A Day for Me

With the recent week of stress I've been having and the fact that my muscles are a bit sore from yesterday's Group Power class at the gym, I decided to do something radical....Nothing.

Yes, my to-do list is quite long and I know that every day I let things slide, I may be adding to the stress. However, I've been so worked up lately, that I can't focus on anything. This means, even as I plow through my list, I'm constantly messing up and having to fix everything.

So I ask you, am I really making things worse or better off for this day? I say better. I slept in, took a nice hot bath, started reading a book I've had for over a week and never got to start, watched TV and relaxed with Rocco. He doesn't seem to mind very much that I've had a lazy day with him so far.

I'm not entirely sure, but I may have to include a lazy day once a week. It would give me something to look forward to, plus it would be the one day of the week I can put everything aside and do what I want, even if some days that does mean I simply sleep in and lay on the couch most of the day.

Another thing I'm going to incorporate is a trick Dwight D. Eisenhower established during his presidency. Here is the rundown according to Wikipedia: All tasks are evaluated using the criteria important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent and put in according quadrants. Tasks in unimportant/not urgent are dropped, tasks in important/urgent are done immediately and personally, tasks in unimportant/urgent are delegated and tasks in important/not urgent get an end date and are done personally. This method is said to have been used by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is outlined in a quote attributed to him: What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

Granted, I can't exactly delegate anything out, but I can start categorizing what I'm doing. The big problem is I'm categorizing EVERYTHING as important and urgent. Most are neither. Like mowing the backyard? Neither important nor urgent. It does need to be done, but whether I do it tomorrow or next weekend, the backyard will not become an overgrown jungle. No health code violations will be rendered and nothing bad will happen.


I do need to refocus my attentions. Pocket Novels, right now, is important but not exactly urgent. We do want to get everything out ASAP, but I have to run on the timeline of other people. I mailed out the payments and signed contracts, I sent the books to the printer and check the email daily. Nothing urgent just yet.

Urgent tasks? My presentation for school. It's due Wednesday and my group hasn't met to discuss it. So I need to read the chapter and come up with the presentation myself. I'll get in trouble if the presentation isn't done. I won't get fired, but it won't help me in the long run. So, since it has a looming deadline, this gets filed as urgent.

See how it works? Though I have to think about it, I can categorize things into one category or the other. It's hard at first since I want to make everything urgent and important. It all seemed like they were. In reality? Most can easily be downgraded. So can my stress level.

After this, I'm going back to doing very little. I may clean the house today (it does need a decent one), but I'm not doing it if I don't feel like it. Today is my nothing day b/c that's what I feel like doing.