameters.
Update 1:20--worked for a focused hour on setting parameters, but I feel like I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, and I'm interested in this. So I'm going to give myself a second hour working on this (even though 2nd hour is not an MIT), and then I'm going to force myself to move on to MITs. Back around 2:30.
Update 2:30--did 2nd hour setting parameters, it was reasonably productive, now I'm going to move on to MITs. I'm going to work for an hour on WM doc, then email about ace2tamo, then update again.
Update 4:00--did an hour of WM doc and emailed about ace2tamo/meme2tamo. Now I'm going to take a short break, then work until 5 on documenting datasets (I can definitely get through 1 in that time, and hope to get through 2). Then, I'll print papers for journal club, check restaurant/party locations, go place the food order, go get movie for NR, go out to dinner with friends. After that, I'll decide whether to go to bday party...
Update 11:00--did all the above, except I read paper, called AG, and called home rather than putting in food order. So I'm going to do that next, then shower and go to bed.
kromer CO
A good day! Did all my MITs plus some other tasks, and am getting to bed on time. Hope tomorrow is as good :)