Tag Archives: planning

Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Posted on September 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Last month, my challenge was to celebrate what I could in my life. I knew I needed to do this. I have been focused on a lot of negative things lately and I wanted to change that. Things are still not normal or feeling really safe, but there are still good things happening in my life even if they are silly. And celebrating the silly things was kind of what this challenge was about.

There were the obvious things to celebrate like my birthday and how I celebrated my birthday. I didn’t celebrate my birthday as much as I would have liked to, but I still celebrated. And seeing friends and going out for a meal are really things to celebrate these days. I celebrated little victories I had in work like when I got good news or figured out something that will make my work better. And I celebrated anything I could think of. I still use grocery delivery a lot (I have to admit it’s pretty convenient), and I would celebrate if I got everything I ordered without a substitution or something being out of stock. I celebrated when I found a good deal on things I was looking at buying. I celebrated when I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to within a day.

I really did notice a change in my mindset as I celebrated things. I have been doing gratitude lists every day as I’m getting ready for bed, so I usually take some time each day to focus on the good things that happened to me. But I usually don’t think about it all day, just when it’s the end of the day and I’m reflecting on things. But this past month, I did keep it in mind as I went about my day. Even taking a moment to recognize something to celebrate put me in a better mood for whatever I wanted to do next. I don’t know if I’ll continue to celebrate everything I can the way that I did this past month, but I want to continue at least some of this habit because it did help me each day.

And this month, in a way my challenge is a bit of the same thing but also a bit of the opposite. I know a lot of people do this in different situations, but I tend to think way ahead in the future whether it is good or bad. If I have an amazing audition, I think about how my life might be if I booked the job. If there is something that worries me that may be happening in the future, I start thinking about all the bad things that might come. I was doing that recently when I found out about my landlord selling where I live. I dream of what the future might look like, whether it is good or bad, and I get myself either worried or excited about things that might not happen. So I want to work on curtailing that.

I know that I can’t prevent it completely nor do I think that would be smart. I do want to plan ahead, both good and bad. I do want to celebrate if a good thing could happen and imagine some great things. But I don’t want that to be a big focus for me. I want to maybe spend a little time on that future planning and then move on to things that I can work on at that time. For example, when I was panicking about my place being sold, I spent a lot of time wondering what I would do and where I would go. I started to stress out about a lot of things that may not happen for months depending on how quickly my landlord finds a buyer. Instead of worrying about all the things that might be coming, I refocused on what I could change. I started looking at options for where I could move instead of just imagining a plan. I started to make a plan that I think will be a really great thing (but more to come on that when I have more information). I can’t change how quickly some things might happen, but I can be prepared for what I have ready at that time. And that’s how I want to manage my future planning.

The same idea can work for when my future planning is about good things. Using my union election as an example, I can imagine how great it would be if the people I want to be elected win and what it might be like if I am elected to the local board. But right now, I can focus on the work I was doing to get out the vote and help other candidates campaign by what I post on our social media. Planning for the future with tangible things and not just daydreaming.

I’m curious how this will work out for me this month. It might be a great thing or it might feel stifling. I’m not sure yet. But that’s why it’s a challenge I’m going to try out and see how I feel in a month. And if I love it, I’ll keep doing it. If I don’t, I’ll adjust as I feel necessary and maybe try again. And maybe in a month, I’ll be writing about something new I learned about myself or how I manage things that come my way. That’s what these challenges are all about. Pushing myself to try something and see if it benefits my life and if I want to keep doing it.

I guess we’ll have to see in a month what happens!

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Planning Ahead Even If It’s Stressful (or I Might Be Moving)

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Comments Off on Planning Ahead Even If It’s Stressful (or I Might Be Moving)

With all the craziness of this past year, there are a few things that have been steady and stable in my life. And I was so grateful for those few things because I needed to feel some normalcy and consistency in the world. I do like having routine and not changing too much, but I also know sometimes change is good. But when I have something that makes me happy, I stick to that as long as I can.

And one of the stable things that has made me happy for a long time is where I live. I’ve been in my house for about 11 1/2 years now. It’s not perfect and there are things that I would change if I could, but it’s pretty amazing. I have my own space, I don’t share walls with anyone, it’s safe, and even though it might not have everything I want it does have everything I need. And most importantly for me, it’s very affordable. Living somewhere this long and in a rent-stabilized building has the advantage of the price not being able to increase that much each year. And rent-stabilized buildings also have extra protections from evictions (so landlords can’t just kick you out to raise the rent for a future tenant without a lot of hurdles).

