Just do it - in a minute or three!

I had to work hard at keeping the mantra today mainly because I had very little sleep last night.  I went to bed at a reasonable time and got off to sleep but woke after a couple of hours.  It took me ages to get back to sleep and I no sooner seemed to drop off when I was awake again.

I tried all my usual techniques to get back to sleep but nothing seemed to be working.  It wasn't helped by the fact that hubby had taken his CPAP mask off and was snoring like mad. I ended up in the spare room and again it seemed like I had only just nodded off when he was waking me up. 

I did get a few things done, including preparing a nice pork dinner cooked in the slow cooker.  Yes I don't leave dinner to hubby every night.  I also had to go and pick the car up from the garage after it had been serviced.  That's a bit of a trek now since our local garage closed but as our car is likely to be subject to a recall following all the hoo haa over diesel emissions with VW I'm wary of taking it anywhere other than the main dealer until that has been sorted.

I then had the nice surprise of our daughter dropping in on her way to a Samaritan shift.  She was only here for about an hour but we've hardly seen her since the wedding and probably won't see her again now until Boxing Day.

Now I'm just rattling off this blog so I keep my momentum going before having a reasonably early night.

I'm actually composing this on my laptop on my recycled bureau.  I think I'm going to like this arrangement.  I watched some TV earlier and made a point of not having the laptop down with me but made a point of turning the TV off once it was recording something I can watch later and coming up to blog.  Multi tasking is good to a point, but I think it does help sometimes to focus on one thing at a time, particularly a Swedish programme with English subtitles!  (The Bridge)

My blogs are getting like buses 9/12/15

My blogs are getting like London buses - you wait ages for one, then four come along at once!

Actually that's not been my experience of buses recently.  Generally they run quite well and frequently but of course they are subject to traffic problems, roadworks etc.

As for the blogs, well I want to keep them coming.  They need to be one of my good habits.  One of the books I read recently was Better than Before - Mastering the Habits of our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin.  It's an interesting study on habits although it didn't give as much in the way of practical tips as I hoped it would.

I have lots of habits.  But most of them are not good.  I waste time playing Facebook games.  I eat too many biscuits.  I watch TV for the sake of it.  I could go on and on .... Apparently I'm an obliger - I respond to external needs but not my own internal ones - things that require self-motivation.  Couple that with losing the structure and external needs of a job with a lot of responsibility it's no wonder that I've been rather aimless.  So I'm trying to establish good habits.

Making sure I remember to take my blood pressure medication EVERY day.  Exercising.  Keeping on top of things.  Not allowing my inbox to get backlogged. Getting enough sleep.  Remembering all the birthdays in the family.

I read somewhere that it takes a month to establish a habit so starting this in the run up to Christmas is probably not the best time but I could always come up with excuses as to why I should wait until tomorrow.  But tomorrow never arrives so today I have to Just do it!  (And tomorrow and the next day and the next and.......)

Just do it! 7/12/15

If I looked at the tags from my blog posts I'm sure that procrastination would have the most hits.  I am an expert at procrastination. Since I left my job I've got even better at it.  The months have gone by, Christmas is nearly here and not much has been achieved.  

At least that is one way of looking at things.  The way my depressed self would look at it.  But I'm not depressed or stressed out now, just a bit lacking in purpose and unfortunately, although I have a wonderful hubby, he's not the best at giving me a kick up the backside when needed.

I'm trying to turn things on their head and look at what has been achieved.  My garden is looking much better.  True I've had help there but I have done more in it this year and definitely have more interest in it. My house has less clutter in it.  Slowly, bit by bit I'm winning the battle against the toot and chaos that had taken hold.  Yes it's a work in progress but there is progress. 

I've been reading some articles and books that have given me some insights on how I could make things better, especially using my time better.  I was particularly thinking about this at the weekend and was planning on putting things into place in the new year.  And then I had one of those light bulb moments.  Why wait?  If I really want to make changes I need to just do it!  If I wait until January this month will pass in a blur and I will be looking back on the whole year with dissatisfaction.  If I start now I will have made a step in the right direction.

Just do it needs to be my mantra and today, Day 1 it worked.  I made phone calls I've been putting off so I now have a dentist appointment booked for next week and the car is booked in for a service.  I went and got new hoses for our showers and fitted them. (One split at the weekend and the other wasn't looking like it would last much longer!) I finished writing and posted my Christmas cards.  This involved walking to the Post Office so included exercise. I turned off the TV at a sensible time rather than vegetating in front of it.  And I've managed to blog.  My immediate To Do list looks a lot better.

I know that the mantra may not work every day, habits take time to establish especially good ones.  But today was a good day!