Posts Tagged: monday


5
May 08

Monday Motivation: Good Habits

Morning jog

Creative Commons License photo credit: Dafydd359

Feeling much more upbeat this week. I think a little legitimate discontent was exactly what I needed to push me in the right direction.

I tend to do life in cycles. Right now, I’m moving into a fitness phase where I care again about being healthy, so I’m going to shift some of my time and activities around to fit that goal. It helps that the weather is getting nicer, making it much more appealing to venture outside.

I’m shifting the format of my plan a little, too, to reflect the areas I’m working on.

Business

The goal

My big business goal is to get on top of it, stay on top of it, and then replace myself.

We’re planning on getting pregnant and having a kidlet (no particular time frame, as these things happen when they happen, but could be sooner rather than later) and I don’t want to be tied to a job at that point.

That’s not to say I won’t work; I’m pretty sure I’ll always work, just because I like it so much and find it interesting. I just don’t want to have to work.

My coach, Marla, helped me a ton last week by proposing a schedule. I’ve been having trouble balancing the big projects (that need regular effort to move forward, but don’t have the same sense of urgency as the little ones) and the quick, “it’s just a little change” jobs.

The path

  • Stick with the schedule. Today that means doing the two big projects for two hours each this morning, taking breaks, and doing the small projects in the afternoon.
  • Send invoices! (Meant to do this last Thursday…)

Health

The goal

I’m stuck around 150 pounds and 30% body fat, and I want to be at 133 and 19%. This will make me faster on the bike (making it more likely the boy will spring for the mountain tandem idea!) and be more congruent with both the things I want to do and my identity. The current disconnect is slightly stressful.

The path (for today)

  • Create a list of goals and rewards. These are very motivating to me. (Done!)
  • Move during my breaks (2 walks a day) and during phone calls.
  • Find and subscribe to a couple of spiritual podcasts to listen to during walking breaks. (Making them spiritual gets two birds with one stone. :) )

Extra-curriculars

The goal

Other major initiatives I’m involved in right now include the Black Ink Project and singing every other week for music at my church. I need to make a point to devote sufficient time to each of these.

The path

  • Participate in the first Black Ink call (and have my headphones handy so I can walk while I’m listening!).
  • Buy the three songs I need to practice today, and set them to play while I’m doing less mental work.

Want to jump in yourself?

Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.


21
Apr 08

Monday Motivation: Capitalize on Existing Opportunities

The ebook is finally finished and up for sale! Whew.

I’m generally a very positive person, but last week’s demands just about killed my positivity. The Mac issues I mentioned turned out to be a crashed hard drive. There were definitely some things to be thankful for (that I had backups of almost everything; that the software I bought arrived fairly speedily and recovered most of what I didn’t have backed up; that I have my laptop and wasn’t dead in the water); it just added significant stress to an already-stressful week, partially due to the time required to work on the problem, partially because I’m just not as comfortable coding on my laptop, and a lot of it just the mental stress of juggling everything.

Still not quite done with the Mac joys. I have the backup on an external hard drive but still need to replace the dead one to get up and running. Don’t know when I’ll find the time to do that! Feeling overwhelmed by that and all of the other “should do” tasks that are getting trampled by urgent ones.

The title of this posts pretty much sums up my struggles (in a positive way!). I have all of these opportunities that just need a tiny little push to turn into something, and I’m having a hard time pushing.

I’ve bought ad space but not sent in my ads; I have potential clients who are asking me to do work, and haven’t found time to reply yet; I have all the content done for my main site but haven’t put the design up to make it all accessible; I have all the makings in place for several new services I haven’t found time to promote.

Ugh.

What do you do when you feel like this?

Thinking back to what’s worked before (because I think that’s my best bet), I do better when I have a concrete list of steps; I don’t do well with ambiguity. So here’s what I’ll do today, before 5:20pm when I am leaving for music practice:

  • Close all tabs and reboot my computer (if you think this sounds trivial, you don’t know how I use tabs…)
  • Write a list of all known outstanding projects (both client and business development) and break them down into tasks
  • Schedule those tasks
  • Create my ads and send to Wendy
  • Send out promised review copies of ebook
  • Process all emails in my inbox (only 42!)

Looking at this list, it seems kind of pathetic, but my gut tells me to stop while it’s still manageable. No doubt this short and unimpressive list will keep me hopping!

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.