And while I have been in other apartments before, I think this is the first place that really felt like home to me. My first apartment was when I was in college and it never really felt like home. It felt a bit like another dorm room to me. I also lived alone then and hated it, so that didn’t help. My second apartment felt a bit more like a home to me, but I shared it with a series of roomates and whenever I had to find someone else for the other room, it made my apartment feel less like it was mine. My current place has been the place I have lived the longest (except for my childhood home) and the first place that I made decor choices that took a bit more effort like putting up shelving or curtain rods. I have made this place my home and I really am happy here.

But the other day, I got a call from my landlord seeing if I’d be home next week. They are selling and their realtor needs to come in so they can make a digital floorplan. I let my landlord know that I’d be home and ended the call. And my mind started running a million miles an hour. I know that selling a building to a new owner isn’t rare, but I think we are in a unique situation. A new owner could keep things the way they are, but I really don’t think they would. There is a lot of space that could be used to build a building with double or triple the apartments. And even if they weren’t going to build a new building, I bet a new owner would want us to leave because they could get a lot more in rent. It still wouldn’t be easy to get rid of us, but it’s possible to do if they wanted to. And I really don’t question that is what will happen.

Of course, I’m thinking way ahead right now. It’s not even listed yet. I have no clue how long it will take to sell. After it sells, we can’t be kicked out right away. There will be at least a few months before that could happen, and that is if it happens. Maybe I’m wrong and nothing will change, but I can’t just think that and hope everything will be ok. So even though it does stress me out to think about moving, I’m trying to plan ahead. I know it won’t be fun to move, but it’s not the worst thing to have to do. I think I’m more stressed about finding a new place. There are a lot of ideas I’m trying to figure out for my next place, so I don’t have a lot planned. I just know I want to stay as close to my current neighborhood as possible. And I need to make sure that I don’t offset making more money right now with a huge increase in my monthly cost.

I’m glad I am starting to plan now so I don’t have to do everything last minute. That’s what I had to do when I moved the last time and I know how lucky I am that I found my current place. But I can’t believe I will necessarily have the same luck again. I have the luxury of having time now and I’m going to take advantage of that so I make sure my next move is the right one and I don’t have to settle for a place that doesn’t feel right to me.

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Making And Cancelling Plans (or I Know We Are All Trying To Stay Safe)

Posted on July 23, 2021 | Comments Off on Making And Cancelling Plans (or I Know We Are All Trying To Stay Safe)

It’s been a very slow transition back for me, but I’ve slowly been trying to make plans. Some things are not very soon, so I’ve been feeling ok about having plans that aren’t for another month or two. I know that there has been discussion about the fall being worse, but maybe the increase of cases now will get more people vaccinated so the fall won’t have another surge. But nobody can predict what will happen. I honestly thought we wouldn’t have a surge like we are having now. But it only took a few weeks and things are now what they were like when things were much more restrictive all over California. So even when I’ve been making plans lately, they are being made with the assumption that they might have to be canceled.

And that’s exactly what’s happening right now. I had plans for tonight, but those have been postponed since we want to not have to worry as much about if anyone feels unsafe. It’s unfortunate, but I have been starting to think more and more about what risks I would be willing to take. I know that breakthrough cases are rare and when they happen they tend to be mild, but it’s not a guarantee. That can change and breakthrough cases could get worse. And I’ve worked hard for over a year to not get sick and stay healthy. As much as I’m ready for regular life again, it’s not regular times yet and we can’t forget that things aren’t great right now.

And with plans I have coming up being canceled, it’s making me wonder about my birthday this year. It’s coming up and I originally wanted to have some sort of gathering since I miss my friends. I wasn’t going to plan anything too crazy, but maybe a hangout somewhere so people could come and go. And I know I could do something in a park or another public place, but I’m starting to lose a little motivation to plan something this year. It feels weird to be celebrating when it doesn’t feel like a very celebratory time. The 4th of July was different because things were still looking good. Now, I don’t feel the same hope and joy that I felt only a few weeks ago. I’ll still do a few of my usual traditions, but they might be slightly different as they were last year. But right now, I’m really hesitant to plan for much more than that.

