Tag Archives: time management

Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)

Posted on October 4, 2023 | Comments Off on Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)

I made my monthly challenge in September to be working on digital organizing. I probably should do this more often than I do, but I really noticed that I needed to work on it over the summer. I just needed the push to get it done, and setting it as my challenge was what got me started.

I only worked on my phone since that’s where most of the extra apps have been. I do need to work on organizing and cleaning the files I have on my computer, but that’s a much bigger project and might take a few months since I need to see what I have saved in various folders. But there were so many apps on my phone that I forgot about and was easily able to delete.

With the way that you can set up an iPhone now, you can hide apps from your main app folders but keep them so you can search and open them back up. I don’t know if I hid a bunch of apps in the past or if my phone automatically did it when I wasn’t using an app that often, but I had so many hidden apps that I had no clue were still on my phone. Going through the hidden apps made things a lot easier to decide on since I knew if I forgot that I had that app, I didn’t need to keep it. I also did find a few apps that I forgot about that could be useful, so I made a new app folder of apps I want to test out this month so I can decide if I should keep them or not.

I really felt like doing the digital organizing was a success last month. I got more done than I expected, even if I only worked on cleaning up my phone. And I feel like doing that work set me up for being more efficient with using my phone going forward.

And the idea of being efficient and ready for things to come inspired my challenge for October. My challenge this month is to continue to get things set up for myself for the coming year.

This new challenge involves a few things, but I basically want to have some new systems and plans set for 2024. I have said so many years in a row that I want to take a vacation. I haven’t had the time or the money to do it. Now, I’m in a slightly better financial place than I have been in and I have the ability to continue to save money. I want to work on some budgeting and savings plans in order to be able to afford a vacation at some point in the next year. I also want to have some time management plans in place, such as working on setting aside time to make sure I cook more often and use the time I have outside of work better. It’s not easy to do that since I’m usually so tired after work and I have only 1 day off a week between my two jobs. But I need to really work on focusing on creating a plan that maximizes the little free time I have in my week. I have gotten into a routine lately, but it’s not the best routine for me since I’m not accomplishing as much as I know I could.

I also want to work on setting up more reminders and systems for myself so things don’t slip through the cracks. I am pretty good about setting up annual doctor appointments, but sometimes I only remember to call to make the appointments after the time I’d like to do that. It’s easy enough to have a reminder once a year (or however often I need it) so that I don’t forget. And when I’m doing regular shopping, I usually am putting together a list at the last minute and seem to forget one or two things. I’ve been using email drafts to work on creating lists as I go, but I know there has to be a better system for that and I’m going to take some time to figure it out. And yes, that might mean I will be adding more apps back onto my phone, but if they are helping me get through the errands I have to do regularly and make it so I don’t spend as much time focusing on them, then they will be good additions to my phone.

There are a lot of things that could make my time and money more efficient and used wiser. I haven’t been taking the time to figure those out because I haven’t really cared as much as I do now. And I think I’m thinking about it more now because there have been a lot of articles and stories coming out about how single people have additional costs and struggles because they are only relying on themselves to get by. I can’t have someone else make dinner because there is only me (but I do order in if I know I don’t have the energy to make something). All tasks that have to be done must be done by me unless I hire someone to do something like clean my home.

It’s a lot that I have put on my plate without realizing that I need to maybe adjust things considering that it’s just me doing all the work. And I’m hoping that working on setting myself up to have the best year ever next year will really help me find out how to make my life better and easier so I don’t have burnout as often. I deserve to have some fun and more than just the day-to-day routine I’ve been doing for a while. I just have to do some work now to maximize what I do have in order to make that happen.

