Tag Archives: scheduling

Back To Busy (or It Comes Back So Easily)

Yesterday was my first day back. And man did I fall back into my work pattern quickly.

Not all of my co-workers were there, but it was enough of us to feel like a normal work day. And we really got back to work as if we had never left.

There were some changes we all had to note, but those happen all the time so it wasn’t something that made it feel like we were returning from a break.

And while the day did seem to take forever (it doesn’t help that the sun keeps setting earlier), I did make it through the day. I think the fact that this will be a short week will help me.

Most weeks until after Thanksgiving will be short weeks for me. This week we skipped Monday. Next week, I’m missing Saturday because I have a 5K. The week after that should be a normal week unless something comes up. The week of the 15th my dad is coming to town for a show (and he’s going to check out spin class with me too!). After that I have the film festival. And then it’s Thanksgiving. So that’s only one full 6 day week until Thanksgiving is over.

That will definitely help me feel like I have more time. Even though my days off will be packed with other things, they are all things I chose to do and love (well, maybe I don’t love the 5K but I tolerate it).

I’ve already let my boss know about my crazy schedule, and since I told him in advance he’s cool with it. I just have to make sure I make my work days as productive as possible so I can make enough money to pay for everything.

I know that the next few weeks are going to fly by, but the day-to-day life at work can be a bit slow. So I just need to focus on the big picture and I know that I can make my time at work as efficient and profitable as possible!

Working On Figuring It Out (or I Wish This Was Easier)

I was starting to get into a good flow with my food. I’ve been making much more stuff at home and remembering to take it with me to work for lunch. And this was great for a while.

Until I got to my two half days of work where there isn’t a lunch scheduled. Somehow, that got me all mixed up. I forgot to eat lunch those days and was so starving my dinnertime that I didn’t make the best choices for myself.

It’s tough on those days because I’m trying to get so much stuff done. On Fridays, I work from 9-1, so I have a good portion of my day free and like to try to get some errands done. This past Friday I left work in Santa Monica, drove to West LA to go to OSH, drove to the far side of Culver City to return some things I ordered online, then went home. By the time I got home, it was almost 4pm and I didn’t want to eat a super late lunch or a super early dinner.

And yes, I’m aware that the smart thing for me to do would be to go and get some lunch before running errands or bringing something with me that I can eat on the run. But I don’t think of doing that when I’m rushing out to work for my early shift that day (also, I don’t get home until after 9pm the night before so I’m rushing around from the time I get home the night before until I leave the next morning). I also don’t want to spend a lot of time eating lunch because I really want to maximize those hours I have (and I’m working on figuring out how to fit in a spin class too).

I had a similar problem on Sunday, which is my one day off. I got up at my usual 7am (it really is better if you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day) and was cleaning my house and running errands as soon as I woke up. And at 2pm, I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything yet and had to time out when to have lunch and dinner.

It’s tough to schedule out my meals when everything else isn’t crazy scheduled. I never know when I’m going to be doing my errands, and sometimes if I’m not hungry, I don’t want to force myself to eat.

I’m hoping that I start to figure out how to plan on my unscheduled days soon. Even though I’m eating great 4 days a week, those other 3 can really go wrong and screw up all my hard work!

TV Prep Time (or Here Are Some Helpful Links About Scheduling Your Viewing)

I can’t believe how fast the summer is flying by! I remember when I was younger and my mom would tell me that time goes by faster the older you get. It’s true.

TV networks are starting to get ready for the fall tv season. And if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m a little OCD when it comes to my prep work for the new shows.

I noticed that the website where I get my fall tv schedules have put up some of their information already, and I thought I’d share the links and some helpful tips on how to use them. And if you aren’t an actor, as long as you enjoy watching some tv shows, you might find this helpful as well!

First of all, here’s the link to a print out of the tv lineups for networks shows in the fall.

How is this helpful? First of all, you can use it to see if any of the shows you watch regularly have changed time slots. You can also see if there is anything that you aren’t able to record (I can only record 2 shows at once on my DVR, so if I like to watch 3 that air at the same time I have to watch one on Hulu).

For actors trying to do your research, you can plan out when you can watch certain new shows (since you should be trying to watch at least one or two episodes of everything on tv). I use this to plan what shows to watch and take notes on each day of the week. Unless I’m personally super excited for a new tv show (it happens plenty), I will schedule time to watch a show the day or two after it airs. That way I’m not staying up super late to catch a new show and take notes. Sometimes when taking notes, I will watch a show all the way through once, make some quick notes, and then go back to the beginning and watch it again for more detailed notes (like character family relations). I don’t always do this, but for some dramas, it’s hard to get everything I need in one viewing.

