Tag Archives: work

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

Posted on May 17, 2013 | Comments Off on 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.

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Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailNew Routine Time (or Time Management At Home) Default ThumbnailMissing Out On Some Fun (or Flexible Time Management) Default ThumbnailA Smile In Spin Class (or Sometimes The Little Things Are Big) Default ThumbnailFitting In My Workouts (or Planning For The End Of The Year) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times)

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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Setting Myself Up To Win (or More Preparation)

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Comments Off on Setting Myself Up To Win (or More Preparation)

I do a lot of things to try to make my life easier. When I have late shifts at work, I try to get some extra sleep (because I really do function better on more than 5 hours a night). I know that when I don’t remember to prepare a lunch or a dinner one day, I can always find something at Subway or some salad places near my house. And I try to get things done on my day off so I don’t have to try to squeeze them in before or after an 8 hour work day.

But just because these things are easier doesn’t mean that they are good for me. I’m trying to look at things now as better options, not easier options.

One thing that I’ve been able to do is figure out when I can fit in spin class into my work schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a shift that starts at noon. In the past, I used the late start to catch up on sleep. On Monday nights, there are times that I don’t get home until 10pm and then I still need to have dinner and get work done. But now I’m making going to an 8:30am spin class a priority. I know that this won’t happen every Tuesday/Thursday (yet), but I’m working towards it.

Also, I’m trying (again) to be better at having food prepared so I don’t have to think about what I’m going to do for lunch or dinner. I’ll admit that this week I haven’t been good. I’m going out-of-town this weekend and didn’t want to go to the grocery store if I didn’t have to before my trip. But no matter what I eat, I am tracking all my calories on my app on my phone. I’m holding myself accountable for my good and bad choices.

Finally, I’m allowing myself to make mistakes. I really am an all or nothing sort of person. I didn’t want to start this blog until I knew I could maintain doing it 5 days a week (there’s no way to get yourself ready for that). So when I’ve had slip ups in the past, I’ve allowed myself then to continue slipping up until a determined date/time that I was going to “start over”. There’s no starting over in this now, just continuing on. I’m not letting a speed bump stop me completely.

I’m hoping with this new mindset not only will I be moving towards my goals a bit faster, but I’m hoping that I will not feel so over worked and stressed about being at my day job 6 days a week. I need to allow myself time to have a life and do things that are good for me and I enjoy. I didn’t allow myself that freedom last year.

Of course, I could completely change my mind about all of this next month, but I’m giving it a shot for now.

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Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule) Default ThumbnailFitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management) Default ThumbnailBack Into The Groove (or Staying On The Right Path While At Work) Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailWorking On Figuring It Out (or I Wish This Was Easier) Default ThumbnailA Weekend Catchup Post (or Maybe The Craziness Made Me Get Sick)

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Posted in Fitness, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss, Work

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Busy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled)

Posted on March 7, 2013 | Comments Off on Busy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled)

I’ve been unemployed for less than a week (I’m still waiting on my unemployment to be approved by the state of California), and I have to say that I’ve almost never been busier.

Some of the things keeping me busy were unexpected. I had a plumbing issue in my house that took me 3 hours to fix (but I did it on my own and didn’t have to call my landlord). I also had an incident with my Pur water filter where I broke it and water went all over and under my refrigerator. So I spent a decent amount of time cleaning up everything (and then going to a couple of different stores before being able to find a new one).

But most of what I’ve been keeping busy with are meetings and appointments that I set up in advance to make sure I wouldn’t be bored without work 6 days a week.

And being bored isn’t something I’ve been worried about at all. It’s nice to be so busy, but I do with that at least some of this busyness was making me some money. Since my unemployment hasn’t been approved yet (they say it takes 10 days), I’m not bringing in money right now. And even though I have plenty of time before my rent is due again, I am worried about having the money to pay for it.

I know that somehow something will work out. Maybe I’ll get a bunch of substitute teaching jobs. Maybe I’ll book a great acting job. Maybe my unemployment will be approved quickly and will be more than I was expecting.

But I can’t focus on that yet. Right now, for the next week, I have to make sure I don’t forget to do anything that I already scheduled. I’m setting alarms for all my appointments because it is easy to forget something.

I’m too busy with life when I’m unemployed, I don’t get to have a life when I’m employed. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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The Fear of Missing Out (or The Power of No)

Posted on February 27, 2013 | Comments Off on The Fear of Missing Out (or The Power of No)

For a long time, if someone invited me to something or asked me to help them out, I’d say yes pretty much any time.

You need someone to take you to the airport? Of course.

You’re birthday party is coming up and need a designated driver? Not a problem.

You want me in your student film? Totally!

If there was a party or event on a night that I wasn’t out-of-town, I was there. Part of the reason was because after my friendship with my college best friend ended, I realized that I was lacking a bit in Los Angeles friends. So I went outside of my comfort zone to try to meet new people.

And I’m super grateful I did that, because I have an amazing group of friends now, most of whom I met at various parties and events.