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Default ThumbnailCelebrating And Organizing (or And Yet Another Repeat Challenge) Default ThumbnailMy First 2017 Monthly Challenge (or Working On My Tumors) Default ThumbnailWorking On Feeling Better Mentally and Physically (or Picking A Workout Challenge For March) Default ThumbnailTime For A New Meditation Plan (or Over 2000 Days Later And I’ll Be At Day 1 Again Soon) Default ThumbnailUnexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month) Default ThumbnailFinding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing)

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Still Trying To Find Free Time (or Not Having Time Or Energy To Do Things I Want)

Posted on August 19, 2022 | Comments Off on Still Trying To Find Free Time (or Not Having Time Or Energy To Do Things I Want)

I know that everyone has struggles with time management and finding free time. But for a while, I was doing ok with figuring out my schedule because my work hours weren’t normal business hours. When I was done with work at 3pm, even though sometimes I was too tired to do much after work, I had a lot more time to add things to my schedule. Even with working on Saturdays, I knew I always had Sundays and Mondays free as well as every afternoon. And I often would plan things on Mondays since I was always free then and I didn’t have to worry about anything else that might come up that day.

But now, I’m working longer hours and I have more work days. My only day each week without work is Sundays. This has been this way for about a year now, but I’m still getting adjusted to it. And it is surprising that being done with work only 2 or 3 hours later makes such a huge difference. When I’m done with work, the afternoon is over. And I do have things as soon as work is done either 2 or 3 days a week. So my weeknights aren’t that free until sometimes after 7pm. And if I have gotten up before 6 in the morning to work out and then am not done until after 7 in the evening, I really have no energy to do anything else that day.

I have wanted to have more fun things in my life. I want to feel like I have the time to make plans or see friends. And I want to look into acting classes again. But because of my full schedule, I am really struggling to find when I can add those things in. And when I do have the time to add them in, I don’t have the energy. I know I need to have energy if I want to get back into acting classes. If I’m going to spend money on a class, I want to take full advantage of it.

I know that part of me not having energy is because I’m not getting enough sleep. But getting enough sleep also would limit my free time after work. If I was making sure I was in bed by 10pm, I couldn’t be in a class that was from 7-10pm like so many are. As much as I would like to sleep in a little later, if I did my workouts after work then there goes any free time I might have. In some ways, this feels like a no-win situation.

But I know that’s not true. There are ways to work this out and figure out how to add in more time so that I can do what I want. But I just have to be much more careful with when I have things scheduled. I might have to decide to not keep all the obligations that I have right now. I don’t know what I would drop or stop doing, so I haven’t tried to do that yet. Maybe I just want to do too much. I don’t know.

I know that I’ve had time management issues plenty of times in the past. I do always work it out eventually, but while I’m in the middle of it, it can feel like there are no solutions. And I should be grateful that even if I’m working more hours than I would like, I am working and I’m in a better work situation than I have been in before. But life is always a balance so when I’m doing better with work, I might not be doing as well with other things in my life. So I just need to work on that balance some more and hopefully I will come up with a good solution for myself soon.

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Doing A Digital Cleanup Too (or Cutting Back On Some Entertainment)

Posted on January 26, 2022 | Comments Off on Doing A Digital Cleanup Too (or Cutting Back On Some Entertainment)

As I’ve been cleaning up my house and getting ready to move, I’ve also been reevaluating other things in my life. I feel like a move is a fresh start in so many ways for me. And I don’t move often (my last move was about 12 years ago), so this feels like a big opportunity to really clean up things. But I have hit a bit of a wall with going through my physical things and getting rid of stuff, so I am taking a little break from that. But while I am not cleaning up actual things, I am now working on cleaning up things that take up some mental space and not physical space.

A lot of my entertainment comes from things that are essentially on-demand for me. Almost all the tv I watch is stuff I have recorded on my DVR and I almost exclusively listen to podcasts and not music. Those things are available for me whenever I’m ready to enjoy them, but at the same time they can stack up if I’m not watching or listening to them on a regular basis. So I’ve been working on going through what I am saving, what I watch or listen to, and what I seem to be putting off.

I have an odd attachment to shows and podcasts that I’ve been enjoying for a long time. I feel a bit of loyalty and have a need to finish out a tv show or continue listening to a podcast. But as my time becomes a bit more limited, I keep putting off the things that I don’t want to enjoy but feel like I have to keep watching and listening. I don’t know why I’ve kept this up for so long (and I’m sure I could have an entire therapy appointment about it), but I’ve decided I’ve had enough of doing this and there’s no need to use up my time for things that aren’t what I want to be enjoying.

