Done for the Week: Missing the Essential

Why does it feel like last week was so busy?  Because it was? 

Why does it feel like I'm avoiding the most important work?  Because I am?

Done for the Week:  Nov. 21-27, 2011

1. Biked twice--nursing undiagnosed injury--shin splints?  tendonitis?  DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness--it's a runners' thing)?
2. Walked my dog three times, with various family members 
3. Read Love Invents Us, by Amy Bloom; Called to Freedom, by Stephen Boehrer
4. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
5. Published 3 blog posts
6. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
7. Attended Jobs Prayer Vigil
8. Attended Town Hall for proposed city Jobs Act
9. Continued to collect recall petition signatures
10. Celebrated Thanksgiving with my family
11. Had my daughter and her growing family over for day-after-Thanksgiving dinner
12. Babysat my new granddaughter and her four-year-0ld brother twice
13. Refinanced our house
14. Watched one episode of Boss with my husband
15. Scheduled weekly volunteering at Recall office for the duration
16. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband
17. Watched one episode of Eureka with my son
18. Replaced broken toilet seat
19. Cleaned the kitchen and sunroom/dining room
20. Cleaned out entryway closet
21. Started cleaning my study 
22. Scheduled car repair appointment
23. Scheduled doctor's appointment
24. Ordered birthday present for my mom
25. Ordered replacement part for the dishwasher
26. Got new running shoes
27. Tried new turkey leftover recipe
28. Scheduled piano repair/tuning appointment
29. Went to Happy Hour with my husband
30. Did laundry

I didn't spend the last week just spinning my wheels, but I did, as this week's quote says, "not do the one thing [I] ought to do."  I don't exactly feel that I am wasting my life, because most of what I am busy with is important to me.  But I am coming to realize that it is time to get back to work on my novel.

I have been experiencing some noticeable muscle/joint soreness lately and, in true hypochondriacal fashion, registered a fear the other morning that I might have bone cancer.  While it is much more likely that I have merely overdone my training, and underdone my sleep and necessary self-care the last couple of months, that moment of anxiety was enough to clarify some things for me. 

Like everyone else, I do not have unlimited tenure on this planet.  And like most of us, I do a fairly good job of ignoring that fact most of the time.  But when I was staring it in the face that morning, I thought of my novel.  And I thought that its unfinished state would be my deepest regret if I were suddenly to run out of time.

And thus, my focus goal for the coming week is to resume work on my novel.  And in service of that goal, I plan to employ Neil Fiore's Unschedule--subject of the single-most viewed post, hands down, of my blog.

As to last week, my most important accomplishment was refinancing our house.  Not single-handedly, of course, but in cooperation with my husband and my credit union.  This act matters because of the thousands of dollars and years of financial freedom it will reclaim for us, so that we can keep it together that much longer--provided we don't die of bone cancer sooner.

Last week's focus goal was "to continue the effort to get to the gym," and to "try to walk my dog on days when I don't work out."  Because of the whole fake-bone cancer thing, I was forced to take it easy workout-wise.  But I did manage to make it to the gym twice, and to walk my dog three times--twice at the dog park, from my house to my daughter's and back, a short drive but a forty-minute round-trip walk.


And now, in the interest of keeping some time for (gulp) my personal n-word, I'm declaring this post done.