Carpe Diem and Time Managment

Who struggles with time management? I DO! Thus, I start a quest to reclaim my day. Armed with a computer, pen, composition notebook, legal pad and a star highlighter, I sat down and created a system for myself. I’m all about systems as they make me feel organized.  Feeling organized comforts me and makes me more confident. Which is exactly why I need time management, see the cycle here and the missing link? Here are the steps I am taking to reclaim my day….. “CARPE DIEM”!!

1. Assemble supplies. Ignore computer. Write a list of top activities I do in an average day with a estimate time allotment. Categorize activities into one of the following: hygiene, eat, work, play, fun.
   1. Hygiene – Yellow – everything to do with cleanliness for the body and environment.
   2. Eat – Green – anything involving food, food planning or prep.
   3. Work – Orange – everything involving professional development, job hunting, or a job.
   4. Play – Pink – any movement that can be construed as exercise, i.e. walk around the block, running, weight lifting, etc.
   5. Fun – Blue – All other activities that do not fall into any of the other 4 categories; essentially my free time.
2. Decide. Plot when I will wake up (7am) and when I will be in bed (10:30pm) every night. If my math is right that gives me an average of 9.5 hours of sleep, give or take. Starting with 7 am I wrote down each hour on a line of the legal pad and then drew a line down the middle. The left side was for the time and activity; the right for any notes about that hour I wanted to make.
3. Now there are only 9 rows on the inside cover of my composition notebook. So I used the assumption of operating at something resembling “business hours”. My business hours start at 8 am sharp and end at 5 pm sharp. As I’m currently unemployed I want to be sure I get into and stay in a “work mode”.  Work mode includes time allotted for business meeting, communications, lunch, etc. This way I keep a professional mindset when I need it most – when others are most likely to be in the same mindset.  It also helps that the schedule table on the inside cover only has the business days, M-F. For each day of the week I highlighted an hour or half-hour for each category, such as my lunch break is always at 12:00 am with free time at 12:30 am until 1:00 pm.
4. In the composition notebook I will vigilantly record EVERYTHING.
   1. Everything I do – to become more efficient and better I time management I need to record and see where I am going wrong and what I am doing right. Plus routine helps the body and having a routine can dramatically reduce stress (at least that’s a hypothesis I’m willing to test with this project).
   2. Everything I eat – to better my body and be conscious of how I am treating it. Noticing when I eat more than just a couple cookies or even realizing I drink HOW MANY cups of coffee a day?? Along with planning and budgeting groceries to save pennies.
   3. Everything I think – to become more aware of how I treat myself and be more honest with what little fibs I tell myself throughout the day to get what I want instead of what I need. If I see how I treat myself I can better help those around me along with probably treating them better also.
5. Each week on Monday evenings I will hold a personal Week Wrap-up to assess:
   1. Accomplishments! – YAY warm fuzzies. A time to celebrate triumphs to maintain motivation and keep the project going. Not just a fuel but sometimes a jumpstart because I can always go back on good weeks to counteract bad weeks.
   2. Pitfalls L – Aww nuts. This is not where I want to dwell, instead it’s where I want to say “I made a mistake, why? How do I work with it, around it or just plain through it?” Pitfalls are the reason I started this project, I know I will have them but can I use them to my advantage?
   3. Progress/Goals – Putting Accomplishments and Pitfalls on a scale. What were my goals last week? What and how did I achieve? What and how did I land in a Pitfall? What’s in store for next week? [Goals will start for each day, and can be the same, consecutive or repeated. Goals can increase from a small daily goal to a moderate weekly goal to a big monthly one. Avoid a year-long goal with this project as it is outside the range (short term) and intent (simple changes).]

** Accountability**
Accountability for this project will be in the form of a WordPress blog, updates will occur daily to summarize my long hand Daily Log entries. This combined with informing two selected individuals from my daily life to help reinforce the sense of personal responsibility to this project.

**Documentation**
Records and documentation will be provided and secured in the following forms: Long hand via a pen and composition book. A WordPress blog summarizing long hand entries and a file on my desktop to serve as a backup for the WordPress blog. The backup file may or may not include additional notes and information for future reference.

**Copyright**
This form and all other written submissions are officially and irrevocably MINE. I stake my territory. If I wrote it, it’s mine. If I submit it on the internet, it’s mine. I will reference any and all sites I use to assist and propel my journey. Plain and simple: give credit where credit is due and don’t take what doesn’t belong to you.

*This is NOT a scientific project, has not been approved by any mental or physical health professional. I am not accredited in any form except through my own right of passage through life. As such, please consult a doctor before making any similar venture. Feel free to provide any feedback you see fit.

