sigelphoenix

I'm trying to figure out how to get back into my New Year's goals, and, well, I've decided to try making more goals. Last year (prior to the new job), I got pretty comfortable making daily or weekly to-do lists, and that generally kept me on track with what I wanted to do.

Because I'm still feeling my way around regarding the levels of time, energy, and skill I can call upon, I don't want to make the goals to constricting, so I'm organizing them by category. Each category is something I want to engage in on a (nearly) daily basis, though the exact activity can vary. So I figure if I just set the goal of "one from each category" every day, that should guide me toward spending my time the way I want to, without bringing in an excessive level of obligation.

It's also a way of keeping track of how I spend my time. That's why I'm including activities like spending time with ratzeo - these aren't "tasks" that I need to have "done," but they're worthwhile things I am happy to spend my time on, so I want to acknowledge that.

( More details below, probably tl;dr )

Attempting to recover at home. It helps a lot that both of my boys are here (ratzeo doesn't need to be on campus today, and Kershach is ... well, doing his kitty thing and chilling out near me).

I've been thinking a lot about my New Year's goals - namely, how I haven't been fulfilling them. I've done some things, like writing bits of fic, but I've fallen behind on my reading goal and I haven't even touched my sketchbook. I'm still falling into the pattern of: go to work, go to gym (on certain days), come home, feel too tired to do anything productive until it's time to go to sleep. And then do it all over again.

There have been some improvements: primarily, I'm not stressing as much about work. I have let myself worry - because I can't not worry about things, and not letting myself do so would just stress me out more - but I've been improving my ability to do so proportionally. How long do I think about the stress? How large do I let it loom in my thought process? How much fear do I feel about the possibility of failure? How likely is that failure, really? And what alternatives are there even if the failure occurs? How much do I express my stress to others, or let it affect my interactions with others? etc. There are a lot of areas I can exert control over, and I am in the (neverending) process of bringing those areas under my control.

Of course, I have to be honest and acknowledge that one of the reasons I am doing well is that the high-stress period of my job is over. It's definitely easier to manage stress when I can say to myself, "That was the hardest part, and I already did it." This isn't ideal - I should be able to manage my worries even without having the payoff of "I did it and didn't die" giving me a boost. I need to be able to manage my stress even when I still have the potential failure/catastrophe/whatever still looming over my head.

Anyway. Besides that area, I do need to work on how to make better use of my time. I don't have a lot of hours between getting home in the evening and my bedtime, but there are enough to get things done, especially if I work little-by-little on a daily basis.

I don't want to let days, months, 2009 pass by in a blur. I want to engage in productive and fulfilling activities, even if I don't manage to do so every single day. I'm not sure, at this point, how to do it. (Of course, my brain is fuzzy with teh sick, so that might have something to do with it.)

So my goal for the week is a meta-goal: figure out how to make goals so that I can spend my time in the ways I really want to. I'm going to think about what kinds of goals to make, and how often, and how to reinforce them. That should give me a good start, at least.

Welcome to 2009! Here's hoping that, however well or poorly 2008 treated you, your 2009 will be better.

I'm going to use the New Year as a time to formalize the goals I've been developing over the past few months (and post them here in order to make myself accountable), so here we go:

( This gets long )

Here's to a good year.

Okay, my goals for the week sort of failed. A combination of fighting off sickness, stressing out over crises at work, and generally letting myself get high-strung over my accumulative responsibilities ... I'm not in great shape. I took a sick day/mental health day from work today, and I'm attempting to reset myself both physically and mentally.

So, with that in mind, I'm making a to-do list for today that should hopefully balance relaxation with getting crap done:

[x] sleep in
[x] eat breakfast
[x] grocery shopping
[x] eat lunch
[x] watch one episode of The Wire
[x] work on embroidery
[x] work on RP
[ ] work on email backlog
[x] clean bathroom sink + bonus cleaning windows!
[x] cook chicken soup for dinner

Throughout all this, I should also remember to drink lots of fluids, take vitamin C, and rest as necessary.

It's been awhile since I've made goals, but it seems like I'm in need of a structured list again ...

Weekly goals (work on one of these every day)
-RP for NTGC
-fic for NTGC
-embroider belt for Halloween costume

Tentative schedule:

Tuesday
[x] stop by bank for money stuff
[x] make online order for kitty supplies

Wednesday
[x] weekly goal: wrestled with embroidery

Thursday
[ ] weekly goal: wrestled with embroidery (with greater success)
[ ] weekly goal: worked on RP

Friday
[ ] gym
[ ] weekly goal:

Saturday
[ ] Friends of the Seattle Public Library book sale!
[ ] cook dinner?
[ ] weekly goal:

Sunday
[ ] attend NTGC session!

Blood donation yesterday + hot day today means I want to do nothing more than be a lump at home today. But! I need to get things done. So here's my (short enough to be manageable) to-do list to keep me from wasting the day.

[ ] load of laundry
[x] acquire dinner (whether that means actually cooking, or just buying something)
[x] submit apartment inquiries
[ ] character backstory

Tomorrow: Pride Parade!