The Plan

When I think about how I spend my time, I get a little discouraged. I work at least 45 hours a week, which leaves 123 hours. I sleep about 56 hours a week, if I get a full 8 hours a night, which leaves 67 hours. I spend about 10.5 hours "getting ready" each morning, which includes showering, drying my hair, getting dressed, putting on makeup, eating breakfast, taking care of the dogs, etc. This takes it down to 56.5 hours of free time. Due to my geographic location, I usually drive about 3 hours (round-trip) on Saturdays to shop, see a movie, eat out, get a pedicure, etc. This leaves 53.5 hours.  


So what am I getting done during those 53.5 hours each week? Not much. I read, watch TV, listen to music, talk to my husband and kids, surf the internet, and that's about it. I always have lots of ideas of things I could do, like gardening, writing, finishing my Ph. D, or learning how to make pottery. But I never seem to follow through on these things. Although, I must say that I had started a novel that I think was going to be pretty good. Unfortunately, my daughter deleted it by mistake from my iPad. I made a couple of attempts to re-create it, but they were unsuccessful. Since then, though, I've had another great idea for a novel and I made a minor start on it, but I haven't worked on it in quite a while. Really, I'm all potential. No actual accomplishments.


Is that what will be on my headstone after I die? "Here she lies. She was all potential, no actual accomplishments." No! I refuse to let that be the case. So I have developed a plan to transfer some of my ideas into actions. There's some irony here, because I hate it when my husband comes up with schedules/budgets/lists/plans for us/me to follow. Although I am definitely a creature of habit, I don't like thinking that I am on a schedule or a routine during my free time. Basically, I don't like being told what to do, even by myself. However, I'm going to give this a try and see how it turns out.


My plan is this: I will act on one of my ideas for at least 10.5 hours each week for a month. I figure I should spend at least as much time accomplishing something as I spend on "getting ready" each week. I will start this week, even though it's already 2:30 PM on Monday, March 26th, because if I leave it until next week or until April, I will be much less likely to begin. I'm lazy, but I'm self aware. 


So, wish me luck on my self-improvement plan. By April 26th, I should have made some progress on one thing on my list of ideas. Any and all encouragement is welcome.