Reviewing Your Week

In my last post I know I mentioned the Tiny Leaps Big Changes podcast and how it had inspired me to start really being proactive with my life instead of just responding to what was happening. The podcast also suggested a weekly review, which I totally planned on doing Friday, but have now moved to Mondays. The thing is, I've also vowed to be more forgiving of myself this year and to make room for not feeling well. Don't get me wrong - I don't intend to wallow around in my "I don't feel well." But I also don't intend to power through it because "don't be a pussy" or whatever that asshole in my head likes to say to me when I don't feel well.

Case in point: I have made myself a weekly schedule that leaves my weekends free so that if I miss things during the week, I have all of the free time in the world on the weekend to catch up with what I might have missed. Friday filled up fast so I moved my weekly review to Saturday. Saturday I ended up with an ocular migraine followed by a regular migraine, which just knocked my whole day out. And Sunday I wanted to do what I wanted to do, not review the week. Which made me realize that my week is Monday through Sunday anyway, so why not review on Monday?

Sometimes life tells you where to go. Anyway...

I work from home and I haven't been doing a very good job at it. I really have been just creating chaos and then responding to it. How I make any money or live in a house that hasn't crumbled to the ground is beyond me. So I figured I'd be my own boss and make a schedule. With a checklist. My schedule/checklist has laundry and groceries and walking my dog and yoga and jewelry time and household accounting time and business accounting time and all of the things are there! And after week one it feels ...less anxious. Calmer. Like, I'm definitely doing more things, but it feels like less. And part of that might also be influenced by the fact that keeping to a schedule means that for the first time in forever I took all of my meds at the right time. I didn't miss any of them and let's be honest...I missed my anti-anxiety afternoon pill pretty much every single day before (3 a day except I only took 2 because SQUIRREL!). That whole chaos-response-chaos life I've been living is really not good when it comes to a healthy medication schedule.

I made this week's schedule this morning and I ended up moving some things around, deleting some things and adding some things. Some things worked, some things didn't. ( Like - I'm supposed to be working on a pinterest strategy for marketing and the schedule I gave myself for that just...bombed. But scheduling walks for my dog every day and neighborhood clean-ups immediately afterward was a total win!) I learned that while a run energizes me, sitting at a desk for 4 hours doing accounting/business management type stuff wears me out so much that the rest of my day is kind of shot. BUT, if I move that to the end of my list and use the pomodoro method to power through it, then everything on my list still gets done.

I added a few apps to my life to be more productive, as well. I'm on a super strict budget this year so everything I'm using is free:

1.) The Slumber App, so I quit scrolling on my phone/watching tv before bed. I don't really understand the science behind "sleep stories" but those knock me out within 10 minutes.

2.) Nike Run Club/Nike Training App, so I can start working out again. I have a gym membership, but while I'm feeling positive and motivated about a lot right now, leaving the house is not one of those things. So apps it is. I've used both every day this week - for yoga, for keeping track of my runs with my dog, and for tracking my neighborhood clean-ups.

3.) The Elevate App, so when I pick up my phone to start scrolling, I do something healthier for my brain instead.

4.)Duo Lingo because see above. I'm taking 3 languages so it definitely takes up a little bit of time!

5.) Toon Blast Because competition in a game with strangers around the world is way better than the competition that happens in my head when I scroll, where my brain tries to tell me that everyone I know is happier and more successful than me and I'm a giant loser. Also, it's big nerdy fun.

6.) Clue because I have a nightmare of a reproductive system and tracking my symptoms will hopefully help me schedule my life better (like - this is always a migraine day, this is the day your energy drops to nothing, this is the day your ovaries declare war, don't make plans outside the house on these days, etc.)

So, my review for this week in a nutshell - some things worked, some things didn't, but nothing was a failure. What didn't work was just a lesson learned to do even better this week. My house is cleaner, my brain is healthier, I need to re-evaluate how I grocery shop, and work things are still in transition but moving forward. Overall, it's a positive. And I'm sharing my review on my blog because I need an accountability partner and that's you. Like it or not. Here we are.

Here's hoping that all of your lessons learned lead to even better days ahead for you, too!

Love,

Hey Lola

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