September Already!

I cannot believe it is already the fifth of September! Phew, time just flies faster and faster the older one gets. Since it is September, I guess it is time to review my August goals and contemplate some September ones.

I had three big projects for August and I am well satisfied with the results.

Project One was less Facebook time and here I had mixed results. I am spending less time on Facebook, but mostly because I deleted to many “friends” and fixed the settings to not so many posts were showing up in my feed. That way when I do log in to Facebook, there is much less to see and my time there is much shorter. I wish I could say that I am consistently logging in fewer times a day, and some days I am, but mostly not. And I seem to have replaced wasting time on Facebook by wasting time on Pinterest, although I am collecting some very cool crochet and jewelry ideas for future projects, so hopefully my time there is not completely wasted!

Project Two was cleaning up our spare bedroom, which actually became cleaning up two spare bedrooms and turning one of them into an actual, functioning guest bedroom. This project was a complete success! Yes, I still have twelve boxes left to sort and rebox, but I know that the items in those boxes are (mostly) to be saved, so it really is just reorganizing them into stackable boxes, labeling them, and then stacking them into the empty closet. And there IS an empty closet to put them into! Additionally, all my crochet and jewelry-making supplies are organized and easily accessible, but out of sight. All books are out of boxes and onto shelves, even if some shelves are double stacked (sorting and culling books is a never-ending job here, because I tend to acquire as quickly as I cull).

I was on such a roll with those two bedrooms that I ended up sorting through all the clothes in my bedroom closet and donating two large boxes to the Salvation Army thrift store. AND I sorted and organized the office closet, removing huge piles of job search printouts that had moved with us from Florida and were obviously of no redeeming value at this point. I also reorganized some file boxes, breaking down some large files into smaller, more manageable files. So, even though I didn’t completely finish sorting the boxes from the spare bedroom, I still consider the project a huge success!

Project Three was website updates, which I also consider a success, just because I actually began working again on my websites. I may not be doing daily updates, but at least two days a week for August I worked several hours on updating blogs, making backups, and also updating information on my LeapingFromTheBox.com website. Inertia was removed and I am again excited to be working on the sites.

Early in August I mentioned trying a new daily schedule by listening more to my body and mind, taking advantage of when my mental acuity is at its best. I have attempted to keep this schedule up throughout August and for the most part, it has made me more productive. I do have to remember, though, to not get so wound up in the mornings work that I run out of steam for the afternoon. Quitting the mornings physical work about 11 – 11:30 seems to work best. That gives me a good noon hour for lunch and then a good three hours or better in the afternoon for website work. I hope as the weather cools a bit in September to add a walk outside to that noon hour time and see if that doesn’t help the afternoon productivity.

Tomorrow I’ll post my September goals, even though by then September will be almost one quarter done! That is okay, though, as my September goals are much smaller, less lofty goals than those for August.