It probably seems silly that I’m writing a post about deleting series recordings on my DVR or unsubscribing to podcasts, but honestly it has made me so much happier as I’ve been doing it. I do still keep a few shows that I don’t enjoy as much has I used to but still enjoy enough to finish them out. But for shows that I was waiting a few weeks and then just binging through a bunch of episodes to clear space, I have decided I don’t need to force myself to do that for whatever arbitrary reason I have. Nobody is going to judge me for not having all the same entertainment options as I used to.

I’ve worked for a while on making sure I do things that make me happy and bring me joy. But this was something that I was putting off because in a way, any form of entertainment should be something that brings me joy. But just because the idea of watching shows or listening to podcasts makes me happy, I can still be selective in what I choose to enjoy. And if I want to keep working on managing my time better and finding ways to maximize the time I do have, then being selective in my entertainment is an important thing to do.

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Default ThumbnailGetting Back Into Podcasts (or Finding More Time Even When I’m Busier) Default ThumbnailSo Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time) Default ThumbnailA Major Cleanup (or Saying Goodbye To The Old Me) Default ThumbnailRemembering To Do What I Like (or Weird Disappearing Time) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck) Default ThumbnailWhat I’m Listening To (or I’m Not A Music Person)

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Still Figuring Out Time Management (or Little Changes Do Make Big Differences)

Posted on September 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Still Figuring Out Time Management (or Little Changes Do Make Big Differences)

When I started working full-time at my customer service job, I didn’t think it would feel that different from how my hours felt before. Before I was working full-time, I was working the mornings at that job and the afternoon at my box office job. So I was working from 9-3 every day between the two jobs before taking on the full-time hours and I knew that was close to what my schedule would be like. I would only have 2 hours more each day and that didn’t seem like a lot.

From the start of working the new hours, it really did feel like I was working a lot more every day. I never knew how much of a difference working 2 hours later a day would feel. I don’t know why working until 5 felt so different from working until 3, but it affected what I was willing to try to do after work. I feel in a way that I lost a part of my afternoon and free time and for a while I was staying up later at night to fit in that time into my day. But I can’t stay up late since I get up early. So I’ve been working for a while on figuring out more time management plans since I’ve been feeling a bit out of control lately.

This is still a work in progress and it will continue to be that way since things never are stable in my life. But I’m slowly figuring out how to manage my new hours and my life again. And it’s good I’m working on it now while things are still not really back in my life because of the pandemic. I’m putting everything into my calendar now, including the drive time to get places, so I make sure I don’t end up doing work when I need to drive somewhere. I am working on blocking off time in my calendar to cook when I plan on cooking because there have been too many times that I wanted to cook and the next thing I knew it was late and I was hungry. I almost have to over-schedule my day in order to have free time again. And I’ve never had to do that before. But then again, I’ve never worked this many hours.

I know that some of my jobs overlap when I work (and all these jobs know that I do that). But I can’t always overlap my hours. And when you look at my hours combined, in my 3 day jobs (not counting stuff like union service), I’m currently working 60-62 hours a week. I know there are a ton of people who work more than that, but I have never had that many hours before. Even before the pandemic, between my jobs I was working only about 38 hours a week. And yes, I’m grateful for every job that I have and I’m happy that I’m in a better financial place than before. But working more hours does make me hyperaware of the potential for burnout. And that’s why I have to schedule free time into my day. It’s far too easy to get up at 5:45am and be working almost non-stop until 7 or 8pm. And I do take little breaks in my day when I can, but I don’t take too long of a break because I don’t want to slack off in my day.

Since I’ve been scheduling more into my day, I am slowly seeing some improvements. But I haven’t been doing it as much as I should, so I know things can get better. And I’ve said this before, but I really want to figure out a good place with balancing my work and my life while I don’t have much happening in my life. When I start to add more to my life, I know I will need the skills that I’m working on building now. And hopefully the work I’m doing now will help prevent me from feeling as overwhelmed and as much burnout as I know could happen.