The second link is for the premier date schedule for all tv shows. You might recognize the grid from this picture in a previous blog post.

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I always print out this schedule and keep it near my tv. This shows when each show is coming back for the fall. So even if there are 6 new shows I need to watch on a Monday, perhaps only one or two are premiering in a particular week. When I have this printed out, I highlight the premier dates of all the new shows that I need to watch. I’ll either print out a second sheet to highlight the shows that I already watch (and just am antsy to start watching again), or I’ll sometimes highlight it in another color.

Using both of these sheets, I can coordinate my DVR (and Hulu if necessary) so that I’m ready for the new tv season. The only change that I’m making this year is to digitally record all of my notes. In the past, I’ve used notebooks and hand-wrote everything. This year, I’m creating notebooks in Evernote to track and organize all of it. I’m not sure if I’ll like it more than handwriting (something about writing it down and not typing it seems to make me remember it more), but I’m willing to test it out!

I hope that for all of you actors, this helps you get more prepared for the fall tv season! If you have any questions about anything, please ask. I’m more than happy to share my knowledge with fellow actors. I don’t believe that we are really ever competing against anyone but ourselves in the audition room.

And for you non-actors reading this, I hope that you now know when all of your shows are coming back, and maybe you’ve learned something too!

Now I’m off to print and highlight the heck out of those pages!

Making Time For Real Life (or Trying To Not Just Live Virtually)

Between work, exercise, and sleeping; I don’t have a ton of time to do thing. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve had issues creating a work/life balance.

What makes it harder is not realizing that you haven’t seen someone in real life in forever. I stay in touch with friends via Facebook or twitter all the time. So I see who has gone on vacation, had a baby, gotten engaged, got a puppy, or whatever.

But I’ve realized lately that I’ve only been participating in the virtual part of life. There are times when I leave work at night and I don’t say another word out loud until the next day when I’m back at work.

I know I spend too much time on my computer/iPhone/iPad. But sometimes, I feel like I’m missing out on life if I don’t get it out online. Not many of my friends want to meet up to hang out at 9pm when I’m out of work (I don’t blame them since I don’t want to hang out then either).

I am working on starting my Wednesday happy hour plans again. And I need to take advantage of my 2 1/2 days at work on Fridays and Saturdays. On Fridays, I’m done at 1pm. There have been many times in the past when I go straight home, and pass out for a very extended nap. But I’m trying to not do that. Not only is it bad for my sleep schedule, but I’m wasting perfectly good friend time!

Today, after my work shift, I’m meeting my friend Emily for a pie outing. I haven’t seen her in person in forever and we are way overdue for a hangout.

On Saturdays, I’m done at 2pm, and I have done the nap thing after those work days as well. But tomorrow, I’m headed to Wine Fest (I promise to blog about that next week!)!

I think if I work on scheduling hangouts on my half days, I’ll feel like I’m seeing my friends and not just reading a computer screen. I miss seeing people, but right now, I have to keep working 6 days a week. I will have more (f)unemployment in the future, but right now, work focus is important.

Fitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management)

I’m settling back into my work routine. The next few weeks are a bit odd because I’m working weird hours due to a show at my work, but I’d say about 80% of my schedule is what it should be.

I’m still not great at managing all my time (including my one day off), but I’m getting better. And I’ve finally figured out a plan that allows me to work and fit in my SoulCycle classes.

Right now, my days for spinning classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays. On those days, I don’t start work until noon (it might be pushed back to 12:30 soon which works in my favor). On those days, I get up at 7am, as I do every day. I leave my house for spin class by 7:50, take an 8:30 class, and get home by 10. Then I have enough time to shower, get dressed, and eat some late breakfast before heading out to work.

On those days, I’m at work until 8:30pm (and have to be back at work by 9am the next morning), so working out at nighttime is not an option. Also, there aren’t any spin classes that late at the studio.

I’d like to try to add in a class on the weekend as well, but the classes on Saturday don’t exactly work well with my work schedule. The class that’s closest to the time I leave work is 2 hours after my shift. I wouldn’t drive home, but I’d need to find something to do (and make sure I eat a light meal before class). And on Sundays, I’m so busy doing everything else that needs to get done that I’m not sure where to fit in spin class.

I’m glad that I figured out how to still do the workout I love while I’m working 6 days a week. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but honestly, nothing in my life is easy. It would probably freak me out if it was easy.