I’m not planning for total isolation again and I’m going to have some social time since (at least for now) I’m still able to go to my workout classes. But I’m also not really making the same plans I was trying to make earlier this month. I still have done very few things with friends, but I was at least trying to figure out what we could go do. Now, I feel more like I want to wait and see and make sure I’m not taking risks that seem like just too much right now.

And I know there is no way to predict if things are going to be getting better or worse now, but it’s hard not to fear it will be getting worse. I just have to be hopeful that something will change, people will get vaccinated, and we can really get back to normal and having normal plans again. I know it will happen eventually, but I hope that eventually doesn’t take that much longer. And while we are waiting, I will just have to keep evaluating things and hope that I find enough things that feel safe and allow me to see the people that I’ve missed for way too long.

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Working On Planning My Summer (or Really Hoping Things Continue To Get Better)

Posted on June 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Working On Planning My Summer (or Really Hoping Things Continue To Get Better)

Whenever things seem to be getting better with the pandemic, I’m a little worried that the improvements will lead to another uptick. We’ve slowly been opening up more and more in California (and in LA) and fortunately, the numbers haven’t been getting much worse. I think we are lucky here because so many people are vaccinated or almost fully vaccinated. So as we have more opening up, the risk factor isn’t that much worse.

I know we aren’t out of this just yet, but it continues to improve and seems hopeful. We do have a big change coming up in a week when things are supposed to be opening up 100% and masks are not always going to be required (although individual stores and businesses can still require them) and knowing that is about to happen does make me nervous. But I’m trying to stay in a positive mindset that everyone has been doing what they need to do so we can safely reopen. And I know other states have reopened already, and while they did have an uptick at first things have calmed down as people are vaccinated.

And since things are looking good, I’m finally starting to try to plan for my summer. Last summer was spent isolated for so much of it and I spent so much time in fear of getting sick. And while I’m still cautious and will probably continue to feel that way at least through this year, I am starting to see what is open and what I want to take advantage of and do.

There is the small downside of having fewer friends living in LA now than there was a year ago. So many people that I would have made plans with are no longer local and I either need to find others to hang out with or be ok with doing things alone. And I think I will be doing a mix of that. There is nothing wrong with doing things alone and there are plenty of things that I have done alone for years. But I also want to take advantage of being able to be around others again.

There are some things I want to do that aren’t necessarily time-specific for the summer. I want to go to the beach at least once. I don’t always go to the beach every summer since I need to be careful in the sun, but I also can be careful so hopefully, I won’t get that sunburnt. I also want to look at some easy hikes/walks around LA that either I haven’t done in a while or have never done. I want to do more things outdoors, even though I know that I will likely never be a big hiker. But I want to take advantage of what there is around me because I know I haven’t been doing that. And once I feel safe to go to the movies again, I want to see movies in the theaters. This one might take me a bit longer to be ready to do, but I think I will have a better sense of how I feel about this once masks aren’t required everywhere and we can see how the numbers look.

And there are things that either I want to do with others or don’t like to do alone. I want to be going out for more meals with friends. I have only been to 2 restaurants to eat there since last year. Both times I ate outdoors and it felt pretty safe to be there. I don’t know about eating inside just yet, but again, I have to see how the numbers look as more and more people are out and potentially not wearing masks. I also might want to go to Disneyland. I usually don’t go in the summer since my pass hasn’t been good over the summer, but now that there are no passes, I have to buy a ticket whenever I want to go. I know it will probably be very crowded, so I have to decide if I might want to wait until the fall when things might be a bit less crazy. But I also miss Disneyland so much and really want to have a fun day there with friends.

And one of my favorite summer things to do, going to the Hollywood Bowl, is already on my schedule! The Bowl has announced they were opening for this summer and I took a look at the schedule as soon as it was posted. I found a few shows that I want to go to and discussed summer plans with my parents. And they decided to come to LA for a few days to see me and one of the shows I thought they’d like is the weekend that they are here! I bought tickets the day they went on sale because I wasn’t sure how quickly things would sell out. And I didn’t get exactly the seats I wanted, but I did get us the first row of a section which is my favorite since you have a better view and the barrier to use as a table for whatever snacks we bring with us.

And of course, I’m sure there will be some random friend hangouts that I won’t plan since that’s how things naturally go. It will be nice to be able to be spontaneous again and not have to worry if someone has been around others or what the risks would be to see each other. I don’t know if there will be any BBQs or other things planned since so many of us are being careful and waiting to make sure things don’t take a turn before we plan anything. But the more time that goes on, the better we all have been feeling about it.