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Finally Doing Some Job Training (or I’ll Find A Way To Add In More Hours)

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Comments Off on Finally Doing Some Job Training (or I’ll Find A Way To Add In More Hours)

When I signed my contract for my data entry job for the second half of this year, I knew my job was going to be changing up and I’d be doing something different. I was excited to try out something new and learn new skills. But there were a few delays in getting trained for the new responsibilities, so I’ve only been doing work with social media (which also changed from what I was doing before, but not that much). I knew I’d be trained eventually, but there were other things that I knew had to come first so I was just waiting and that was fine.

But I finally got to train on my new quality assurance check role this week. I’ve never done this type of work before, but I had an idea of what I would be doing. I knew it was mainly work looking at the website and looking for any glitches, errors, or issues. I’ve reported things like that while doing my data entry job as I saw them, but I never had to seek them out. I just reported what I saw as it happened. So I knew that having this as a regular job was going to be different since I needed to make sure I wasn’t overlooking errors.

Fortunately, when I did my training it wasn’t that different from what I was expecting. There are different ways I need to track things so that others can follow up on the errors I’m finding and I have to track what sections of the website I have checked and what still needs to be done, but the things I’m looking for are similar to what I was reporting before.

The way my hours are broken up between this work and the social media work is about 2/3rd QA work and 1/3 social media work. And I’m working on figuring out how I’m going to manage it. I’ve done this many hours for this job before, but never while working as many hours for other jobs. And my newer customer service job has significantly less downtime than my box office job. So while I can overlap work a bit, I can’t do what I was used to doing before the pandemic. I’m still so grateful to have all the work I do have because I am putting myself in a much better financial spot than before, but time management is becoming a big focus.

If I am not careful, I could see myself working close to 12 hours a day on my craziest days. I know I can have burnout if I’m not taking care of myself. And I feel like the risk of burnout is higher when I don’t have much to do outside of my house. I don’t want to be going great for a month or two and then have a huge crash. But I also know that there are plenty of people who work more than 8 hours a day, so it’s doable. And I don’t have to worry about a commute so that makes my long day shorter than what others might experience. But it’s a work in progress for sure.

I am excited to have a new adventure with my work. Having things change up helps to keep things from feeling too routine in my life. And lately, things have been very repetitive in my life, so I’ve been welcoming change. I just have to figure out how to make this change work. But I know I will because I always do.

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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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Seeing How To Make My New Schedule Work (or I Have A Better Idea Of My Free Time Now)

Posted on January 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Seeing How To Make My New Schedule Work (or I Have A Better Idea Of My Free Time Now)

Last week was my first week with my normal schedule at my new job. I am glad I was eased into the new job since there was a lot to learn. So many things were similar to my old customer service job but just different enough that I had to be aware of what I was doing so I wasn’t doing what I did at the old job. It was good that I had a lot of time with training and a shorter schedule at first. Having a full week off for the holidays was a bit tough, but I took that time to work on reviewing everything I learned.

I’m not feeling totally confident with the new job, but I’m getting closer each day. I understand different processes and policies and the questions I have for my manager are becoming the more rare and specific things and not the general questions. I feel like this is progress and I’m proud of it. And while it’s not as many hours as I’ve worked before at my old job, it’s been a long time since I’ve worked this many hours so I’m getting used to not having my time be mine as much as it was for most of last year.

I also got an update from my data entry job and what the new contract would be like. The new contract is still being worked on, but I saw what they were thinking and my job is going to be transitioning a bit. I will be getting 4 times the hours I’ve had recently (although the reduced hours were partially at my request to deal with some things with unemployment), so I will be closer to the number of hours I had when I started years ago. But most of my hours will be moving away from the data entry work and going into doing some social media work.

This was something we discussed in our recent meeting about my new contract, so it’s not unexpected. How the hours will be split was slightly more unexpected because I thought it would be more focused on the data entry work. But I’m good with this idea and how it will be for me when I am working with the new contract (for now, I’m doing work as it was listed on the old contract, so I haven’t started the social media work yet).