I don’t know if it’s an actor thing that I’m always saying yes to things. You never know who might be at that event that could be the person who changes your career or knows of the perfect part for you. It does happen. I met my agents because of a co-worker I met when I did Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in 2007. If I didn’t do HHN, I doubt I would have my agents (who I absolutely love!).

But lately I’ve been trying to take back some power and say no to opportunities that don’t exactly fit me or my schedule. For example, this past Monday was the LA Actor Tweetup. I love going to the tweetups, and I’ve pretty much never missed one.

However, this Monday I was working until 8:30 and on work nights I try to be in bed by 11:30. By the time I would have gotten to the tweetup, I would have only spent about 30 minutes there before I would have gone home so I could eat a late dinner.

Could I have done that? Sure. But I really didn’t feel like going in to say hello just to have to say goodbye a few minutes later. So I went straight home from work, had my late dinner, and was in bed when I was hoping to be.

As far as acting jobs go, I’ve pretty much said sure to all that have been offered to me. My agents are aware of things I’m not really willing to do (nudity and shave my head are the two main ones), so I’m not auditioning for things that I would necessarily have a problem with. The only acting job I have turned down was for a webseries that I self-submitted on. At the audition, I put my agents’ contact information down instead of my own, and when the director called to book me, he was very furious that he had to go through my agents. When I finally talked to him, he said the only way he would still book me is if I didn’t tell my agents I was working on this and to give him my personal phone number and address.

Obviously a ton of red flags went up with that, so I turned down the job (I think my agents called him back and said that I suddenly had to join the union so I was unable to book non-union any more).

I’m trying not to think about who I might have met at the tweeup this week and what I missed out on. There is plenty of other events in the future that I know I’ll go to. And it did kind of feel good to say no to something when I really didn’t feel like going.

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Posted in Acting, Tough Stuff

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

Posted on February 22, 2013 | 3 comments

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.

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Default ThumbnailMaking Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time) Default ThumbnailWhat To Do? (or Day 1 of Unemployment) Default ThumbnailUnemployment Issues (or I Shouldn’t Stay Quiet) Default ThumbnailBusy Unemployment (or Maybe I Over Scheduled) Default ThumbnailBusy Time (or Scheduling Again) Default ThumbnailScheduling Conflicts (or Maybe I Should Stop Planning)

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Having Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour)

Posted on February 21, 2013 | Comments Off on Having Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour)

Yesterday, my friend Rayshell and I had a happy hour hangout. We hadn’t seen each other in forever (I’m pretty sure the last time was at her New Year’s party). And since it was my early day at work, a happy hour adventure fit in perfectly with our schedules.

We met at Bodega, which is right down the street from my work and one of my favorite happy hour spots.

And it worked out perfectly to meet up today, because I had something to celebrate.

After all the craziness at my work with not shutting down like we thought we would, it was finally decided that we were going to have a temporary shut down in March. So as of right now (and this will probably change 100 times), next Thursday is my last day at my current day job until possibly sometime in April.

I’m so beyond excited for this! I will be filing for unemployment benefits so I will have a little money to get me through this time, and I’m hoping to get some substitute teaching jobs next month as well.

So after I told Rayshell my fun news, we got down to ordering some great happy hour foods!

We had the bruschetta (which is one of my favorite things at Bodega).

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And we also split the grilled cheese and bbq sliders based on the recommendation of our server, Wade. He was totally right on the recommendations (and decided to be in this picture of our food).

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Overall, it was another wonderful happy hour adventure with a wonderful friend.

Now I get to spend the next week preparing for my unemployment. This includes getting my paperwork filed for my benefits, trying to see if there are any substitute teaching jobs at my old job for me, and cleaning out my desk at work (I am a post-it fiend and need to start tossing some out).

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Default ThumbnailHappy Hour Party (or Getting To See Co-Workers Again) Default ThumbnailOne Last Work Happy Hour (or I Guess I Really Am Unemployed Now) Default ThumbnailHappy Hour and Happiness (or I’m On Another Blog Now) Default ThumbnailA Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding) Default ThumbnailLast Happy Hour Of 2015 (or A Speedy Catch Up) Default ThumbnailHappy Hour Birthday Dinner (or Just Having A Nice Catch Up Chat)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff, Work

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Taking Care of Me (or Making Sure I’m First in My Life)

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Comments Off on Taking Care of Me (or Making Sure I’m First in My Life)

I will write about my audition and music video shoot. First, I want to tell you about my day before all that happened.

I woke up with a stuffy nose. I wasn’t sick (because the rest of me didn’t feel sick), but I must have been having an allergy attack. I took my allergy meds and a decongestant and headed off to work.

I had to open at work yesterday because my boss had somewhere else he had to be in the morning. I got there at 9am, but really didn’t feel like I should be at work.

I wanted to make sure I felt as close to 100% before both my audition and shoot, so I ended up texting my boss after 2 hours and asked if I could leave. Since there were other people there, he said ok.