And knowing that I’m working at doing something that I love does make me happy. It can be a little overwhelming and depressing knowing that I’m working at a job 6 days a week (that isn’t my career). I’m glad I’ve found something good for me that makes me so happy.

Relearning Old Habits (or Seriously, This Again?!?)

I’ve been back at my day job for a few weeks. But most of the weeks haven’t been typical ones. I was in San Francisco 2 weekends ago which involved me missing 2 days of work. The week prior to that I worked a weird shift on Thursday to work late, a split shift on Friday, and a partial shift on Saturday. And this week I’m taking Saturday off to do another 5k.

All of this has made it tough for me to get back on track with scheduling. I know, I know; I’m always complaining about scheduling. But when you go from working 6 days a week to working no days a week to working 6 days a week again it’s weird.

I’m trying to stay on top of my time off and not waste it. When I was unemployed, if I didn’t get an errand done one day, I could do it the next. That’s not really possible now. If I don’t get it done on Sunday, it’s likely that Friday will be my next chance.

So I’m making sure that I’m writing up lists for my time off. This was the one I used on Sunday.

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It wasn’t everything that I need to do, but a good portion of it. And as I did my errands, when I thought of something new, I added it to the list.

I’m proud to say that at the end of the day on Sunday, my list had 13 items and I got 12 done (I didn’t get a new alarm clock, but that’s a story for another post).

I did, however, forget to include cleaning my house on the list, and sadly that didn’t get done. So my house is a little messier than I’d like, but I’m trying to do little bits of cleaning before and after work.

I’m glad that my list-making has been helping me, because it can feel a bit overwhelming trying to get everything done in a day. But when it’s written out, somehow it doesn’t seem as daunting.

Next, I need to work on scheduling my mornings better. When I don’t start work until noon, I have some time in the mornings to get things done. I don’t like doing errands then because I feel rushed, but I can do a lot more in my house those days than I’m doing now.

Readjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule)

I’ve been back at work for a few days now. At first, it was really nice. I got to see my co-workers, I was making money, and I like feeling like I have a purpose.

But the honeymoon stage of working again wore off pretty quickly. And it’s the little things that bother me. I miss knowing that I can go to spin class whenever I want. I’m trying out going to a class this morning, but I’m worried I won’t have enough time to get ready to go to work after. I hate eating dinner at 9 or 9:30 at night, but if I don’t have some sort of dinner, I’m too hungry after work (and it’s hard to eat while I’m working on the phone). And I don’t like being limited in when I can go run errands. Just last night, I was supposed to have dinner and hang out with a friend, but it had to be cut very short because I needed to go to the grocery store and get gas for my car.

I know that I’m whining, but this is honestly how I feel. And I’m not going to look for a different job since this one pays well and my boss is cool with me going to auditions (which is incredibly hard to find). I’m also just surprised that the schedule shocked me so much since this was exactly what I was doing 6 weeks ago before my unemployment started.

So to fix my feelings, I’m trying to get better (again) at planning. Like I said, today I’m testing if I have time to go to a morning spin class before work (I have a late start time today since I have to work until 10pm so there is room in case I take longer getting ready than I hope to). I’m working on re-doing my food plan again so I could get away with only having a light snack at night instead of a meal. But that’s tough because I get up at 7am, have a little something in the morning, eat my breakfast at 11am, and have my lunch break at 4pm. If I stop eating for the day at 4pm, I get very hungry when I’m trying to fall asleep.

Again, these are all things I need to work on getting adjusted to again. It wasn’t easy when I started this job a year ago. I was just leaving a job where I worked 8-4:30 3 days a week (but the job made me very unhappy so I didn’t want to stay there). Getting used to being at work 6 days a week is not easy. And it’s not any easier this time because I’m also trying to have a life this time around.

I remember reading somewhere that it takes 21 days to create a habit. So I’m hoping that on my 21st day of work this season, things will start to get easier. And if they don’t, I might just have to plaster a smile on my face and pretend that everything is great until I do something like win the lottery or book a tv series.

Scheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment)

Less than a week to go before my unemployment starts. I’m preparing to get to do some really fun things while I’m not working 6 days a week like go to San Diego to visit my grandparents, take advantage of my Disneyland pass, and of course focus on my acting career as much of the day as possible.

But I really want to make sure I keep a schedule even on days where I have nothing planned. Right now, I get up at the same time 7 days a week (that’s supposed to be good for your sleep) and I know that if I’m not doing something by a certain time I’ll be running late. I know when I wash my hair before work, if I don’t start to blow dry it by 10:30 I won’t have enough time to do everything I want to do before leaving for work.