Between the 2 jobs, it won’t add up to exactly 40 hours a week, but it will be close so I feel like it will still feel like full-time work. And while there could be some overlap with the hours I work, I feel like it won’t be as much as before. At least not at first as I need to pay more attention to my new job than I did for my old customer service job. At my old job, when we didn’t have customers to help, I was just sitting and waiting. With the new job, there are other tasks I need to work on when I am not assisting a customer. There is a bit of free time, but I am pretty busy during my hours each day.

And I know this is normal. Working and having a ton of free time is not normal and was a luxury that I got spoiled with. I planned my days in the past assuming that in a 7-hour shift I would probably have about 4 hours when I could do anything I needed to do as long as I was still at my computer. I would try to be productive during that free time working my data entry job or working on writing blog posts, but occasionally I would just watch videos online while waiting for a customer. Most people do not get to relax while they are working. Often they have to work after they are supposed to be done. I just got spoiled with how things were for me for so long.

But it’s not that bad. This is just something I have to get used to and I know it won’t be a huge struggle once I figure it out. I just have to work on my time management again with the new schedule. I have to plan out things during my before and after work time that before I might have done during work. I will still be able to fit everything in, especially since there is nothing I have outside of work right now. If I have to work on other things for a few hours after work, I’m not missing anything I had planned. I’m not going out to see anyone so all that time is mine. And it will be good to work through this plan while I have nothing else to do. Hopefully, by the time things are reopening, I will have a better idea of how to manage all my time, and my after-work time will be more stable from day to day.

I know how lucky I have been in so many ways. I am lucky with how my old job was with allowing me so much free time. I’m lucky I was able to do both jobs together because of my free time. I’m lucky that I got another job that is remote and pays well. I’m lucky that my other job is able to increase my hours so I should be making enough to be ok soon. And I’m lucky that I have the luxury of time right now and I don’t have to worry about taking care of others and I can be a bit selfish with what I do each day.

Just like with so much I’ve done lately with my schedule, I will figure out how to make it work and I have the time to slowly do that. I will need to get back into time management planning again, which is something I haven’t had to do in a while. But soon enough, I will have it down to a consistent plan and hopefully, it stays that way for a while.

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Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

Posted on December 10, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

For most of this year, I haven’t had too much of a schedule. Once I had my work hours reduced, most of my days were free. When I lost my old customer service job, I did continue to log into our chat systems a few mornings a week to check in with my manager and to see if she needed me to help with anything. I wasn’t being paid to do that, but I also wasn’t really working. I mainly did it so I had something that I needed to do each morning. I didn’t want to get into a bad habit of sleeping in and not doing much each day. So those mornings helped to keep me on track.

Even when I’ve mostly been out of work, I rarely sleep in. There are 2 days a week that I can, but I don’t sleep in that often. Sometimes I’ll sleep in one of those days, but I have been pretty good about making sure I keep my sleep schedule somewhat consistent. The issue has been that I haven’t been going to sleep at the same time that I used to, so that was making me tired. I’ve been working on getting my sleep more on schedule, and I’m slowly getting there.

And now, I actually have a schedule to work with again. It’s not too crazy because  I’m only working a few hours each day, but it’s still something. And my schedule right now isn’t the same every day. It may get that way when I’m done with training and fully working. But right now, my schedule shifts each day to be a different time so I can be trained with different things.

Even with my old work schedule being slightly different each day, having a schedule that isn’t consistent from day to day is still tough to get used to. And because I’ve also been dealing with having almost no schedule for a while, I haven’t been great with time management. I only have had a few things I need to do each day and it didn’t really matter when I did them. So I got pretty lazy with when I was doing stuff. If I didn’t get to something until late at night, that was fine. I could put some things off for a day without it being an issue. I could do the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them without worrying about a scheduling conflict.

