Done for the Week: Not Exactly the Best Laid Plans

Stuff got done last week.  Not all of it planned.  In fact, not much of it.

 

It was one of those weeks for which the "done list" was designed--a device to foster self-forgiveness, and to document forward motion.

Done for the Week:  Jan. 23-29, 2012

1. Biked three times; did hip-strengthening exercises twice
   
2. Watched three basketball games with various family members
3. Saw orthopedist to deal with foot injury; awaiting insurance approval for ordered MRI
4. Finished reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband; Began reading A Place of Hiding
5. Read Please Look After Mom, by Kyung-Sook Shin; Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
6. Continued to work my two part-time jobs, putting in extra hours
7. Published 1 blog post
8. Continued work on current clients' projects
9. Attended Great Lakes Multisport Expo
10. Worked on Voter ID database
11. Attended State of the Union address party 
12. Attended Social Justice meeting
13. Attended Jobs & Transportation subcommittee meeting
14. Did laundry 
15. Continued to support my son in his finally successful search for an auto mechanic internship 
16. Began supporting my other son in his college application process
17. Had lunch and breakfast dates with my husband
18. Mailed March of Dimes appeal to my neighbors
19. Meditated 3 times 
20. Got dishwasher repaired
21. Completed repair on one bedroom closet door
22. Purged many pounds of old paperwork
23. Cleaned microwave

Once again, the most important thing I accomplished last week was continuing to fight the good fight to reclaim our house.  The degree of order I have achieved thus far is providing a bit of momentum to the overall campaign, and I am enjoying keeping up the spaces I have cleared thus far.  It has been years since I succumbed to the growing disorder of my apparently undomesticatable housemates.  Maybe it has just taken me this long to venture a rematch.  But I am feeling hopeful.  And my roomies are at least making appropriate noises about pitching in a bit.  To be continued. . .

Last week's focus goal was to schedule three exercise sessions, three meditation sessions, and publishing of two blog posts (in addition to this one); and to stick to the schedule as circumstances permit, and re-work it, as they demand.  As John Becker said at the conclusion of the episode where his corner of the universe began to unravel, negatively impacting all the people around him, when he tried eating at a restaurant other than his regular haunt, "I think we learned three very valuable lessons."  Naturally, my lessons were somewhat different than his, since I was attempting a different kind of change, and since I am not a TV character in a sitcom set in the Bronx, and blessed with pretty darn good writers.  But you get the point.  So my lessons?  1:  I suck at schedules--making them and sticking to them.  2:  As Becker learned, "No good ever comes from change.  Ever."  And 3.  My life at present is not exactly schedule-friendly, even if I had the knack. 

All this is by way of saying that I didn't make much of a schedule, and I didn't keep to it much either.  I did manage to bike twice, to meditate twice, and to publish NO posts after the first one last week.  In my defense, several major departures from my anticipated work hours decimated my already half-assed plans.  

Life just keeps happening, and happening, and happening. . . . As in the days when my own children's illnesses blew up my days, and my mood, I now find myself similarly affected by my grandchildren's illnesses.  Last week's childcare "schedule" was greatly altered to accommodate a killer virus that featured pink eye, stomach distress, and the kind of sneezing and sniffling only a pre-schooler can do.  And then there was the trek to the other side of the planet to support my son's quest for an internship.  And the two hours spent in the doctor's office investigating a remedy for my injured foot.  And the snow.  And the repairman who bumped me to last on his list.  And the committee meeting I'd forgotten to put on my calendar.  And the challenges of sharing three cars among four drivers each with their own scheduling changes and challenges. . . . And . . . and . . . and . . .


For next week, I am returning to a simpler, smaller focus goal--to meditate as many days as I can manage.  This "change agent" is clearly not anywhere near ready for prime time.  (I read this evening, while on the stationary bike, that meditation can help grow the capacity for self-discipline.) 

Done for the Week: Out of Time and Out of Focus

I am desperately seeking routine.  In particular, one that will support/permit the blogging productivity (two to three posts per week) that I aspire to. 

Once again, I have fallen short. 

Here's why, in part:

Done for the Week:  Jan. 16-22, 2012

1. Made appointment with orthopedist to deal with foot injury
2. Biked once, and did weight training--foot injury prevented additional dry-land exercise; did hip-strengthening exercises twice
   
3. Watched two basketball games with various family members
4. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband--almost finished
5. Read Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich; am in the middle of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, and The House by the Sea:  A Journal, by May Sarton 
6. Continued to work my two part-time jobs, putting in extra hours
7. Published 1 blog post
8. Continued work on current clients' projects
9. Attended training and was sworn in as deputy voter registrar
10. Attended new church as visitor
11. Attended 1 yoga class
12. Did laundry 
13. Continued to support my son in his search for an internship
14. Had lunch and breakfast dates with my husband
15. Negotiated dishwasher repair appointment and customer relations deal; ongoing. . .
16. Shopped for final family Christmas celebration
17. Hosted final family Christmas celebration 
18. Paid the monthly bills
19. Meditated 3 times
20. Continued major decluttering, getting rid of approximately ten years of old bills and financial reports
21. Straightened, vacuumed and dusted living room