Hopefully, I can have a summer that has a lot of fun stuff happening. I don’t plan on going too crazy since I know then I will hit burnout, but I want to make up for lost time from the past year. And I can’t wait to see what adventures I get to have this summer and what traditions I get to have again and what new things I might want to turn into traditions.

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A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)

Posted on June 1, 2021 | Comments Off on A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)

I hate when I fail my monthly challenges. I try to set them up to be things I can be successful at as well as things that I want to do. I always feel so accomplished when I end a month and see what I’ve been able to do. And so many of these monthly challenges are things that I still keep up with every day. I love that I have created so many positive and productive habits. And I always hope that whatever my next challenge will be that I have the same outcome.

But that wasn’t the case for this past month. Honestly, this may have been the biggest failure of a monthly challenge for me. I challenged myself to try to work on creating some weekly meal plans that I could have ready to go. A weekly meal plan seems easier to me than figuring out each day one by one to be ready for a week. And while having a meal plan still feels like a bit of a reach for me to be able to do, having a plan is the first step to making it happen. So even if I only planned out a good weekly meal plan but never used it, I would have considered that a win with this challenge.

I didn’t even get started with planning last month. Some of this was due to being busy with other things, but I can’t use that as an excuse. I could have found the time to do this if I really wanted to. But I never had the motivation to do it. I know that this would be something good for me, but I just didn’t want to. And this is the ongoing struggle I’ve had with being better at cooking at home. I don’t like to meal plan. I don’t seem to always feel motivated to cook. I don’t know what it will take to make this click for me, but I really want to be hopeful that something will. And I just have to keep trying until I figure it out. And I guess this idea wasn’t the right thing for me at this time. I’ll keep the idea in case I do find the motivation to do it, but I guess this past month made me realize while I loved the idea it wasn’t right.

And while I would love to have a monthly challenge this month that I know I will be able to be successful at to redeem myself from last month, I’m not going easy on myself. I picked another challenge that I have been putting off and I know there is a high risk of me having another big failure at doing. My challenge this month is to reorganize my desk and filing system.

This might not sound like a big deal, but my desk has become a catch-all place in my house. If I have paperwork I need to save for taxes, it gets dumped on my desk. Eventually, I’ll put it in the file folder I have for taxes, but there is almost always a huge pile of paperwork on my desk. And if there is something I want to put into my filing cabinet, all my file folders have labels for things that I don’t need or use so I don’t know where to file them.

I’ve been putting off organizing my desk for a long time. I know I need to do this, but I was always finding excuses why I shouldn’t. When I wasn’t sure what my job situation would be, I was putting it off because I wanted to make sure I was creating files that would be right for my new job (even though I knew almost every job I have is mostly digital files and I wouldn’t need to file things away). I’ve held onto things that I know I do not need or use, like information from when I was a substitute teacher.

And because I spend so many hours of my day at my desk, I want the space to be much more functional and not feel cluttered and hectic. And the only way to accomplish this is to do a big cleaning and organizing mission. And I also know that to do this, things will have to look messier for a while. I need to pretty much clear everything out of my desk and sort through them before seeing how to put things back. And maybe because things have to get worse before they get better, I’ve been putting this off every time I tell myself I need to do it.

I do hope that this month, I follow through with this. I know I might keep putting it off and fail again, but I have to set it as a challenge because I need to try. And maybe I’ll surprise myself and this won’t be as bad as I think it might be. And in a month, I might be writing about how I was overreacting about this challenge and it wasn’t that hard to get done.

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Working On A Work/Life Balance (or Almost Repeating A Recent Monthly Challenge)

Posted on April 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Working On A Work/Life Balance (or Almost Repeating A Recent Monthly Challenge)

I know I say something like this every year, but I can’t believe we are a quarter of the way through 2021 already! I hope that as the year progresses, things continue to get safer and soon the pandemic will be a thing of the past. And while the first quarter of the year wasn’t perfect, it was an improvement over a lot of last year.