Now, I still have a lot of flexibility, but I also have to be mindful about my schedule and making sure that I don’t start working on something right before I have to focus on something else. It’s not a big deal, but it’s enough of a change for me to really pay attention to what time it is and what I have to do each day. And I’m sure I’ve had this feeling before when I went from being unemployed to having a job, but it’s also a bit different because I’m still not going out to do things and most of the things I’m doing are in my home. So it feels a little less like a schedule than when I would have to go out for things and plan for traffic.

If I got my old job back before I started this new one, I would guess I would struggle almost more. Especially if I was brought back to my full schedule. It’s not easy to go from having almost all the free time in the world to a set schedule. At least with my new job, my schedule is only a few hours so I can still have a lot of the flexibility that I’m used to. I’m easing into the idea of having a schedule again. And I think I’m going to build upon it even more than I need to. While I don’t need to blog at the same time every day, I’d like to have that as a part of my schedule. I’ve also been doing my workouts at different times based on when I get up and going and I know that having a set schedule would be better for me. Especially if I think I might start trying the outdoor workouts. And I want to make my time to watch tv or do other lazy things set times instead of accidentally wasting away most of a day because I’m not focused on making sure I do other things.

I know that it might be a while before I need to have a more set schedule like what I’m thinking of doing, but I have the luxury right now to take my time to get back to that. I don’t have to worry about being on a schedule immediately. I can play around with things and see how it goes. Right now, it’s not a lot that has to be done at a specific time, but there are things that need to be that way. And I need to make other parts of my life work around it. But I see this as a positive thing. I’ve been a bit aimless lately and this will hopefully get me to feel a bit more grounded. Maybe this will help me get other things on track in my life. I don’t know if it will and I’m not expecting it. But it would be something nice if it did happen.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Productivity (or Taking Advantage Of The Slow Season) Default ThumbnailMaking Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment) Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailProductive One Way And Slacking In Another (or Working On Finding Time) Default ThumbnailBeing Grateful To Have A Bit Of A Schedule (or Trying To Not Waste My Days)

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Working On Self-Care and Taking Time For Myself (or Trying Not To Think Of It As Letting Others Down)

Posted on July 17, 2019 | 1 comment

This past Sunday was going to be a very crazy day for me. I knew I had probably too much scheduled, but I had figured out a way to accomplish everything I had to do and wanted to do. I knew it would be hard to do it, but I was determined to make it to everything so I wouldn’t have any regrets that I missed something I had been looking forward to.

I was optimistic that it would be fine to get everything into my schedule and it was crazy how much I prepared. I looked at the locations for everything and planned what would make the most sense with driving to and from everything to make it everywhere on time even if for some of the things I would have to leave early. I even did prep on Saturday with some of the chores I normally do on Sundays to make sure I had that time free and ready for everything else. I went to bed on Saturday night believing that I was going to pull it off and make it everywhere.

Sunday morning did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. And with a few of the things on my schedule being things I had to go to, I had to start dropping some of the things that I wanted to go to. One of those things was a friend’s birthday party. I had already told her that I was going to try my best to make it but that my day was packed. But I still felt guilty when I told her that I wasn’t going to make it because of other things in my day.

I had a union-related event that I had to go to and I am very glad I was there. It was important for me to be there so I could get some information that I needed plus I was able to provide answers to others. And even though I would have enjoyed my friend’s party, I know having the energy and focus at the union event was more important for me to have.

I also had something after that event that I had to get to, but that will be in tomorrow’s post. Driving to and from things was a bit stressful with traffic and I was worried I was going to be late or miss things. I tried to not stress out about things I couldn’t control. Fortunately, even with all the traffic issues I had, I made it to the things I was able to go to on time.

I know that saying no to events is a part of self-care and it’s a thing I struggle with. I never want to feel like I’m letting someone down or disappointing them if they had thought I was going to make it. But I’m also trying to be better about explaining what my time commitments are like right now so my last-minute changes are not as random. With union election work taking up so much of my time, I’m grateful I’m down one job. I do need the money, but I don’t have the time or the energy right now for anything else on my plate. I know this is a temporary thing and my schedule will be back to normal soon, but I did tell people in my life what is going on so they understand why I’m not always making it to things when I used to always make it. I think explaining it ahead of time does help, but my guilt is still the same and I’m working on that.