ABOUT ME: I’m a Health and Fitness Consultant that’s on the same level of a starving artist. I studied Sport Psychology at the University of Northern Iowa. I worked as a Youth Specialist helping disadvantaged and delinquent young adults in a group home setting called Lutheran Services in Iowa. After working for LSI for over a year I spontaneously (for me at least) sold my car, ended my lease and moved to Illinois. Temporarily unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands and somewhat lack mental or academic stimulation. This is my version of mental and academic stimulation. I enjoy helping others, sleeping, food, that weak and fatigued feeling after a grueling workout, a good book, Foo Fighters, prayer, Gilmore Girls and various other random stuff. My professional aspiration is to become a Youth Health and Fitness Coordinator whom has achieved a Ph.D. in, well, something relevant.

Jobs and then Economy

I was watching the morning news and they announced some contradictory statistics. The fact that national employment is up by .3% and then that 20,000 more people would be out of employment. How does that work? (no pun intended)

I do have something that I’ve been wondering for quite awhile. How do business analysts and economists explain business cutting jobs to save money when the money they earn comes from people who work for them? I mean it. Businesses across the nation are only in business because the nation has work. What happens when half the nation doesn’t have a job and the money stops flowing?

I’m not a business major and I’m not anywhere close to well informed. However, sometimes, I do wonder how they sleep at night.

Some may call it social responsibility. I just call it logic. If the local grocer doesn’t employ people to work his store, well he doesn’t have a lot of free time for one and second he isn’t contributing anything to the environment he lives in.

Just so, the businesses who rely mainly on Americans to buy their products should also help facilitate that cash flow by initiating the process by hiring people.

(I would go into the outrageous concept that unemployment is morphing into but I will leave that for another day.)

MLIA

I brought up being a girlfriend/boyfriend item to my significant other and he responded with “it’s always been your decision”. This, coming from the person whom everyone around him refers to me as his “not-girlfriend” because I’m “not his ‘girlfriend’ ”

MLIA

Grr… Technology.

Well, I went to visit my fam in the next state over. While there couldn’t really surf the net as their server was slower than a snail on a winter day. Now, when I do have my quicker computer I’m told it needs a lil clean up so I’ll be without it for awhile. Which means more non-posting and such.

C’est le vie. I guess that gives me time to conjure up some topics, resources and arguments for my phytness page.

Ta ta.

It works.

So somehow, my quickpress works more efficiently and more effectively than my regular posting method. Having lots of brain farts and anti-dextrous movements tonight so will have to postpone post for tomorrow. ciao

try something

going to try the quickpress and hope it sticks.

If you don’t like it.

A quick note

Got snowed in so I wasn’t able to travel to see the family. I enjoyed my holiday anyhow. I GOT PICTIONARY MAN!! And I got a thing called a Magic Fleece which is like a fleece sleeping bag with a pillow pocket. It’s actually a great lil gift for people who are continuously cold like me. Q and I went to Chicago to meet up with a college buddy of his. We had a great time, well I know I had a great time. He was really happy to meet up with them. Good times with good people, who could ask for more?

Now I just have to figure out what to do about Q’s birthday.

A MUST THIS TIME OF YEAR

Reach out and help someone, not just touch them. Here’s a good place to start the motion…http://hightalk.net/

Read the article, leave a comment about “the greatest gift you’ve ever given”, and help make another persons life a lil warmer during this cold season.

Sometimes I think Christmas isn’t just important to religious folk. It’s important for all of us to keep the warmth during a typically cold and desolate season/climate. Collective warmth…mmmm 🙂

Return of the Forgotten

I actually had forgotten I had created this account, which is fortunate but unfortunate. Fortunate as it still exists and can be utilized. Unfortunate because I could have been using it if I had remembered.

Current life stats:
Quit job, sold car, moved to new state. Will decide later if this was the smoothest move I’ve ever made in my life or not. For the moment though, I am thoroughly pleased and happy with my decision. I had an abusive relationship with my job and my car was more of a hindrance than a convenience. A new state, in all translations of that phrase is completely true. My state of assets is precarious at best. My state for mode of transportation has dropped to none. My state of employment is yet unfulfilled. My state of address is a completely new one, never lived in this current geographical location. My state of mind is at a new all time high.

I love the feeling of being away from my old job, there is not an ounce of remorse for leaving the position or the people. I do miss the kids, a lot. I miss my family but I get to look forward to seeing them now and again if I can manage it. I have wonderful people around me who are amazing.

I do worry about paying bills and getting a job. Paying bills was hard enough when I had a job because I had a very skimpy paycheck and a huge college loan. (Personally if it disappeared I wouldn’t shed a tear.) Leaving my job, though it probably saved my health, life and long term happiness, isn’t the greatest thing to be doing in this job market. Nobody wants a girl who went to college for some obscure major and slaved away for a company she can’t truly degrade without future employers running for cover. I will always say “I left because of the people not because of the kids.” and attempt to leave it at that.

Now, I’m looking to the horizon and praying for blessings. I know people will say that it takes a lot of courage to pretty much drop everything and move. But really, to me, it feels like …. some exfoliating process oddly enough. As if the past year was the coarse gritty mask that I slathered on and let set. Currently I’m attempting to slough off all the old dead and disgusting parts while hoping what I reveal beneath the mask will be a clean, smoother, and more beautiful face to present to the world and look towards a bright future.