With my current mission of organizing time, I thought that this was the perfect theme for today and Works For Me Wednesday. I might be still working out how to organize my time, but with my current Crayola marker-filled to-do list, there is a constant. I always schedule time to exercise. If it weren't on my to-do list, I doubt I would do it. Yesterday I didn't make a list because I was braving the crowds at the mall, and, go figure, I didn't exercise. Today, exercising is the third thing on my list, and I know it will happen. It's why I did so great working with a personal trainer. My workouts were on the calendar, and I had scheduled the time for me. Now, I know I need to schedule time for me in other areas too - time to read, scrapbook, and write. But scheduling time to exercise is an important first step.
Scheduling Time for Me
On last night's episode of The Biggest Loser, the contestants had to pause from all the crying (Seriously, is there any show where they cry more? Someone should get these people a sandwich.) to speak about their weight loss journey. (Side Note: whenever a contestant on a reality show talks about "their journey", my husband breaks out into "Don't Stop Believing." I must really love him.) One woman talked about how she never took time for herself, and that her message was that you can be a better wife/mom/grandmother/etc. if you do.
A Tip For Everyone
A break from my normal organization tips today to share with you an overall tip. If your computer does not have anti-virus software on it, stop reading this blog and go out and buy some. Seriously. I'll wait for you right here.
In the midst of attempting to write a novel in a month, nearly all of my electronics have decided to die. Over the weekend I got a new laptop, printer, DirecTV box/DVR (yes, my DVR died...I shouldn't have been so upset about losing 80 hours of tv, but...I lost 80 hours of tv...), and external hard drive. My camera and dryer are next. I don't know for sure, but the electronics might be conspiring against me.
Anyways, my techie husband went to work on Sunday transferring my files from my old laptop to my new one. And that's when we realized the importance of anti-virus software. I used to have Norton on my computer - the high end one at that. But, due to a glitch in the system, it was blocking mlb.tv. As a Red Sox fan living in Virginia, that's the only way I can watch the games. Totally unacceptable. So I uninstalled Norton. A few weeks later I installed a free program that seemed to be working fine. Or so I thought. On my laptop were many many many files that weren't mine. Adult files. Of all types. We're not sure what did it, but it looks like my laptop was a go between for some sort of adult file-sharing site. It's been 5 days and I'm still creeped out by it.
Thankfully, it doesn't look like any of my personal information was stolen. And, I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse. But I have learned my lesson. The first thing I did with my new laptop is install good, up-to-date anti-virus software - the kind that scans everything and updates daily. I bought the one that was on sale; just make sure you have one.
Mission #8: Organizing Time
Have you ever had one of those days (or weeks) when you have so much on your to-do list that you can't even get started? That's how I'm feeling lately. I'm lucky that I only work out of the house once or twice a week, so I have time during the day to get a lot done. But I also have to balance that time with freelance work (and looking for/querying for freelance work). Some days are easier than others. I get up, set aside a few hours to write, run some errands and clean my kitchen. Other days...well...I spend an hour on facebook to avoid the list of things around here that need to be done.So, we're taking a slight departure with Mission #8. Rather than organizing something around the house, we'll be organizing our time. Right now, I try to organize my day around a paper to-do list. But, clearly, that's not cutting it. Not that my paper & markers (yes, the list in the picture is my actual list from this week written with a Crayola marker - my favorite) are bad. I just need to upgrade.
One other note - while I will definitely be working on this mission over the next couple of weeks, the posting will likely be sparser than usual (as you have probably already noticed). I'm participating in NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. You can read all about it at http://www.nanowrimo.org, but the basic idea is to write an entire novel - at least 50,000 words - during November. It's a huge undertaking, and way harder than I thought it would be (though, when I said that to my husband, he looked at me funny and said something about of course it being hard). So I'll be spending more time than usual this month writing (hence the need to organize my time better!), and am unsure how much time I'll have to write other things. But rest assured that I'll be here, and I hope that you'll work on organizing your time with me (and share your tips in the comments section!).