With my schedule this past Sunday, when I didn’t make it to things it was because I had other things I had to make it to. But I also need to work on turning down things just so I have time to myself. I am noticing some signs of burnout in my life right now and I don’t want to get to the point where I am emotionally and physically exhausted and need a lot of time to recovery. I need to take the little breaks over time to keep myself in balance. And I know taking those breaks will allow me to be there for other people more than if I burn out and need that long break. I just need to keep reminding myself about that when I have that guilty feeling.

I know I will get through this crazy time and I will keep reminding myself that taking time for myself isn’t necessarily selfish. And even if it is, it is ok to be selfish from time to time when it is not harming others. I think this is something that is a common struggle, but it doesn’t make it easier for me to deal with it. I just have to keep working on it and hopefully, it will become more natural for me to do it one day.

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Just Trucking Along (or Enjoying Like Being Normal And Boring)

Posted on August 24, 2018 | 1 comment

In the past, when my life has gotten boring I have written about how I need things to make like interesting again. I feel like I need to schedule more fun in my life and then after I do that I end up feeling overwhelmed and over-scheduled. Then I need to focus back on myself and get things to calm down and the cycle between being bored and being overwhelmed continues. This keeps going and every time it happens I write about how I need to find a happy medium.

I don’t know if I have found the happy medium in my life, but lately things have been a bit boring and I’m so happy with that. I have been doing lots of fun things when I can, but then I have a lot of time where I don’t have anything planned. For example, this week after work I haven’t made plans for anything. All I’ve been doing is laying low at home and relaxing. I’ve read a lot and caught up a bit on Netflix and it’s been making me really happy. It’s not that I have been avoiding plans, but I haven’t been that active in making plans either. If someone invites me to something I would go, but I’m not going out of my way to try to make more plans in my life.

It’s also the tail end of the slow season for one of my day jobs. The slow season can make time drag on a bit during a shift because sometimes I only help 1 customer in 7 hours and I just stare at my computer to see if there will be another computer. But I’ve been enjoying the lack of work with that job. I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts during work and when I’m caught up on those I’ve been going down random YouTube rabbit holes. I’ve watched some very odd things online lately, but I’ve been entertained by them and it helps the work day go by faster.

When the busy season starts again I won’t have as much time to goof off between customers, but that’s fine since I was hired to do a job and not to just sit at my computer and stare at it. But I also may be getting more hours at my other day job when I sign my new contract soon which will also help to keep me busy between customers. And having more hours at that job will be amazing because that also means I will have more money coming in. I would love to spend that money on fun things, but I have gotten behind in paying off my credit card and really want to get that back on track. So the extra money will go toward that so hopefully I can reach my debt goal I had set for this year. It’s going to be tough to do that, but if I get the hours my boss is hoping they will be able to offer me, it may be possible.

Even with things being a bit boring right now, I’m really appreciating that time. I think I needed the lack of plans in my life to just get back to me and I am grateful that I had that opportunity. I have written about how I was feeling a bit off and low lately and I’m finally starting to feel much more like myself and ready to handle whatever comes up for me next. I want to feel reinvigorated and while I’m not quite there I know I’m getting close. And I think feeling that way will help me when I’m feeling very overwhelmed when it’s the busy season for work, I have more hours at my other job, and my free time is over-scheduled.

I was telling a friend of mine about this the other day and she said that being happy when things are boring is something that comes with age. And I do agree that it’s possible that I’ve grown into feeling ok with this. But I also think in a way it was like exposure therapy because I have had to deal with this so many times over and over. And I finally have learned from it and can take those lessons and apply it to when it’s happening instead of wishing for it after the fact.

Of course knowing my life, I’m writing this now and in a week or two I will either be upset by the lack of fun in my life or I will be so overwhelmed and missing this time and trying to figure out how I can get back to it.

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