The most important thing I accomplished last week was the continuation of our household effort, mostly "womaned" by me, to dig out from the accretion of "the childrearing years."  I am entering a phase still short of "Maintenance", but beginning to be able to see more and more of the floor space in my ranch-style, full- (and fully occupied) basement house.  And lo and behold, we have closets!  And drawers!  And shelves and countertops!  I'm really counting on Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project promise that "outer order [will] contribute to inner calm."  If I continue at my current pace of outer "ordering," I should be comatose soon.

My goal for last week was to focus on walking; non-weight-bearing hip strengthening exercises; and swimming--and to make it to the gym three times. I can't say the week's effort was a smashing success in this realm.  As item 1 above reveals, I made it to the gym only one time, though I did manage to combine biking with weight-training.  I continue to have a hard time making myself swim.  Arctic temperatures, my hair-washing schedule, and a crazy round of appointments and activities provided a barrier sufficient to discourage my mild aquatic interest.  And despite my dog's encouragement (in the form of whining, and stealing pillows--his protest-of-choice), I didn't walk at all--other than from one job to another, and one room to another in search of sweets.  I did squeeze in a couple of hip exercise sessions, in addition to the one yoga class that wasn't preempted by an expanding work schedule.  But clearly, I could have done better. 

I had also planned to find more time for this blog last week.  Unfortunately, the universe seems determined to eat the time slots previously reserved for posting.  I'm not sure how this is going to shake out in future, as my work schedule and young-man-launching activities and obligations are growing like Topsy just now.  I am particularly challenged by an erratic schedule, which changes from day to day, week to week, and semester to semester. 

My focus goal for this coming week is to schedule three exercise sessions, three meditation sessions, and publishing of two blog posts (in addition to this one); and to stick to the schedule as circumstances permit, and re-work it, as they demand.

Wish me luck.  I don't seem to be especially good at "pre-meditated" work. (Pardon the pun, which I confess was intended.)

Procrastinating 101: Late (Again) Because Too Many Funny Things Happened on the Way to Wherever

Is this you?

Or this?

Or this?

                                          Absent-Minded Professor Brainard's housekeeper tries to keep                                                 him from missing his wedding--for the third time!

Then this week's Procrastinating 101 may just resonate, as we look at "Cure Five:  Get Focused and Organized" in Diana DeLonzor's Never Be Late Again:  7 Cures for the Punctually Challenged.

According to Ms. DeLonzor's schema, the Absent-Minded Professor is one of the seven types of chronically late people--which you might be if you answer yes to two or more of the following questions:

• Do I frequently forget appointments, meetings, or where I put the car keys?
• Do I often forget names and details of conversations?
• Have I frequently been accused of being unobservant or of not paying attention?
• Do I notice that the light has turned green only after the driver behind me honks?
• Do I regularly digress from the subject when speaking?
• Do I jump from one activity to another before the first is finished?

(That would be three yeses for me.)

DeLonzor says that three main "problem areas" typify those of us who find ourselves in this overall profile: 

• Distractibility (like The Family Circus's Billy)
• Forgetfulness and Disorganization (like, well, me)
• Lack of Awareness of Others (like Fred McMurray's Prof. Brainard, who kept forgetting to show up for his own wedding)

The legions of individuals who are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder--like one of my children--have major struggles in these areas.  But not all of them, or of the rest of us, need Ritalin or some other concoction to cope.  And we can all benefit, argues DeLonzor, by taking these three steps:

• Learning to stay focused on one thing for a sustained period of time
• Getting organized and adding structure to our lives
• Increasing our awareness and observation of other people

As in her previous chapters, DeLonzor approaches our reform by outlining a series of exercises designed to help identify the ways in which these behaviors and tendencies are making us late, and practicing new habits.  

My favorites on her list?  Meditation to improve focus; and establishing times and days for certain tasks.  The first of these I continue to work on making time for, finding that the more I need it the less likely I am to do it--grrr!   The second is perennially difficult for me as well.  And I am not helped much by my freelancer's schedule.  I am inspired by DeLonzor's simple instruction, however, to make another attempt to set up at least a skeletal structure, and to resist the impulse to agree to whatever scheduling requests and changes my clients and part-time employers might suggest. 

So no, Ms. S, I can't squeeze in covering for you at a luncheon next week.  I'll be meditating.

And next week Tuesday?  I'll be here blogging about Cure 6--for the timeliness Rebels in the crowd.