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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.

the struggle continues...

After reading your comments, I feel a bit rejuvenated to resume/continue this time management challenge. Over the past 2 weeks, I've have some definite improvements and some disappointments as well, but I keep trying. So following this posting I will revise my schedule and add in more structure. I really think that will make a difference. Also, I've finally figured out what my reward will be; I will go to the movies at the end of every week for being on time to all of my classes and work obligations. I'll focus on those two things for now and we'll see how I do.
In addition to getting to places on time, I also struggle with the amount of time that i allow to complete a particular task. So in my head, I think that doing this blog will take five minutes but it really takes 10. I'm not sure where that comes from, but it feels like I have a skewed perception of time lol. If I can succeed in reaching my goal for consistently being on time to classes, work, and meetings, I'll start working on my time allotment for tasks. Man, it's a looong road ahead.. but thanks for the support.

BTW your comments are right on regarding my focus on the failures more than the accomplishments. That's where the negative self-talk and irrational thinking comes into play lol. Unfortunately that's a bigger monster than this blog can handle, but at least I'm aware of it right?

Thanks again everyone.

Kristy