Day 345

The internet feels like a blessing and a curse sometimes, but I think the pros are outweighing the cons this week.  Before I write anything else, I would like to share that I discovered a great (FREE!) Google Sheets schedule that I adopted for myself today. It's available here and is broken down into 15-minute increments. There are a few spots where it says AM where it means PM and vice versa, but that was an easy fix. There are also hourly schedules, but I wanted to have more time slots while I'm still figuring things out.

Anyway, I decided last night after I finished my blog post that I needed a schedule. I am proud to report that my efforts weren't completely futile, and I'm already adjusting to have a more effective plan for tomorrow. My plan for myself today involved the following:

• 8:00-9:00 - Eat breakfast, make dough for icebox rolls
• 9:00-12:00 - Work (GA job)
• 12:00-1:00 - Lunch (but also fill out IRB paperwork for an upcoming project, and send feedback to the papers I was discussant for at ACPA)
• 1:00-3:00 - Work (GA job)
• 3:00-3:45 - Make the rolls (they have to rise for an hour and a half before baking)
• 3:45-5:15 - Go run 6 miles
• 5:15-6:00 - Shower and get ready for dinner
• 6:00-9:00 - Dinner with our cousins Tim and Emily
• 9:00-11:00 - Transcribe the interview I did for my qualitative research class
• 11:00-midnight - Write my daily blog post

First, the good:

1. I made my rolls, and they turned out great
2. I worked the 5 hours of my GA job that I planned to do today
3. Dinner with Tim and Emily became dinner with Emily, but it was delicious
4. I transcribed my interview, which is time-consuming even with the help of Otter.ai
5. I only used 45 minutes of my scheduled lunch hour.

Next, the fails:

1. I didn't start my workday on time, which bled into my running time, so...
2. I didn't go run 6 miles. I didn't go run at all. I didn't come close to meeting my step goal
3. I didn't do the IRB paperwork during my scheduled lunch hour.
4. I didn't send ACPA feedback during my scheduled lunch hour.

Third, the bonuses:

1. I washed, dried, and folded several loads of laundry that weren't in the plan for the day. 

Finally, some lessons learned:

1. Laundry takes time out of the day BUT it's nice to be able to spread it out.
2. I need to either build in time to drag around in the morning or expedite my morning routine of stuff I do around the house
3. Maybe I should shorten my lunch "hour" and give the tasks I expect to be short their own 15-minute time slot rather than dumping them into "things I'll do during lunch"

Guess who didn't take any photos today? Pixabay to the rescue!

Something that made today great: I made strides on a task I hadn't worked on in several months.
Time I woke up: 8:00 am