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 )

I've totally dropped the ball on my daily happy lists, though that's because ... er ... well, riding the emotional wave of the end of Warmakers has kept me consistently happy (if wooby) and distracted from most other things. <--loser

So anyway! Today's list of happiness! Which is ... only mostly about Warmakers!

1. Various time-sensitive things at work that were mostly out of my hands (and thus I was uncertain whether or not they would get done on time) have been resolved. That was a relatively minor stress, but I'm glad to have gotten it off my back.

2. Because of the rush of taking care of those work things, the morning has passed by quite quickly, and it's almost lunchtime.

3. shadawyn has tempted me (yet again) with new shinies. :3 I'm dipping my toe into symphonic metal music because of songs she's shared, and have ordered Within Temptation's The Heart of Everything, Nightwish's Dark Passion Play, and Krypteria's Bloodangel's Cry. All of which have songs that were used for Warmakers fic and FSTs. XD;;;

4. I have been writing and drawing for Warmakers every day since the campaign ended. Okay, yes, that's horribly dorky, but - I'm writing and drawing every day! This has been helped by the fact that other people (mostly shadawyn, but also the other players and GM) have been willing to keep talking with me about the game and develop a broad outline of the future plot developments, which keeps the characters alive in my head.

5. Tonight I get to go to jfrog78's house and hang with almost all of the Warmakers crew!

Maybe I'll even get back to setting goals soon ...

Making a happy list for today felt like a burden, because there are a bunch of little stressors that I wanted to think about instead. But that's exactly the time I should make a happy list, right?

1. I see the sun from my front desk - looks like it just came out a few minutes ago. And yeah, that will make my workout this evening a little blech (I tried to get all my weekly gym trips in before the heat arrived, but working out three days in a row is not a good idea). But for the rest of the week, I will wear cool clothes and drink cool liquids and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. ETA: I went outside for a quick walk at the end of my lunch break, and it was lovely. ♥

2. Just found out some relieving family news ... no thanks to kyonkun. ;D

3. I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to manage the plans I have for this weekend - but hey! It's all good stuff that I want to do, so there's really no way that I'm losing out, right? I have to run from one fun thing to the next!

4. One more week until Warmakers super-epic-mind-blowing-endgame-extravaganza! XD On top of running around like a headless chicken in terms of my social plans, I'm also a headless chicken who wants to squeeze in time to work on fanfic/art before the campaign ends. But that enthusiasm is a lot of fun, even if it makes me feel stretched a little thin.

5. Speaking of Warmakers, I'm still really happy with my last fic - not only did I really want to write it, but it was really easy to write (two things which do not always coincide!). And it represents, at least to me, so much fun and cool character growth that I've gotten to explore over the course of the campaign. Mind you, the end result of Sae's character is much different from what I envisioned at the beginning, and even from what I envisioned two months ago - but that's part of the fun. I've gotten to play around and figure out how story events, level progression, inter-character RP, and my own character's personality all fit together and worked towards a narrative conclusion. Some things went according to plan, some things came together in happy coincidences, and some things were challenges I had to figure out how to deal with. Now that's fun creative work.

This week should be a little less busy and structured, in terms of my to-do list. I want to maintain my productivity, though, so I'm still laying out my goals.

Fun goals (work on one of these every day)
-write fic(s) for Warmakers episode 24
-draw at least one 4-koma
-make Sae's new character design (hopefully to result in some substantial drawing, though that may have to wait until next week)

Less-fun goals (also work on one of these every day)
-gym x 3
-revise resume
-read NWSA write-up
-write my own NWSA write-up
-grocery shopping for weekend events

Tentative schedule

Monday
[x] gym
[x] revise resume
[x] finish(?) another thousand words on fic #1

Tuesday
[x] gym
[x] cook dinner for the week
[x] level 21 character sheet for Sae
[x] finish fic #1

Wednesday
[x] read NWSA write-up
[x] sketch out (or more) the two 4-koma that popped into my brain

Thursday
[x] gym
[x] meet ratzeo for dinner ♥

Friday
[x] grocery run
[x] ink 4-koma

Saturday
[x] NWSA meeting
[x] birthday party

Sunday
[x] U-District Street Fair
[x] level Sae to 23
[x] levelstart building Khag

Goal list for this week!

Daily to-do list

Monday
[x] gym
[x] The Cult of True Victimhood ch. 2
[x] pencil sketch for one 4-koma

Tuesday
[x] grocery store
[x] make curry
[x] The Cult of True Victimhood ch. 3
[x] couple hundred words in Warmakers fic (it's actually starting to look like a story now ...)