And while things aren’t open up completely just yet and I’m still trying to be careful and cautious, my monthly challenge for last month was to work on planning more things that I can do. Being home and being isolate is good for health reasons, but my mental health suffered a lot. I know that the sacrifice was worth it because I didn’t get sick, but trying to plan ahead is important and gives me something to look forward to. I didn’t end up doing too much this past month to be a bit more social, but it was better than it has been before. Even just having time to hang out with friends has been good. And going to things like the Drive-In Drag show has made life much more interesting lately. But I’m still trying to find things to do to fill up my free time. I know that I might feel a bit better about doing things once I’m considered fully vaccinated (which is really only a few days away). I’m starting to take some more chances with being social, and I need to allow myself to do that while also being aware of what risks I’m taking.

And since I’m trying to find more fun things to do in my life, I need to work on really finding what time I have to use for free time. I’m not working a ton, but I’m working more than I have lately. I will be having a slight reduction of hours at one job, but I’ve increased my hours at my other and I might be starting back at my old customer service job this month! If I’m back at my old job, it won’t be the same hours I used to work. I will actually be working around the hours for my new customer service job. But that will make my hours seem very close to what they were before the pandemic (with the exception of working on Mondays now with the new job).

With all of my work being done from home and one job being completely on my own time, it’s really easy for me to feel like I’m working a lot longer than I really am. If I work from 9-3 as set hours for my customer service jobs, goof around on my computer for an hour or two, work on my blog post for the next day, and then do 2 hours for my last job, it can feel like I worked from 9am-7pm even though I didn’t. I want to find a clear delineation between work time and fun time. Even if fun time is just reading a book or watching tv, I want to feel like my time is mine and I am not trying to finish up some work stuff later.

So that’s exactly what my challenge is for this month. I want to find a way to separate that time. I want to be planning for what hours I’m really working and what hours I’m not. This is similar to the scheduling challenge I recently did, but I’m putting more of a focus on what hours I’m working more than an overall schedule. I need to figure out what my real work schedule is. I know it’s not as many hours as it seems because I am mixing up fun time and work time. I need to be in more of a habit of having my own personal office hours and being able to walk away when I’m done.

I will say that one thing that is working in my favor is that I only do work stuff on my computer. I do have the ability to do some of it on my phone or my iPad and I do have my work email on my phone (in case I need to be reached), but I don’t work unless I’m on my computer. Part of this is because it’s not easy to work on a smaller screen or not have a keyboard. But it’s also nice to know that other devices are not for work and that I can relax while I’m on them.

I will probably do a lot of the same stuff I did with my scheduling challenge. I’m still not sure if having a paper schedule is better than a digital one, but I’ve been playing around with it. And while I won’t know for sure if I’m going to start back at my old job just yet, I’m going to schedule as if I am (it’s only going to be 2 hours a day when I return). And if I’m done with work stuff early because I didn’t need that time, that’s fine. I’d rather have too much work time scheduled than not enough.

Hopefully, this will make things a bit better for me and I won’t feel like I never step away from work. I want to have a balance with my time. Even though I’m not filling up my free time with a lot right now, I know that more is coming back into my life. And I’m continuing to prepare for that time to be here!

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Hitting A Bit Of Burnout (or I Took On A Lot At Once)

Posted on March 19, 2021 | Comments Off on Hitting A Bit Of Burnout (or I Took On A Lot At Once)

For so much of last year, I didn’t have much to do each day. I was struggling to fill my time and not be bored. So once I got a new job, I was grateful to have something to do plus I needed to start making money again. And it seems like getting my new job was the kick-off for other things starting up again or being a part of my day. But I also think that because of how empty my schedule was not that long ago, I added more things than I should have done at once. And now it’s getting a bit overwhelming.

I’ve struggled so much in the past with finding a balance between having free time and being overscheduled, and I’m aware that this is a privileged problem. I know many people would love to be overscheduled and working a lot. And I’m not saying I’m not grateful or understand that I’m lucky. But I also know that sometimes I can either take on too much or go too hard with things.

And lately, I’ve been noticing more and more signs of burnout. I’m glad I can recognize it earlier than I have in the past, but recognizing it doesn’t fix the feeling. I started to have some signs I was getting closer to burnout last month, which is why I made my monthly challenge in February about planning out my day each day. And that did help a bit. I noticed where my days were being overpacked and where I had almost too much free time.

