Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Structured Life - Day 24

Talk about a challenge! Not like I thought this was going to be easy. It's not the first time I've attempted to create a structured life for myself. And it won't be the last. I haven't given up on the month of June just yet...I mean, it's not over. Every day (okay, okay 6 out of 7), I think to myself how am I going to be structured today? My lack of planning is evident in my lack of productivity. There are quite a few things that have piled up over the past week or so. Not to mention I haven't gotten to a place of meditating consistently. BUT to my credit, I have been self monitoring my moods and engage in some serious self-care (be it with alone time, a walk or a bit of meditative music) to ward off "the crazies". And that is some serious progress.

So, I will continue to work on creating a structured life. It's an hour past 10:30. Too tired to seriously create a to-do list. I'll start again tomorrow.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Former Students

In the past 3 days I've heard from 2 former students. One sent me a friend request on Facebook. The other texted me a few minutes ago.

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UPDATE - I ended up being contacted by 3 former students in the span of one week. Two on FB and one via TM. It was great learning what they were up to. During the six years I "molded the future", I taught hundreds of teenagers. Some of my very first students are turning 29 or 30 this year. Damn!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

A Structured Life - Day 7

So I've had to make some changes to my schedule based on how life was not matching up with my plans. There were a couple of times this week when I got home AFTER my planned bed time. So, I'm going to push it back by 30 minutes and see what happens. There was one list-less day, and I could tell the difference. I was finally able to meditate this morning and, again, I could tell the difference.

Week 1 was full of lessons. Tomorrow starts week 2. And what a great week it will be! :)

Thursday, June 4, 2009

A Structured Life - Day 4

In just 4 days I've seen progress. Unfortunately, last night I was unable to be in bed by 10, because I didn't get home from a meeting until 10pm. But other than that, I've been keeping to the schedule, checking things off of the list and making lists that are actually doable.
The only thing I'm still working on is the meditation piece. It's not something I've ever done with consistency, but have clear memories of how it's helped in the past. My reluctance (if I was going to "shrink" myself) has more to do with my transitioning spiritual/religious beliefs than not having the time. But that's another blog entry for another day.
So, in the name of optimism, I'll just say I'm happy with how things are going so far and I'm looking forward to a day full of clients tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A Structured Life - Day 2

This morning I woke up at 6:15! A full 14 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. All because I was in bed by 10. It's a great feeling to wake up because your body has finished recharging and not as a result of a screaming alarm clock. Now I'm off to have a wonderful and productive day!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Creating structure in my life...Take 47

For the past few days, I've been following Susan Piver's Discipline Experiment. I thought to myself "oh, it's not just me. Great!" So after much contemplation and debating whether it was a sign for me to try again, I'm trying again.
My life is full of to-do lists that don't get completed, a sleep schedule that is crap (participating in a study for Glamour Mag didn't even help), a non-existent exercise regimen and a bipolar spiritual practice. Now, this is in no way an exercise in self-deprecation or the model of low self-esteem. I am where I am. It's not good, or bad - it just is.

So, with this being my birthday month (26 days until 34) I figured this would be a great time to start a personal project in creating more structure. Here's how it'll go. Every night I'll create my to-do list for the following day and review it to make sure it's actually doable - no sense in setting myself up for failure, right? I'll check items off as they get completed. I'll be as specific as possible with the items on my list, including a deadline or appointment time.

Items that will be on the list every day are:
Wake up no later than 6:30am
Be in bed no later than 10pm
Prayer/meditation for > 5 minutes

Exercise won't happen everyday, so one item on today's to-do list is to create a workout schedule that works with my current schedule.

I will reassess and readjust (if necessary) every Monday. Taking on a whole month seems too daunting, but weekly chunks is perfect for me. At the end of the month, I guess I'll prepare for July.

Now is not the time to think about July. Off to make my to-do list for June 1st!