Okay, it's really 2004 now...

[fajrdrako]

A quick report on the first day of my new resolutions.

I did okay on most of the big things, I think. Did no yoga asanas on January 1, but did think about the subject and planned what I was going to do, which was necessary. I made an agenda where each day of the week I will clean up a different room or do a task that needs to be done regularly - like watering the plants, for example. (Slated for Fridays, along with defragging the computer.) Thursday is the day for the living room.

It was a holiday. I got a little carried away. Moved furniture to what I hoped was a more efficient location - my second desk is now at right angles to my computer desk (with the printer in the corner) and the birds are still behind me when I'm at the computer, by the Egyptian tapestry, but they're on a bookcase and a sewing machine rather than my desk. I'm hoping this will free up the desk space for writing, so I don't always have to use the dining table. I had no slip-ups in my diet, managed to cover the significant things on my 'things to start' list, and if 'cleaning up the living room' involved totally ignoring the corner of the room containing a decorated Christmas tree and pile of unwrapped presents, that's okay too.

Place where I failed miserably: getting to bed in time to get eight hours sleep. An ongoing challenge.

This morning I got up at six and followed the newly reorganized morning agenda and.... if I were assigning marks, I'd say I passed, but only barely. First I discovered a flaw in my washing regimen. The schedule read just fine: wash face, put on face cream, brush and floss teeth, do yoga, shower. Can you spot the flaw? I found myself in the shower thinking: here I am, washing off the face cream I put on a little while ago. Not good.

Tomorrow I will get the order right.

I blew the schedule a little by having a look at my e-mail before setting up the defragging. Sheer self-indulgence: of course I read for a bit and then had to answer a post, and some time later, realized I now hadn't enough time left for watering the plants (Friday task #2) or meditation. Well, both can be done tonight.

I headed out to walk to the fitness club and then to work, realized after about ten minutes of walking in heavily falling snow that I had forgotten my running shoes. I can't go to the fitness club without shoes. So I tromped back home, and immediately wrote a note of the things I have to remember - a variation of the list Marcelle learned from her ex-husband, "wallet, spectacles, testicles". Mine reads: "wallet, glasses, bus pass, shoes". Body parts can take care of themselves. I fastened the note to the back of my door. I'll remember everything tomorrow, right?

So then I walked briskly and aerobically to the fitness club and got there out of breath, but happily in time to do weights. The joy of arriving early on a snowy day when government workers are mostly still on holiday: not only do I not compete with other people for time on the machines, there's plenty of lockers available and no crowds in the locker room.

So far so good, and 3 miles closer to Minas Tirith.

Comments

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

"Place where I failed miserably: getting to bed in time to get eight hours sleep. An ongoing challenge."

I have the same problem. Unless I sleep in until 2pm (lol), I find getting eight hours of sleep challenging. And I'm the same in that I seem to need a lot of sleep, yet I'm highly nocturnal. Argh.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This is true of me too. I get more energy, and want to do more things in the late evening. It's a good time to write. But with daily work schedules - there's no too much I can do about it! except try to cope, and not give way to temptation too often.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Can I just say how impressed I am by your New Year's resolutions? Many of them are changes that I would like to make to may own life, but currently lack the organisation to even attempt... So kudos to you for giving it a go!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I started the self-improvement thing a year ago with a couple of friends. We all had big things we wanted to fix (like our jobs) and we didn't succeed, but we did make great strides in some things, and starting to organize myself was the best thing. I'm still not a very organized person, you understand, but I got to a point where I could make these resolutions with a reasonable chance of success. Five days and I'm doing fine! Except I haven't had the nerve to weigh myself yet. Sometime soon. Maybe in February.