Wednesday
[x] banquet (whee!)
[x] The Cult of True Victimhood ch. 4
[x]no other goals this day because the banquet will run late inked one 4-koma ha ha!

Thursday
[x] gym
[x] The Cult of True Victimhood ch. 5
[x] colored 4-koma

Friday
[x] gym
[x] The Cult of True Victimhood ch. 6 and Epilogue
[x] couple hundred words of fic

Saturday
[x] shopping with kyonkun
[x] level Sae
[x] finish fic

Free-floating goals
(i.e., do at least one of these every day, but I'm not dictating which one)
-write fic (at least 100 words)
-draw 4-koma (entirety of pencil sketching, inking, or coloring for 1 strip)
-draw non-stupid fanart XD (at least 30 minutes, however much progress that results in)

1. I got in my word count yesterday, despite getting distracted by other things (one of which was a Warmakers email RP thread, which I consider acceptable distraction!). I stayed up past my bedtime to do so, on the reasoning that I feel sleepy at work anyway, so I might as well have a good reason for it.

2. Going to bed late caused me to sleep in this morning, and somehow I turned my alarm off rather than hitting the snooze button. This meant that I caught a later bus, which usually runs late (at least during the quarter when students increase the passenger load). However, it was actually almost-on-time this morning, meaning I got to work right at 8:00. Woo!

3. My Adagio order is scheduled to arrive today. More tea!

4. I decided to return a pair of shoes that, while pretty, were more expensive than they were worth and also not likely to get worn often. This means more money for other shinies, yay! I also convinced myself that this did not mean I could buy more shoes as a replacement. XD;;

5. This Saturday, I will visit the sakura trees in the Quad for a morning of picture-taking, followed by a session of ratzeo's game. Which sounds like just a perfect day.

Okay, so I dropped the ball this past week on fulfilling my goals. Setbacks happen, and I need to move on.

For now, I'm starting small. Here's what the next, oh, ten hours of my day will be like (curse you, Daylight Saving Time!). This list includes both things that I need to do, and things I want (and therefore need, in my own way) to do.

Level Sae

This will not only be fun, but will hopefully get me back into the mindset of thinking, "Okay, how did Sae change after last week's adventure?" so I can get to thinking about the fics I want to write before the next game.

One post for NWSA community

Really, really need to do this.

Get calendar art to inking stage

From there, inking and coloring are relatively easy. They still take time, but it's not as hard to motivate myself to do them as it is to draw something on a blank piece of paper.

Dinner reservation at 7:30

FYI for anyone in the Seattle area, Dine Around Seattle is going on, so you can get a fancy full-course meal at certain Seattle restaurants for $30 per person.

I'm at the point where the idea of making goals for myself feels encouraging rather than draining. YES.

I've been moving toward this point for a while, but what really cinched it was this past weekend, during which I: met with my NWSA group for our first official planning session (which was also the first time I'd seen any of these fabulous women in many months), went downtown with kyonkun, met up with mahokiwi and laylah at ratzeo and zinjadu's apartment (also the first time seeing them in a while, though luckily not months), and played my first session of casaval's Harry Potter game.

The NWSA meeting was crucial for lighting a fire under my ass and getting me back to work. These are some of the most amazing, intelligent, powerful women I know, so being in a room with them, and feeling their energy and support, went a long way towards making me feel capable of taking on this conference. And, from there, taking on anti-oppression work in general. (I've started, for better or for worse, thinking about grad school again ...)

The rest of the weekend was more about making me happy enough to keep going with this productivity, rather than being productive in and of itself, but that is also important. :D

( And now, my goals )

ETA: ( Current progress )

feminist_writer

I figure some of you guys would be interested in this. :D I haven't worked on my writing in a really long time, but I joined anyway because this sounds like it'll be a great space.

So, Friday night I left the ADP showing early to start work on my short story. Instead, I spent the evening writing a rant that eventually got eaten by the computer. (See whiny post below.)

Yesterday I was going to work on my short story. Instead, I wasted the afternoon (I'm still not sure how, but it involved the ready-made distractions of people visiting and the TV being on). Then I spent the evening writing a rant which *did* get posted. (See ragey post below.) Then I spent the night rearranging my icons (including finally changing my default icon, whee).

The result? I now have less than 1000 words of my story written, and it's due tomorrow morning. *sigh* You know, I would take shadawyn up on her book rec, because that would be really useful for my problem, but reading it right now would just mean wasting more time. :P

(I will also not read Blog for Choice Day, which celebrates the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. However, I will put the link here so I can read it later.)