Bleary-eyed Sunday 7

[neadods]

So much work, so little done.

I've got to keep refining the list of things to do, which continues to try to eat me. First I figured out what I could reasonably do in a week and added that to my calendar pages. But as I crossed something out, I'd write something back in, which meant by Sunday I was still screwed.

I've knocked that off, but now I've got to distinguish between the kind of chore that takes 5 seconds - "Check Amazon: new Julia Spencer-Fleming?" and the kind that's going to take half the afternoon - "Swap winter and summer wardrobes."

Still, I've:
- Delivered reviews (I've lost count of what goes in because I'm so aware of the 5 more due)
- Swapped the wardrobes. (On the good news side, I've got far more hot-weather clothes than I realized, and thus need nothing to round out my wardrobe this year. Professional clothes, casual clothes, get paint-on-em clothes; I've got the lot.)
- Researched the portable knitting project, as in "what can I do and what do I already have yarn for?"
- Instituted twice-daily exercise. (I'm still bopping in front of the computer, but I've added a few rounds in the morning before I go to work as well as when I get home.)
- Burned a dozen things off of the hard drive. (The old drive is *such* a mess, and after a while I've become numb to the amount of things on it. I may stop doing this after a while and focus only on new things as they are acquired.)
- Portioned out the books to go to Malice and the days they'll be dropped
- Instituted chore management, as described above. The library has also started giving us printed slips of what we take out and when it's due; with nauseating efficiency I've started punching that and putting it in my calendar and marking on it when I return things. If it weren't for the mountain of old, neglected things, I'd be quite in control of my life.
- Cleaned up my bedroom. Well, I will have by the end of the day. There were mounds and mounds of things just thrown in a stack, and I'm picking through said stack and putting them away where they really belong. Sometimes that's the trash or the flea market pile. As part of that I also:
- Consolidated and organized all my knitting supplies. And THAT was a job, let me tell you, because everything was scattered to the 4 winds! Now the stash is in the basement, the yarn for the two current projects is contained in the bedroom (1 project in a footstool, the other under the bed) and ALL of the needles, notions, bobbins, scissors, tape measures, stitch markers, and even the raw craft supplies for more markers are rounded up, bagged, and tagged. (Literally - plastic ziplock bags in another container under the bed.)

Cash diet-wise, what I've saved on the swings I've spent on the roundabouts - I bought cheap plants at the farmer's market (tomato, bell pepper, lettuces) but I didn't have enough soil to fill the planters I had - which were themselves too deep to be efficient and needed drilling to boot. So more soil and more planters - the up side of the latter is that once I've got them I can use them every year.

Today, in addition to taking notes at the Team Wench board and all-hands meetings, and take care of a friend's dogs, I've got to:
- Plant those plants
- Finish cleaning/clearing the bedroom
- Write 5 reviews

And that'll give me just enough time to whirl through the rest of the house trying to clean up before my parents arrive for dinner Friday night.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

That sounds exhausting! I hope you find time for those little essentials: work and sleep!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It is exhausting, and when I look at how much else needs doing (and isn't being done because I'm working on whatever I'm working on) it's downright depressing too.

My hope is that if I keep slogging on, I'm going to get ahead of all this and stay there for a while.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Shall send you good vibes for getting ahead and staying there!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you, they're needed.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I realized I really needed to get some 'summer knitting' projects started, because almost everything I've been working on is wool.

:sigh:

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've got 6-8 hours of metro rides the upcoming weekend and no idea what I'm going to be doing during them. I can't *not* knit. Then I'd be wasting time.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

If your planters are too deep, fill the bottom half of them with stones. It provides for good drainage, and you don't need as much dirt.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Now there's an idea! Had I thought of that beforehand, I could have saved myself some planter cash. While I don't have lots of stones handy, I've got oak leaves out the wazoo.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

You've done a great deal this week! *applauds*

I've got to finish the wardrobe transition, but it's hard to get excited about it knowing that I'll be able to wear little of it once the belly expands.

I picked up a pattern for a knit christening gown yesterday--in DK weight, at least. I'm going to swatch up some Zephyr laceweight that I've got to see if I can get gauge with it doubled.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

You've done a great deal this week! *applauds*

And yet there are still 5 unwritten reviews, and about an hour or two's more work in the bedroom, and I haven't even looked at three of the other chores... and next week's stuff is now looming.

*sigh* And I can't take time off to cope. But at least this week I won't be working overtime. THAT is next week...

it's hard to get excited about it knowing that I'll be able to wear little of it once the belly expands.

That's right, I forgot! Maybe I should make my portable project a baby blanket...

(Guess what I got pointed to on Ravelry today - a little stuffed knitted Death of Rats!)

ETA: I *had* to do something about the wardrobe, because last week it was 60 and today it was 95!

