Thoughtful Thursday--A day late

I feel like I'm always behind. Always running late. Always trying to catch up.

And I know why. It's because I don't plan ahead and I procrastinate.

pro crast in ate |prəˈkrastəˌnāt, prō-|

verb [ no obj. ]

delay or postpone action; put off doing something: it won't be this price for long, so don't procrastinate.

DERIVATIVES

procrastinator |-ˌnātər|noun,

procrastinatory |-nəˌtôrē|adjective

ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Latin procrastinat- ‘deferred until tomorrow,’ from the verb procrastinare, from pro- ‘forward’ + crastinus ‘belonging to tomorrow’ (from cras ‘tomorrow’).

It's related to laziness, or slothfulness. These are such yucky words. I want to be able to use words like active, industrious, efficient to describe myself. And since I'm not naturally a proactive person, I am taking some steps that will hopefully help.

One thing I'm trying is to make some sort of schedule. I've tried this in the past and it hasn't even worked through the first day because my goals were too lofty and impractical. When you live with a family, you kinda have to go with the general flow...

So what I did was write down what our 'natural schedule' is. Then, the times and areas that needed some tweaking, I tweaked in a gentle way. Like instead of saying that I would wake up at 5:30, read the bible for 2 hours and then go jog for an hour, and then fix breakfast for everyone (which sounds impressive), I set my rising time for 6:55, and then wrote out my usual routine of making coffee, making breakfast, reading my Bible and cleaning up the kitchen. But, I would have more time to do all that, it would be quieter and it would get everything else set on a good course for the rest of the day.

The other thing is to make to-do lists. Things that must be done on a certain day, like a phone call, paying a bill or writing a blog post. And then things that I need to do on an on-going basis, like knitting or baking. I love the feeling of checking things off a list. : )

So today was the first day with this new plan. 

It has been really nice. Just getting an earlier start was lovely. 

I got up with my alarm at 6:55, heard my dad leave for work. Tip-toed out of my room and made my way downstairs. Mom wasn't up yet. Made coffee and got toast going. I usually have a smoothie, but I didn't want to wake the house with the blender. Washed a few dishes left from last night and by then toast was done and mom was up. I spread some Nutella on my toast and took it, my Bible and my journal out on the porch. Had some good 'God-time'. : )

When I went back in, Natalie and Nathan were up. Mom and I were able to get out and jog almost an hour earlier than usual and it was so nice and cool. By the time we got back, mom still had plenty of time to head up to the grocery store and I cleaned up the kitchen and played a game with Natalie.

I got our lunches ready in good time and it's just been pleasant since then. 

Now, I'm getting something on my to-do list done: write a blog post. And I really need to finish up so I can go run some errands. In the car. By myself. : D

The REAL test will be tomorrow! And the day after that and the day after that...