Attempted productivity

[mala_14]

I had a wedding shower, a bachelorette party, and a birthday party this weekend. All of them were fun, but time-consuming. Needless to say, I didn't get much done and am left feeling pretty tired. However, I have some plans and ideas to help me get on track with things.
It's September and at my house that always means the start of the school year. January 1st tends to feel more like the start of another term rather than a new year. My parents are both teachers and I've been going to school constantly for the past 25 years or so, so September feels like the beginning of the year, a time to make plans and get things done! It hasn't been particularly effective yet, but I just came up with a routine that I think I can stick to:

Morning:

• wake up at a decent hour, hopefully around 9:30 (this totally did not happen today :p)


• shower


• eat


• spend a bit of time on the computer, no more than half an hour! (computer is always a major time suck for me)


• work out a bit, usually about 20 min. on the exercise bike, but will try and mix this up a bit, sometimes it will just be walking home from the bus stop which is about 17 min.

Afternoon:

• work on thesis, for 2 hours, trying to get 3 pages written every day


• do a cleaning task or administrative-type task, this week it is vacuuming one room per day (but I'll figure out 5 tasks every week, I have insurance claims that need filing and wedding stuff that needs to get put away)

Evening:

• make supper


• sewing time, this week it's hem the GoT Tyrell dress (just need to turn it up and sew) and hem my grey wool trousers so I can wear them to a wedding on Sunday


• more computer time


• maybe another small cleaning task, or finishing up the one done in the afternoon if it's something like laundry that needs putting away

My top priorities are: thesis!!!, other school stuff (applying for conferences, research assistant work), keeping the house decent, living well (in terms of diet and exercise), and sewing productivity.
My obstacles are: procrastination, the computer, social life, having to break up my day to go to school for meetings and workshops.
I figure I can write out a list every week so I can have things to check off and feel accomplished about. :) I already did that for the week. I'm about 2-3 hours behind today, but if I get off the computer now and get working on my thesis, I can still get most of the things accomplished today. Just gotta do it!

Comments

[starlightmasque.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great plan! I chuckled at your getting up at 9:30... ah, those were the days!!!

You should try www.getcoldturkey.com --- it will block any website for any amount of time you specify. I totally have to block LJ, facebook, pinterest for most of the day if I want to get anything done. I totally get sucked into the internet and suddenly my whole day is gone. Being able to turn these things off-- with no way to turn them back on until the time specified is up. This way, I can still use the computer for worky things, but the time sucks are not on the menu until later in the day. Really works! and, it's free!

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yeah, when I told my dad that part he said, "You know, most people start their day, like they're at work, by 9:00." I know it's not really early at all, but if I can get to bed at midnight it gives me a good long sleep and gets me up with plenty of time to do things during the day. I need the sleep!

Oooh, that sounds interesting. I will definitely need that when I make the switch from writing my thesis out by hand to typing it up on the computer!