[swallowedbysky.livejournal.com]

I've got to keep refining the list of things to do, which continues to try to eat me. First I figured out what I could reasonably do in a week and added that to my calendar pages. But as I crossed something out, I'd write something back in, which meant by Sunday I was still screwed.

I spent three months last year figuring out how to actually get my life organized, and this was the biggest problem I ran into for a while. It didn't matter what I did, the week ended and I was overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed, I shut down so I was actually getting less done, not more. What's worked for me is something similar to the GTD method, but I'm by no means a GTD follower.

During the week, when I think of things I jot them down in a moleskin. Every Sunday, I grab the moleskin, any other stuff that occurred to me and was jotted elsewhere (eMail, usually) and the week's mail, turn off my wireless card, and plant my butt in a comfy chair with apple slices and water to last me for several decades. The first thing I do is type up, verbatim, everything that was in the moleskin. Then items from the week's mail (which is 99% bills) and stuff from other places. Then I just stare at the wall and think until Every Single Thing that has cycled through my brain in the past 7 days has been written down. I end up with a list that contains everything from 'buy textbooks' to 'cure AIDS' to 'take meds.' It's generally extremely long and is in no way organized. Once there's nothing left to add (which takes about an hour. If I think I'm done in 20 minutes, I'm in denial), my brain gets unnaturally quiet. That's when the organizing starts. Every item on the list gets broken down into its constituent parts.

For example, 'pay water bill' becomes:

-Retrieve water bill from mail sorter thing
-Get envelope from storage ottoman
-Get stamp, pen & checkbook from bag
-Write check for amount shown on bill
-Put check & payment stub in envelope
-Put stamp on envelope
-Put envelope in mailbox

It seems silly, but abstract stuff makes my brain shut down. Concrete, simple actions I can handle.

The list itself is actually multiple lists based on location, each ordered by date. I keep four location lists: home, campus, errands, and anywhere. I can't clean the bathroom when I'm on campus, so there's no reason to think about it from that location. I look at 'errands' anytime I get in the car, and I look at 'anywhere' whenever I pull up any of the other lists. As far as dates... I figure out when the last possible date/time I can think about something is and put it on that date. If I put a lot of things on my todo list that I *can* put off, I will put them off. By arranging things by 'must be done' dates not 'would like to have done' dates, I take out the procrastination option.

Abstract, creative, or just plain out there stuff (like 'cure AIDS') goes on my someday/maybe list. This gets stuff out of my head so I'm not constantly thinking about them and worrying that I'll forget them.

The calendar is different to the todo list. I put appointments, classes, and external commitments there, but not the things required for them. For example, my roomie's bday was Friday. "Bday dinner" was on the calendar, but card and gift stuff went on the todo list.

I don't add things to the todo list during the week. Ever. I do add things to my calendar, but that's simply because I have yet to convince the other people in my life that they need to schedule time with me before the preceding Sunday. If I think of things for the todo list during the week, it gets jotted in the moleskin. This means that when it comes time to make the next week's todo list, the only things on it are things that have been there for at least a week and not things that I should have done last week. (I put "buy gift for roomie's bday" on the todo list in January but dated to this week). Baring unexpected emergencies, I almost never get to Sunday and find myself feeling screwed.

...wow, I'm longwinded. I discovered last year that I really enjoy thinking about time management/organization stuff and that I'll take ever opportunity to talk about it.

In other words, sorry for taking over your LJ to ramble.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

In other words, sorry for taking over your LJ to ramble.

DON'T BE! That whole emotional shutdown is my problem too (just look at the post and the thread above.) I'm not sure that I could do it your way - I'm *always coming up with stuff during the week, and I get depressed if I have to put off things for a week or so because it feels then as if there's all stick and no carrot.

But still, learning what works for other people and how it works helps me narrow down what I'm doing.

[swallowedbysky.livejournal.com]

The only reason it works for me is the sit-down-for-several-hours-and-force-myself-to-think-of-things-to-do thing. If I'm coming up with huge numbers of things to do during the week, 99 percent of the time it's because I didn't take enough time to think about what I need to do.

That being said, it does create problems when emergencies arise, and it means I can't be quite as flexible as I'd like. It also means that if my time estimate is off then I'm screwed as well.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Time estimate is my biggest thing. That's what I need to work on now too.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Noodling a bit here... it sounds as though part of your problem may be prioritizing. Perhaps you could keep the whole huge to-do list somewhere other than your calendar, and just transfer in each week's tasks when you get to that week? That way you have some hope of getting to the end of the week with all your current tasks crossed off.

I sympathize greatly about the backlog problem; we're dealing with it ourselves.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Priorities are a problem, but they also are prone to shift without notice. I'll get asked to step it up on a review, or I'll come home and find a cat's been sick and I have to dedicate time away from chores and clean up or I get distracted with conversations on LJ.