Having that sort of schedule really helps to keep my day moving. I don’t have time to sit on my butt and read or watch tv as long as I’d like. And I don’t want to be doing that while I’m unemployed either. I need to maximize those hours of the day.

I’m not exactly sure how I will do this, so I’m open to suggestions. I know that I’ll keep my alarm schedule the same so I won’t be sleeping away the day. I’m trying to plan at least 1 time sensitive activity every day that I’m unemployed. It might be something like going to Disneyland, seeing a speaker at The Actors’ Network or Women in Film, or even just meeting a friend for lunch or dinner.

That way, I’ll have something to use as a finish line so I can work backwards and schedule all the other things I want to do (like maybe take more than 1 class a week at SoulCycle).

I’m also looking into seeing if I can get some writing jobs. I’m currently contributing to The Pet Matchmaker (it doesn’t pay but it’s great experience), and I’ve just found another blog that I want to be a contributor for as well. Maybe I can find a way to get some paid writing gigs and I could use that money to help pay down my credit card debit.

Anything is possible, I just have to make sure I don’t get lazy with all the free time.

Being OK With Something Other Than 100% (or Not Being A Perfectionist)

As I mentioned yesterday, my schedule is a little bonkers right now. I know that this is temporary, but it has made me stretch myself pretty far.

I’m working on my day job, my acting career, this blog, being the production coordinator on Inside Acting, enjoying my newfound love for spinning, babysitting, and still trying to have a social life.

I’m so used to being a perfectionist and making sure that everything is always in order. Right now, I can’t be that person any more.

I want to dedicate 100% to one thing (or even 50% to two things), but instead, I feel like I’m giving 10% to ten things. I’m making some dumb mistakes at work (and have fixed them before someone else caught them first), and I’m losing sleep because I’m trying to tie the loose ends before going to bed.

I don’t think I can really drop anything from my life right now. I just need to be better at time management with my unscheduled time in my day. I know that there is some extra time that I could use better in my mornings before I go to work.

What I’m going to start to do is organize my time before work in 1 hour segments. I’m going to mark out what I want to do between 7-8am, 8-9am, 9-10am, 10-11am each day.

I don’t know if I’ll actually get everything done, but at least there will be a goal that I will be working towards and maybe it will help me not waste as much time on Facebook or other websites that are causing me to be less productive.

Hopefully my schedule will be back to something normal soon. And once that happens, I’m hoping that all this extra time management I’m working on now will make me even more efficient when I know my schedule from week to week.

Sorry I’ve been ranting recently. I wish I had more positive things to say, but as you know, I’m all about honesty on here and this is honestly where I am in my life right now.

Scheduling Conflicts (or Maybe I Should Stop Planning)

I’ve talked about my crazy work schedule for my day job in the past. It used to be Monday-Saturday with Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays being late shifts. Then it switched to Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays being late.

Now it’s changed completely again.

My office (which is the telesales office) needs to be support for the box office while the show going on now finishes its run. The box office is overwhelmed, and we are going to help clear the backlog.

Which means that we are supposed to be at work whenever there is a show. For the show running now, there are shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings along with matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

So for now, I’m working Tuesday-Friday until 8:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday until 5:00pm. I do have Mondays off which is nice (and when I have gone to spin class), but working every evening is going to be tough.

There isn’t a lot of time to see friends or do other things. And yes, I’m aware that I do have my mornings free, but I’m spending that time catching up on everything I need to do at my house (like cook and clean).

This new crazy schedule is only supposed to be for a couple of weeks, but I had things planned on Friday and Saturday evenings that now I’ve had to cancel.

And I’m scared to plan anything because I have no idea what the next schedule change is going to be.

I’m probably more frustrated than I should be about this because I was expecting to be unemployed right now. I had plans to do some fun things. I have family coming to visit me in a month and now I had to ask for 3 days off of work for that (I got the ok because my boss understands that we all planned for unemployment). I wanted to maybe go to Lake Tahoe and see my parents and dog.

And now, that just isn’t a reality.

I’m trying to be grateful that I do have a job, but I’m just getting annoyed that whenever I try to plan out things, my job has switched things on me. Maybe after this show ends things will be back to normal, but I just can’t count on that.

I don’t know how to plan out food, exercise, and just life in general when things are just this crazy at my day job. And I don’t want to find a new day job since this boss is totally cool with me going to auditions and I actually like most of my co-workers.

Sorry for this rant, I just had to get it out.