I went home, and focused on me. I wanted to work on my lines for my audition. Between all my crazy work days, I didn’t have as much time to prepare as I would have liked. This audition has the potential to change my life, and I wanted to take it as seriously as it deserved.

Also, I knew that I’d be spending a late night filming at the shoot and wanted to make sure I was rested for that.

So after I texted my boss to let him know I was leaving early, I texted him to say that I might take Thursday off.

It seemed like a risky thing to do, but I know my boss would understand. I really need to focus putting me ahead of other people/things when I start to feel run down.

I’m not too good at doing that, so I’m proud that I did it this time.

As soon as I got home from work yesterday, I spent 3 hours doing research on the team working on the pilot as well as working on my lines.

I was able to leave for the audition feeling prepared and positive, which I know would not have happened if I left straight from work.

Yes, I’m losing money at my day job because of this, but to me, this is worth it.

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Scheduling Conflicts (or Maybe I Should Stop Planning)

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 1 comment

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.

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Default ThumbnailScheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is) Default ThumbnailScheduling Without A Schedule (or Hoping To Make The Most of My Unemployment) Default ThumbnailI’m Back (or Planning On Keeping My Routine) Default ThumbnailBusy Time (or Scheduling Again) Default ThumbnailDouble Time (or 2 Days Of Split Shifts) Default ThumbnailDouble Shift Days (or Hoping To Make Enough Money By Payday)

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Scheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is)

Posted on January 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Scheduling Life (or Trying To Remember What Day Of The Week It Is)

I’m pretty used to my schedule at my day job. I know what days are early days, what days are late days, and when I’ll actually get home with time to do something. But the past few weeks have been off due to the holidays.

I’ve had additional days off (which I’ve loved), early days are late days sometimes, and half days are full days. Starting today, the schedule is supposed to be back to normal, but since we were supposed to be shutting down in a week, I wonder if that is going to change.

I liked the regularity of my schedule. I was able to plan out trips to the grocery store so I’d have food to take to work for my lunch. I was able to figure out when I could workout before work (because after work when you get home at 9pm doesn’t work for me).

I’m at the tail end of the screwy schedule and I’m feeling it. My sleep is off, which could have something to do with staying out super late on New Years Eve. My eating schedule is funny too. I’m not hungry when I know that I should be eating, and when I am hungry, it’s when I’m in the middle of my shift and it’s too hard to eat and make phone calls at the same time. Because my days are not the usual schedule, I’m very confused on what the next day in the week is and have a hard time preparing for it.

I’m hoping that I can get back to usual quickly. I really want to get back on track with everything that I want to accomplish this year. I’m trying not to think about the unknown of what will be happening at work during the time that it was scheduled to be down. If I think about it, I start to stress out and wonder if we are going to show up one day and they just decide that keeping us open year round isn’t worth it.

I’m going forward now as if I am going to work 6 days a week year round. I know what days to shop for food and what days I need to have a plan for dinner before I leave for work. I also know when I can workout (but I’m hoping to find more time in my schedule for that).

Hopefully this will help me get where I need to go and allow me to again find time between everything else to have a life and focus on my real career.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss, Work

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Finding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed)

Posted on December 28, 2012 | 4 comments

When I was hired at my current day job, I was informed that it was seasonal. The job went from May until October, had October and the beginning of November off, came back before Thanksgiving, and ended just after New Years. I was a little concerned on what my financial situation would be like from January to May, but once I understood how much I’d receive in unemployment benefits I calmed down a bit.

Working 6 days a week every week leaves very little social time. When you get out of work at 9pm (8:30pm now) and sometimes have to be at work at 9am the next day, you just want to go home and sleep. I couldn’t attend anything at The Actors’ Network since everything there pretty much happened during my work hours. I had the same problem with Women in Film events. But I was ok with that because I would have all the time I needed to attend these events during my (f)unemployment (as my friends referred to it).

But now, it seems pretty sure that the job is going to be year round and not seasonal anymore. There is a chance that this could change because they’ve never kept my office open year round in the history of the company. They might decide that we aren’t work the cost.

But if we are year round, I need to find a way to have a life and work too. I pay for my memberships at The Actors’ Network and Women in Film and want to enjoy those benefits. I want to have time to see my friends and go on dates.

We’ve been told at my job that on the nights we work until 8:30pm, we aren’t supposed to ask for the evenings off. Those evenings are the best times to work on those days. But I think I need to start asking for a couple of evenings off a month so I can at least go to some industry events.

I want to be able to focus on my career and not just my job. But I also don’t want to risk losing my job because it pays well and let’s me go to all my auditions.

I am starting to look at other job opportunities out there. I’m not leaving my job, not anytime soon. But if I can start trying out another job (maybe freelancing) and see if it’s something that I can survive on, then I’ll see what I should do.

I have no idea how everyone else has a work/life balance. Maybe I’m only comparing myself to those trying to balance work and life. I’m trying to balance work, life, and career. But of those three, I’m not willing to give up any of them (well, maybe work if I won the lottery or something).

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