Another good week

It's getting really hard to do this blog. I've been pretty much maintaining over the past few weeks so I don't really have much to share. I've also been working on not procrastinating on my assignments and it's gotten much better since the beginning of the semester. I no longer have to wake up at 4 am every Monday to complete my work, so Mondays are no longer as painful as they used to be. I'm very glad that I'm doing better with managing my time and feel like I've regained control of my life.

I'll do my best to update this blog through the end of the semester but it's getting tougher every day. I guess I'll make this my new thing to change :)

Til next time....

Slip-up

          So I was late for an appointment this morning, which really frustrated me since I was rushing and stressed about being late. But on a positive note, i didn't beat myself down about it and didn't let it ruin my day. I think that since I've been doing well, I'm able to give myself a little break. In any case, the day went on and I was on time for everything else. Overall I'll rate it as a decent day and as always will start fresh tomorrow. :)

Maintenance

Hi all,

I've been maintaining my progress the last several days so there's not much to report. I've been reaching my all of my goals and just making sure that I remain mindful of time and how long it takes me to complete certain things or get from place to place.

Keep you all posted.

Major improvements

 YAY!

 I'm definitely doing better with managing my time. I was on time for every thing last week and plan to keep it going. It definitely helps in reducing stress since I'm not rushing everywhere. As for how it's influencing others, my boyfriend does not get irritated with me in the mornings. When I'm rushing, I'm pretty much all over the place, telling him to get out of my way, telling him to speed as he drives me to work/school and of course just frustrated overall. But over the past week, it's been much better and he actually commented on how much smoothly the mornings have been going. So it's feeling good. Also, it's amazing how making a slight cognitive change can make such a big difference. I really believe that reframing my thoughts to "planning to be early" instead of "avoiding being late" has helped me thus far.

I'm still working on the sleep thing. I've developed a bad habit of sleeping on the couch every night so I'm trying to break that and return to my sleep schedule. Otherwise, I'm just keeping my goals as they are for now and hopefully maintain my improvement for a while.

BTW. I didnt go to the movie but took your suggestion and watched a movie at home instead. It was a great compromise and helped me to acknowledge my improvement.

Please Vote

As of today (Wednesday 09/24)

Just wanted to post a quick update about how my week is going.

I was able to complete Monday on a positive note. I was early for everything I had scheduled and it felt GREAT.

Tuesday is a different story. Life got in my way on Tuesday morning and I of course was late as a result. Then I did not reach my goal for my class (12:25) so after that, I just stopped caring. But I've already met my goal for today so I'm happy :)

I will give myself some credit for Monday and of course will keep chopping away at this. Since I've changed my approach to attempting to be early rather than avoiding being late, I think things have been going much more smoothly. So now, I leave 15 minutes earlier than I would have previously and it just seems easier this way. I'm also working on the sleep schedule and I do think that it's making a difference as well. The one thing I haven't considered yet is how to know if/when these changes are impacting others. I guess I'll give that some thought and see how I can "measure" it. As always, I'm open to suggestions as well so feel free to share your ideas.

Regarding Tuesday, here's what happened: As I was about to walk out of my apartment to head to work (which would have allowed me to be on time) I stepped on a piece of glass (my vase broke a few days ago & I must have missed a spot while cleaning) and had to tend to my wound. I'll spare you the details but it took me about 10-15 minutes to address that. As a result, I was late for work, and although I wasn't late for class I didn't reach my goal of 12:25. Since I considered that to be a failure, I decided that my goals for the day were not met and stopped caring which of course led me to be late for my next class.  So the question is; was this a "life happens" situation, or a "Kristy sucks at life" situation.

Since this is a bit of a muddy situation, I want you to decide if I should still get my weekly reward or not. So please cast your votes while posting your comments and I will go with the majority's opinion.

Reminder of weekly goal and reward:

Goal: To be on time for ALL class and work related appointments from Monday to Friday
Reward: Going to the movies on the weekend if I achieve my goal for the week.

Goals for the rest of the week:
Thursday:
Class by 9:20
Work by 12:25

Friday
Work by 7:30
Lunch by 11:45
work by 1:45

Thanks so much for your support on this.

Failed Mission!

As I shared in my last posting, the only barrier between me and my movie was being on time on friday. And by the title of this post, you can conclude that I failed to meet that objective. What happened? Well I completely over slept and even though I wasn't technically late for work, I was late enough not to be able to set up as I needed to. So needless to say, there was no movie this weekend. On a positive note, my sleep was totally worth it and I had an awesome dream in the process lol.

Regarding the sleep issue, I'm really gonna give that a try starting tonight and see if that helps. Also I'm trying to look at it as trying to be early instead of trying to not be late so we will see if that helps.

Like last week, my goal is to succeed at being early for all of my classes and work during the week and get my reward (a movie) during the weekend. So, I hope I do better this time around.

My goals for the remainder of today and tomorrow are:

Today 09/24
Arrive to class by 2:25

Tomorrow (9/25)

Arrive to work by 8:30
Arrive to class by 12:25

On a final note, I was early for class this morning which I started to slack on as well. So I'll take that as a good sign for the week.

...and struggling still

Hi Peeps.

This week has been going well overall. Actually, I was early to all of my school and work related appointments until class this morning, which completely bummed me out  since I was really shooting for a perfect week :( I'll take the progress either way of course. I'll keep trying to focus on the successes rather than the failures and keeping the negative self-talk under control. But ,as long as I arrive on time tomorrow morning, I will be seeing my movie this weekend. So Excited!

I am definitely motivated for change and making a conscious effort to get this monkey off my back, but it's still hard. Actually it's frustrating, because the only one I can blame when I'm late is myself lol. No scapegoats are available for this one :(

As I'm making these efforts, I've started to realize that being on-time is a symptom and not the actual problem. One of the things that impact my tendency to procrastinate overall is off course avoidance (like we discussed in class); but also feeling exhausted. I'm pretty much always pressing the "snooze" button before a task. So, on top of continuing my current efforts to be on time, I will also go to bed at a regular time. I'm thinking that if I don't feel so drained, then I'll be able to get up more easily, and I'll be on time more. Sounds like a good idea to me. So I'll start to monitor that as well to see if it makes a difference.

I still think I'm lacking structure and definition for these behaviors so I'm listing my goals below so it can be in black & white and I can really see if/where the changes are happening.

Here is what I would like to accomplish to finish out my week:

Friday (9/21)
Arrive at Dawson by 7:30
Arrive at appointment by 11:30

Not too bad right? Please keep sharing your thoughts and ideas. They really do make a difference. Thanks for the support ya'll.