Nerd in Transition: Time, Time, Time…
It’s 6:30 Thursday morning, the day my blogumn comes out. I’m just sitting down to write it. This is an old habit of mine going back to middle school, writing then turning in written assignments at the last moment. This complete lack of planning and disrespect of time touches every aspect of my life. Time management is a foreign, yet intriguing land to me and one I need to explore, maybe settle down in.
I have declared that this shall be my best year ever! I believe I came to this decision in the first week of January, as one typically does with yearly sentiments and proclamations. 2010 kinda sucked for me, like it did for most of us, but it was also kinda good for me. Last year I acquired a full time, flexible schedule, work-from-home, benefit-paying internet job. I started building a life without Roller Derby, one refocused on writing and acting goals. In the face of the entire world I journaled about a marijuana addiction, something I am still battling. And my little house exploded from one person/one dog to one person, 3 dogs and 1 cat. Oh and I went completely carless in LA , donating my Volvo to KCRW. Those are the highlights.
Determined to build upon all the foundation laid last year I have put the first phase of improving 2011 into action: get out of the house more. So far it’s been great! For the past three weekends I have been social and active and productive outside my house. No more locking myself away like a hermit. The first weekend away I headed to a wedding at the Madonna Inn up in San Luis Obispo. It was a two night stay, the first I spent in a friends room at the Vagabond Inn, the second I treated myself to a night in the world renowned Madonna Inn. I stayed in the Traveler’s Yacht room. The decor was great, but I almost tore the heated toilet seat/bidai out of the wall to take home.
The next two weekends I spent working on furthering my entertainment career. Spending three days on a small indie set, I worked as part of a great little crew of ambitious and talented up and comers. It’s was for a project called Girls! Girls! Girls! an all female lead and created set of shorts that will be put into one film. It’s pretty bad-ass and I’m loving it. The shoot was originally scheduled for one weekend but ran over, as often happens, yet I had a meeting planned with a theatre producing friend that I wouldn’t cancel that second weekend. Taking that Saturday to meet with David I also spent some time with a friend’s girl scout troupe, teaching 9 years olds a very, VERY basic tango routine. Later I headed to my mini producer in training(that would be me) meeting, I then went to the theatre to see HEAD: the Musical, which David is in and had a hand in producing. Sunday I returned to the indie movie, where I got to tear down the set I had helped build two weeks before.
Interspersed throughout the workweek I have also been taking on more activities in an attempt to further my year and life along. Though I have met with the troupe again to work on that tango routine, it’s mostly taking on the little stuff that I am so good at procrastinating over or completely ignoring which is taking up time. As I stated in my first paragraph, time management is foreign to me, it’s just not something I do well. With all this increase in activity I have been letting other things slips, such as this blog. I totally missed my last entry two weeks ago because I was building a set. And this week I’m making it in just under the gun.
The thing is I run best on routine, so when I disrupt the established routine there is always an awkward adjustment period. This is why I need to take some time management courses, or at least read a book on the subject. Since order and focus don’t come to me naturally I think that the next step in my transitional period is taking on time. Anybody have any good recommendations on this subject? I’m great at sifting through diet books, but a subject on true self improvement has me stumped.
By the way it’s 7:38. One hour and 8 minutes. How’d I do?