But this month, things seem to have gotten busier for me. I’m not going out and doing things that often, but I have more things I need to do that are at a specific time. And the things that I do that aren’t time-specific are usually being fit in between those scheduled events. So sometimes, it feels like I’m going non-stop. For example, yesterday I had work, then I had to drive somewhere for a work-related thing (more on that next week), then run an errand that I had been putting off, and then I had a Zoom meeting I need to be on. From the time I logged into work until I logged out of Zoom, I was scheduled for about 11 hours of my day. I also had to fit in the other job that I can do at any time, so I was doing it in chunks between everything else. By the time I was able to sit down and write this post, I was exhausted.

And I am happy to be exhausted and feel productive again, but I also know I can’t keep this up. Fortunately, not all days are like this. They usually don’t have so many things back to back so I have some decompression time when switching from one thing to another. And they also usually have more fun things scheduled so I look forward to something. I don’t know if the burnout is harder now because I don’t have much else in my life and I can focus on it more, but something is hitting me harder than I would expect when I compare this time to burnouts in the past.

I’m taking some steps now to make sure that I take care of myself and my mental health. I’m looking at how I can plan each day a bit better so that I don’t feel as stressed to get everything done. Obviously, there are some things that I don’t have a ton of flexibility with because they are not on my own schedule. But I know I have plenty of things that I can find ways to adjust and move around. And I need to keep working on creating a daily schedule each day since that does help me feel better about my day. When I can see it written out, it helps me know that there is a time to do everything. I’m not trying to cram everything in when I might have some flexibility to do some work later.

I’m sure finding the balance of free time and being overscheduled will continue to be an issue for me. For all I know, in a week or two I’ll be writing about how I’m bored and want to do more things. In some ways, it’s nice to have this as a problem again because it does feel a bit normal to me. But I also know that I will move things around to make them better and things will be better for me for at least a little while. And maybe I’ll figure out the perfect way to start adding more things back to my schedule as they open up. I’ve been looking forward to things being safe again and I know I need to find the time to take advantage of those when I can!

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Default ThumbnailI Tried, I Still Hit Burnout (or Finding Some New Limits) Default ThumbnailTrying To Avoid Holiday Burnout (or Staying Home For Self-Care) Default ThumbnailTaking A Break To Be Sick (or Hitting A Road Bump) Default ThumbnailGetting Too Comfortable (or Getting Ready To Quit) Default ThumbnailSeeing How To Make My New Schedule Work (or I Have A Better Idea Of My Free Time Now) Default ThumbnailGetting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

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Really Getting Ready To Get Back To My Workouts (or I’m Not Sure I’m Ready To Work That Hard Yet)

Posted on March 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Really Getting Ready To Get Back To My Workouts (or I’m Not Sure I’m Ready To Work That Hard Yet)

I have been saying for a while that once I am vaccinated, I will look into going to Orangetheory again for the outdoor workouts. They have been doing outdoor workouts for a long time now, and I know they are doing everything they can to keep things safe. I haven’t heard of anyone getting sick because of the outdoor workouts and the people I know who have gone to them have said they feel almost safer there than anything else they have been doing the past year. I know people in other parts of the country that have been back to indoor workouts (with restrictions) and they have also said they feel safe being there.

But even with how safe everyone feels, I have said that I wouldn’t think about it until I’m vaccinated. And honestly, even though I wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible, I really thought it wouldn’t happen for me for a little while. So when I was able to get a vaccine a week ago, I was in shock for multiple reasons!

Now, there is a real possible end date for my home workouts. The soonest I would consider going would be next month (I have to wait 2 weeks after the second vaccine before I have full antibodies). But it’s something I’m really thinking about.

And also in the past week, there have been some changes for when gyms can reopen. It’s looking like it will be possible sooner than expected for gyms to open with restrictions and limited capacity. The Orangetheory studios I go to haven’t announced anything official yet because they are waiting on things to be announced from the state and county. We all know how things can change, so they don’t want to say anything until they are certain. But it’s exciting to think about things being opened as they are safe.

As of right now, I do still plan to try to do something through Orangetheory once I can. Whether that’s going to the outdoor workouts or the studio ones, I’m not sure. I don’t know if they will both be options in a month. I don’t know how I will feel about doing to a workout in the studio if that is an option. I also don’t know what the schedules might be like in a month because that changes things too. The outdoor workout isn’t too far from my house, but it is further than the studio in Culver City (because of my new job, I don’t know how often I’ll be going to the Brentwood studio anymore since I won’t be able to attend the Monday classes I used to go to). I don’t feel like I can make too many decisions yet with so much being up in the air. And I want to see how I feel when it’s closer to when I can start.

