Wednesday 24 August 2011

I started this week with good intentions, but things happened, and I got thoroughly sidetracked. Only did a minimum of the usual day to day work. Spent time out of the house. Surfed. Shopped.

Now things seems to calm down a little around me (hopefully). It is soon 10:00 pm, and I will not start anything major tonight - but TOMORROW!

Tomorrow I will open up my default to do file first thing in the morning (I have a list where I have written down daily as well as more irregular tasks).

Among those tasks are some quite important (and difficult ones) that I have procrastinated on  far too long.

So these are my plans for tomorrow. There will be interruptions I know. There always are. How can I avoid getting sidetracked??

Unfortunately same plan as yesterday - work on BYE, I really want to get it done as I am sick of it! 

I got a procrastination app for my Ipod that I think is helping.  I listen to it at night when I go to bed, kind of a hypnosis/subliminal message thing.  We'll see how it goes.

Actually made good headway and only got sidetracted a bit by legitimate items 

Well, I'm trying to organize my day using Outlook instead of doing it here and in Outlook. I've been checking in here for ay ear it's going pretty well, but the quesiton is do I plan to do this forever. I'm not sure about that, but I'm going to try it it without the daily check-in. I've developed some pretty good habits of just going ahead and doing things and not screwing around too much. I'll see if I can maintain them without PA's support.

 Thanks to all who have read and posted here. You've been an enormous help to me. 

Recap of yesterdays goals and follow through:

Goal 1: Work on Friday presentation 8 x 30 minute blocks Actual: Nope. Presentation postponed until next Friday. Need to take advantage of reprieve, but better to catch up on current work first, I think.

Goal 2: Work on 8 cases for 30 minutes maximum at a time Actual: 13 cases; 2 more complicated cases received 2 blocks each of attention; 5 cases were just minor edits,  

Goal 3: Leave at 8 PM. Actual: 10 PM

Goal 4: Go to the supermarket, buy a few gallons of water, a couple of
days' worth of nonperishable food items to stock the pantry, just in
case. (Tomorrow I also will pack a bag, since I am in a potential
evacuation zone.) Actual: Nope. Current projections suggest storm will pass to the east of here, lessening impact. Hope that's correct.  

Goal 5: Personal time 9 to 11 PM. Actual: 11 PM to 12:30 AM.

Goal 6: To bed at 11 PM. Actual: 12:30 AM

Okay, back at it.

Goal 1: Personal development time: need to finish up a computer based educational activity at work; keep putting it off and deadline approaches; it's not mandatory, but would help me in various ways, including increasing my knowledge and, since these things are tracked, providing tangible evidence to my supervisors that I am not just coasting; if I don't make time to do it, the time will never spontaneously appear Interim: Well, this activity is more time-consuming than I thought! Spent one hour and completed maybe 20%? Glad I started to work on it, but can't stay on it all day. Will have to add to my goals for the rest of the week to get it done, I think, unless it gets easier.            

Goal 2: Work on 14 cases for 30 minutes maximum at a time

Goal 3: Leave at 8 PM

Goal 4: Go to the supermarket.

Goal 5: Personal time 9 to 11 PM.

Goal 6: To bed at 11 PM.

Back to report.

Happy Hump Day!

I forgot to check in yesterday but had a pretty good day.   I worked hard on my major project with my mentor and took off early to spend the afternoon with my daughter.   I had been feeling tired ever since the weekend so that gave me a chance to rest up a bit and I feel good today.  

I have exercised and made my todo list for the day.  Now to get back to the major project and see how much I can get done before working with my mentor again today.   My other projects are taking the back burner right now, but that's ok.

Jo 

Avoiding the truth consumes great effort and energy. - Jim Loehr