Where did the time go?  Not summer, but the day/evening.  Seriously!  I get home from work when my daughter gets off the bus, so 3:30 p.m.  Every single day, I set a goal or schedule for myself and or her.  Then, it is bed time…what the heck?  I had 7 hours when I got home, what did I do or accomplish?  Nothing…that’s right, not a damn thing.  I was busy and doing stuff the entire time, but that mental to do list or schedule…nada.

Busy little do nothing.  I have tried phone alarms.  Too easy, just hit stop or snooze.  Did bullet journaling for a bit and I liked it.  It definitely kept me on task, but then I didn’t use it for a day or two and poof…all gone.  Then I spend a portion of my day irritated and disappointed in myself for not following through on something.  It’s not like I don’t have the will power or strength to do it.  I have stayed away from bakery style junk food and pop (or soda depending on what part of the world you are reading this from) for almost two months.  Made the decision one day and that was that.  So what make its so difficult to make a schedule and force myself to stick to it?  Well, I can actually answer that!

In my mind, there is time to do everything I have planned and still have free time.  There are several things wrong with this thought theory.  One, I grossly under estimate or over-estimate the amount of time that a particular task or job will take.  If I under estimate, then I go over my scheduled time and that pushes everything else back or completely off the grid.  If I over estimate, instead of getting to the next thing, I decide to wait for its allotted time and do something I want to do – and well I get lost in that and then miss the time I had wanted to use for something else, so then I just get irritated and it’s time to make dinner or get ready for bed, and well, tomorrow is another day.

Well  I’ve noticed that, just into this school year a few days, I am letting my daughter slack on her schedule.  I tell her 10 minutes, get involved in something and lose the time.  So am I now teaching her, “It is important to stick to a schedule, unless you’d rather do something else fun, then it’s okay to ignore it.”?  That thought sickens me.  I don’t need to teach her to ignore her own set of self made times, just because I can’t keep my fingers off a keyboard or my nose out of a book.

Just as a for instance – with leaving work early during the school year, I will bring stuff home to complete.  Usually only once or twice a week.  I have been home for an hour and a half as of right now.  I’ve started a load of laundry and typed this much of the blog.  Still need to do the work stuff.  Plus there is a bunch of teacher packets that we have read and sign.  I need to start dinner.  Switch the loads of laundry. And I want to do some photo work with a new program I am learning.

Any thoughts on making and, more importantly, sticking to a self imposed schedule?  I would love to hear from you!