But I know I am getting closer and closer to the date when I will be back at some sort of coached Orangetheory class. And as I’ve said in posts over the past year, I know that I’ve lost a lot of what I gained from Orangetheory before. Having a year off has been very hard for me. I’ve still been able to keep up my workout schedule, but it’s nothing like what it was like before.

For example, this past week, I did my 4 workouts as I planned. But they were all pretty weak. I did do the strength training that I’ve been doing for a few weeks now, so that’s good. But I had both pain and nausea as I expected as well as some minor side effects from the vaccine (mainly arm pain and a headache). So I wasn’t able to push myself the way that I would want to. I know I’m not lifting as heavy as I was before. I have a ways to go before I get back there. And I feel pretty certain that I’ve lost a lot of cardio ability too. I haven’t had a substantial cardio workout in a long time. And I know it will be really rough when I’m back in an environment where I want to push myself hard and have high expectations.

I want to say that I’m going to take the next few weeks and push myself extra hard to be ready for my first coached workout. But I also know that’s not likely to happen. I’ve been trying to push myself for the past year and I know that it’s never been what I really wanted to do. As I’ve said more times than I can count, doing something is better than doing nothing. But at the same time, I hate that I’ve had to settle for just doing something instead of doing something I’m really proud of.

I don’t know if the next few weeks will have many changes to my workout plan. I might have some adjustments to make in 2 weeks when it’s after my next vaccine if I’m having more side effects. But I am going to keep going with my workouts and trying to find ways to be prepared to make the switch from home workouts to coached ones (even if I only do 1-2 coached ones a week, it’s going to be a big adjustment). I want to believe I will be ready to start next month. I know that it will do wonders for my mental and physical health.

I want to get back to what I was doing a year ago, I just don’t know if I will ever feel ready. Then again, I don’t think I really felt ready before I started with Orangetheory. I just didn’t know a difference so being unprepared didn’t seem that bad to me. Now that I do know, it’s scary. But I know that after I get back, it’s only a matter of time before I feel like I’ve never left and I’ll be back to making progress.

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Default ThumbnailFinishing Up My 2020 Workouts (or Kicking Off A New Year With More Home Workouts) Default ThumbnailBack To The Same Workout Debate (I Don’t Know What To Do) Default ThumbnailSlowly Working My Way Back (or Continuing To Have Dizzy Workouts) Default ThumbnailFinding How To Fit In My Workouts (or Testing Out My New Normal) Default ThumbnailAn Improving Workout Week (or I Finally Feel Like I Am Seeing The End Of Home Workouts) Default ThumbnailMore Proof I Need To Plan My Workouts (or Wasting More Workout Time Than I’d Like)

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Another Work Meeting (or Starting To Plan How Work Will Go For Me)

Posted on February 23, 2021 | Comments Off on Another Work Meeting (or Starting To Plan How Work Will Go For Me)

Not too long ago, I had a meeting about my data entry job and what this year would look like for my work. Last year was a very weird year for that job. Because most of my work was centered around finding in-person events, it was very difficult to do. I also had to balance my job and unemployment because I needed to be at a certain level of work to keep my eligibility for unemployment for my other job. And the end of the year is always a bit weird for that job because I am only on temporary 1-year contracts, so I have to hope that I will get a new contract offered to me right away. Sometimes there is a gap in time between one contract ending and a new one starting, but they really try to keep it so there is no break in my work.

In my meeting, we discussed the issues I was having with finding events as well as work expectations for 2021. That’s when I officially found out I’d be getting a new contract right away, but I had assumed that would be the case. And we talked about increasing my hours again as well as changing up my work. And t the end of that meeting, I was feeling really great about things. My work was still going to be partially focused on finding in-person events and I’ll be doing about the same number of hours doing that as I have been doing. But I will be adding more hours doing some social media work that happens to be very similar to the work that I’m doing for my new job! It really worked out perfectly for me because they were looking for someone to do social media work and I just happened to get a new job doing that right before they asked me.

So I have known this change was going to come for a little bit, but a few things had to be set up before I started the new work. And last week, I finally had my mini-training meeting about the social media work. Fortunately, it’s not anything too different for me. It’s almost like my data entry work and social media work were mashed together and created a new job. So it’s the type of work that I’m already used to doing but with a different type of social media account. And we did discuss a bit more about expectations for what I will be able to get done each week, so I feel a bit better about making sure that I don’t feel like I’m slacking off with work.

