Sunday already? Wow, this week flew by fast! I hope yours was a great one. Mine was exhausting, but fabulous. My business trip provided me the opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues and get better acquainted with new ones.
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My business trip also allowed me to meet one of my goals from last week: get into a good book. I tore through 3/4 of A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages by Kristin Chenoweth. I love this biography almost as much as I love Chenoweth herself. It's written just like she talks, and it's an absolutely fascinating read. Unfortunately, because I was SO into the book, I completely forgot about that skein of yarn sitting in my bag waiting to be added to my MIL's almost-but-not-quite-finished scarf. Sigh.
In addition to having great, ambitious goals again, Cheri posted a wonderful quote about achieving goals. It's one I need to print and add to my vision board. The Nutty Brunette also posted a great mix of ambitious goals and mentioned today that she's rolling them over for this week (I'm obviously with you on my knitting goal, NB). Reading her follow-up today, got me thinking about guilt.
I'm really good at harboring guilt. Though I might not be able to take a gold in it, I could definitely win silver or bronze. Not accomplishing something I've set out to do definitely makes me feel guilty. But I'm beginning to realize or admit, at least that spending time and energy feeling guilty about it is counterproductive. In my line of work, when I underestimate how long it's going to take to write or revise a lesson, and it begins to look as though my deadline is in jeopardy, I don't waste time fretting about it. Instead, I go into problem-solving mode and identify a new plan of attack for getting it done. When it's over, I might go back and analyze what happened so that I can learn from my experience and hopefully avoid making the same mistake for my next deadline. Why shouldn't it be the same for our personal goals? Rather than listen to myself say, "I can't believe I haven't finished that scarf yet," over and over again, it would be much more productive to look at my schedule and figure out when I can fit in some knits and purls.
Which brings me to my objectives for this week...
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You may remember my goal two weeks ago of establishing more "me time" (aka writing time) in the mornings before work. This was a great start, but I still was finding difficulty in balancing my many writing commitments, let alone finding time to work on that "novel in the drawer." A few hours of brainstorming led me to what I think is a really great writing schedule. My main goal this week is to try it out and actually 1) follow my morning schedule. In addition, I'm testing out Things for Mac to help me keep my writing (and other) tasks both organized and prioritized.
If I'm going to successfully wake on time to accomplish goal #1, I'm going to have to 2) go to bed at 10. If I 3) read for 30 minutes before bed every night, I'll 4) finish my book.
My daily schedule also includes an hour of visiting and socializing in the blogosphere, so I am finally going to 5) clear my blog reader this week, but I'm going to do so realistically, giving myself permission to not comment on every post I read.
Finally, I'm going to 6) finish my MIL's scarf (for real) and 7) reopen my Etsy store (it doesn't have to be perfect to reopen it, Cheryl).
Though I'm admittedly feeling more-than-slightly guilty about my negligence of the scrapbooking classes I should be working my way through, I know the materials are there for me when I'm ready for them. By gaining control over my mornings, I should eventually find my evenings a bit more free to add this back into my routine (attitude, balance, and choice).
Here's to another great and productive week!
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2 comments:
I want to start getting up early to run in the mornings but every time my alarm goes off that early, I push the snooze. I really admire that you can go through with this! Good for you! I love reading about this every Sunday, maybe one of these days I'll stop being so lazy. :)
It's hard to get the reader cleaned out. I feel like I need to comment on everything and I simply dont' have the time!
I'm on the waiting list of that book at the library. I can't wait to read it!
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