Time to get crackin’

Well, my “amnesty” period is almost up. This past Saturday was my first day not using the boot for my broken foot at all. But I’ve been on my feet a lot the past two days, and it’s quite sore this evening. When I got home from work, I put the boot back on for the evening. And I need to take some more motrin.

March 1 is fast approaching. The problem is, I don’t have that “New Year’s drive” I had in January. And right now I’m exhausted. The other “roadblock” is that I don’t have my Christmas presents mailed. I have them wrapped and in some cases packed, but I haven’t gotten them off to the post office or UPS yet.

I can’t let the lack of progress in one area interfere with my plans to move ahead in another. That kind of thinking is “all or nothing” or even “perfectionism,” which can be a terrible detriment to progress. I don’t want to fall into that trap again. It does me absolutely no good.

I guess I better use the next few days to psyche myself up for the big challenge. I might even hire a professional organizer to help push me through my inertia. I’ll see how the first week or so goes. Or, maybe I’ll call someone tomorrow. After all, I don’t want to have everything charted out. While having a plan is good, sometimes you just need to fly by the seat of your pants.

The “official” progress report for Jan 08

In order to get rid of old habits, you have to get rid of old thinking.

I was doing quite well with my revised January schedule. However, after the progress reported in my last post, I took Wednesday off. And that led to taking Thursday off. So I didn’t get all my packages wrapped and none of them mailed.

Last weekend I was on the verge of getting my bills paid up to date. I’d even tallied up all the credit card expenses. But I guess because I time to spare, I didn’t finish. And now I’m behind the due date for the credit card bill—not by much, but probably enough to warrant an interest fee.

And I’d made great progress with the laundry. Except that I didn’t get the get the last load out to dry. And now I have to do them all over again because they stink.

What held me back? I was out of my comfort zone. I’m not used to making progress, or being on time, or being successful. So I stopped because it didn’t feel “right.”

So now, instead of moving on to the next big task at hand, I have to play catch-up. Hopefully at some point making progress won’t feel so foreign to me and I won’t “feel the need” to backslide.

January progress report

Well, after my very late start, I’m on track to finish my new and improved necessary January goals. I’ve finished wrapping the presents for nibbling #3 (numbered by age), which includes nibbling, nibbling-in-law and great-nibbling. Now I just have to find a box to mail them. Or, I suppose I could take them to the UPS store and let them do the work.

I have only 3 other presents to wrap, but I do need to get a good address for nibbling #2 and send him his gift and a gift card.

Keep it up, kiddo!

Rewards

One of FlyLady’s techniques I learned is to put a sticker on a calendar every day you do your “routine.” Who would’ve thought I’d enjoy doing something so silly? But they really make the calendar come alive; and more importantly they motivate me to do “just a little bit more.”

Once I have 3-4 weeks of 4 or more stickers per week, I can reward myself with something a bit more tangible, such as getting a pedicure, buying a set of DVDs. The idea behind a 4-sticker minimum is that I don’t have to be perfect, just reasonably consistent. Of course, January has been a bit of a crap shoot, what with the broken foot. I certainly wasn’t able to clear out the kitchen like I’d planned. But every day I do something a little extra, like fold and put away the laundry, empty the dishwasher, take out the trash, I give myself a sticker. So far the calendar’s lookin’ good.

One of the “longer range” goals I’d had was to buy a nice garbage can for the kitchen once I got the kitchen finished. I was then going to use the kitchen can for cat litter waste.  But the litter got so out of control while I was on crutches, I decided I deserved to give myself the reward sooner.

I love the new waste can set up. The kitchen can is bigger & much easier to use, and the litter can is much more efficient—and clean.

The key point is that this is new thinking. I don’t have to be absolutely perfect to reward myself. I just need to push myself a little bit further than I used to. And what does it do? It spurs me on to continue to do “just a little bit more,” thereby keeping the house in much better order; and thus, making me feel better about myself and my home.

Roadblock ahead

Wouldn’t you know it? The one time I actually make a plan and start acting on it, I get a major hurdle thrown in my way. On Monday, I fell down the steps at work and broke my foot. I’m in a splint (sort of temporary cast) and on crutches. The splint has all the other inconveniences of a cast, too, e.g., I can’t get it wet. I’m only just now beginning to feel better, less pain, better adjustment to the crutches. But the crutches still don’t allow me to carry things, let alone handle the large itemsI’d be pulling out of the cabinets. (I actually tried doing it, but it didn’t work.)

The old me would have given up and said, “Screw everything” and gone into a deep funk. But instead, I’m finding other, more sedentary ways to work at the clean up, such as balancing my bank accounts, folding laundry.

I’m hoping that once I have my follow-up appointment with the orthopedic doctor (which is being held up because of workers compensation paperwork), I’ll be in a boot or some other contraption that allows me to be hands free. Then I’ll be able to pick up where I left off. I may have to adjust my schedule somewhat, but I’m willing to be flexible. It’s not “all or nothing” thinking anymore.

And so it begins!

Happy 2008!

I have begun cleaning and clearing my kitchen. I spent most of my kitchen time yesterday starting to clear off the kitchen table and washing dishes that don’t go in the dishwasher. One of the Great Truths I’ve learned in the last year is that the dishwasher does not have to be crammed full before I run it. In fact, a partial load requires less time to empty. It’s a win-win for me.

My plan for the kitchen is to go through the cabinets and cupboards, getting rid any old, duplicate, or unused item. If the item is useable, I’ll put it in the box for Goodwill; if not, it goes into the trash. In fact, I threw away two items yesterday. After making a small pot of tea, I apparently put the kettle too close to a rubber spatula sitting on the stove. The spatula was pretty much ruined, and I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of smelling burning rubber every time I used the tea kettle. So, into the trash they went. Now, I might not have been so quick to throw the kettle out had I not had a very cute blue kettle at the ready. But it did feel good to get rid of the duplicate kettle.