And this week, I will be starting the additional work for that job. I’m always a little nervous about new work or work tasks, but I know I will ok doing this. I just have to get a few systems set up for myself so I can work efficiently and maximize my time. And once I’m in a routine with the new tasks, then I am going to start doing some more planning with my work life in general. While I don’t have the option right now to go back to my box office job, I have been told this may be coming soon. It depends a lot on when more shows will reopen. And I’m still trying to see if I can fit that job in now that I have other work.

But between my new job and the additional hours for my data entry job, I’m almost back to what I was making before everything shut down. I’m a little shocked that’s true because it almost felt like I couldn’t be back until I was back at my old job. But I guess getting my new job and the hours I work there have really helped me. I still feel like I’m dealing with unemployment even though I’m not.

And because I’m almost back at where I was before, that means I need to get more serious about budgeting again. I’ve slowly been working on getting back into my budgeting habit, but it wasn’t easy without feeling secure in my income. And that’s finally changing for me. And I need to start planning things forward instead of waiting for things to go back to how they were before. There aren’t a lot of things moving forward in my life these days, but this is one and I have to make sure I don’t ignore planning ahead just because other things are stagnant.

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Back To More Scheduling (or Seeing How Much My Time Unemployed Affected Me)

Posted on February 2, 2021 | Comments Off on Back To More Scheduling (or Seeing How Much My Time Unemployed Affected Me)

I feel like so many of my monthly challenges are going to be all about getting things back to feeling normal. Or at least, I know my challenge last month and this month will be.

Last month, I challenged myself to have some social time every single day. I knew I was isolating myself too much and I wanted to fix that. I had a goal to always talk to a friend or family member. And I’m happy to say that I did accomplish that.

I did want to try to do more video calls, but I didn’t get that many of them done. But I did have more phone calls than I normally do and didn’t have to rely just on text messages for a majority of the days. I do feel a bit better and less isolated, but I also know that until I can start doing more in-person things that it will be a struggle. But I also know I have the tools to feel better and I need to remember them more often when I’m feeling alone.

And now onto my challenge for this month.

Working on my personal schedule has been an on-going battle for me. It’s usually tough for me to balance work, fun, and time to recover at home. But before the pandemic, I had a pretty decent schedule happening with so much being a weekly or monthly thing and I felt like I was finally getting things balanced. Of course, as soon as I feel good about something, things change and I have to start over.

I spent a good amount of last year without a regular work schedule. Even when I still was working a little, working an hour a day is really nothing. And I didn’t have much to schedule into my life since I wasn’t doing anything. And when I wasn’t working any regular hours at all, I know my schedule got really bad and I wasn’t doing any sort of planning.

Once I started my new job, I had to get things back onto a regular schedule again. I still have significantly less to schedule than I did before the pandemic, but I noticed how not scheduling out my days has started to affect me. I’m feeling a mix of having too much to do and having nothing to do. I stress to get things done only to have hours to do nothing later. I feel like I’m still in a bit of a mindset that I want to be done with all work by a certain time so my afternoons and evenings are free. But they don’t really have to be.

So this month, I have a challenge to actually start scheduling out my days. I want to write more than I have to on a schedule because I know that I need to overdo things a bit so I can see how much I really need. I want to include things like my workout times and when I do my morning and evening routines. In a perfect world, I’d love to have when I’m going to eat on my schedule, but I know that can change a bit. I want to put all my work time in there and the time that I plan on relaxing and watching tv.

I’m hoping that by doing this I can find where I’m pushing myself too hard in my schedule and where I need to add more things. And it should be a bit easier than other times I’ve tried doing this because the things I can have on my schedule will be limited. And hopefully, by doing this I will also get my sleep schedule back under control. I’m doing better with my sleep than I was a month ago, but I’m still staying up too late. And if I can figure out when I can do the things that keep me up late at other times of the day, then I can go to sleep when I want.

I know that scheduling myself won’t be a perfect challenge and I will have mistakes and errors. But my goal is not perfection. I just want to see some progress in how I schedule my life so that I can continue to plan to add more things back into my life as things become safer.

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Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailUnemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailGetting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment)

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