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Picking Up an Old Friend

1 comment By Nicki Filed in Editorial, Personal Enrichment, Planning Tagged with , , , , December 15th, 2009 @ 6:00 am

book dreamsAh, dear book, how I have missed you. Trying to write you just isn’t the same as being able to pick up the words of someone else and losing myself in them.

Yep, so it’s probably been six months or so since I read a book. No, wait! I recently read two – maybe three months ago. This is seriously sad news for the girl who used to read books during class in high school instead of listening to the teachers. I think it was a problem for some teachers – do we tell her to stop, or encourage the reading?

I don’t remember which they chose.

I do remember guzzling books like I’ve always consumed caffeine – in large quantities, whenever possible. I read an awful lot of romance novels, sprinkled with a liberal amount of science fiction, and quite a bit of erotic romance. I read some Robert Jordan, and made it almost to the originally projected ending, book eight. I enjoyed a ton of Stephen King, until I slogged through The Dark Tower books I and II. Those were not my favorites, I don’t mind telling you.

I don’t receive books by the half dozen for Christmas anymore. I don’t keep my Barnes & Noble membership up to date because it’s not a savings for me. The last time I seriously visited a library and came away with more than one book for my kids was early 2004, before which I routinely came back from the library with ten or more books. I had to bring a bag with me to carry them to my car or dorm room, depending on my living situation.

I would bet five dollars that I didn’t read 10 whole books in 2009.

I can’t entirely blame my lack of reading on my kids. Sure, children are a time suck (albeit very cute, adorable, loving time sucks that I wouldn’t trade for anything). But other people with kids read. It can be done.

I can’t even blame the Internet for my reading deficit. I read a lot online, actually. It’s easy to do, and it’s better than the newspaper 75% of the time. But I can’t even clam having read more than one good eBook online this year, and on top of that, it doesn’t completely replace a good, heavy in your hand book.

Part of my 2010 plan is to read more. A lot more. I know I can’t go back to my 10 books in two weeks days, but I certainly could process at least one or two books a month without completely losing my mind. And if it turns out I can’t, I’m going to try really hard not to hate myself.

I would really love my kids to love reading as much as I do, but I’m afraid I don’t do as good a job of conveying that passion as I could. I need to start reading to my kids more, and let them see me reading, instead of hiding it away after they’re asleep.

I think I’m on the right path, here, for next year which is creeping closer and closer with each passing day. I’ll find a way to track my progress as I read. Did you know at one point I had a blog simply for the books I’d read? That was fun to keep track of – I would update it about once a day or so, and usually would take the time to write a review about it as well. That particular blog has passed away, but perhaps I’ll rediscover my book lust and get it going again.

Time will tell. :)

Tying Together Miscellaneous Loose Ends

1 comment By Nicki Filed in Hobbies, Home, Personal Enrichment, Planning Tagged with , , , December 14th, 2009 @ 6:00 am

Temporary ChaosWell, kids, I’m feeling a bit better, I think. Entering this next week with a positive outlook, we’ll see if it’s work stress or family stress that’s been dragging me down.

That said, I’m still working on planning out my 2010, a la Monsieur Guillebeau. I’m doing some personal research into Remember the Milk – everything I hear is that its the bee’s knees, but the last time I tried to use it I wasn’t devoted, and I let it slide. Now I see it integrates with Google Calendar, and that’s what I’m trying to use to keep track of my finances (or at least when bills are due), and that gives me hope. I’m going to give it another shot, and hope that it will create successful recurring tasks that I can access on my iPod Touch.

I sketched out a list of things I would like to do in 2010 – no holds barred, and no accomplishment is too far out of reach. Here are a few of those things:

  • Complete 200 Sit-Ups and 100 Push Ups programs (and now I see there’s a 200 squats program as well – I’m so there!)
  • Read all the books I have that I have yet to read (lots of Seth Godin, organization, and entrepreneur stuff, not much fiction, which is very surprising to me)
  • Create one website template per month
  • Finish my NaNo novel by Feb, edit it, and publish it
  • Learn to use my sewing machine and sew new curtains for the house
  • Get rid of all my stray paper – no more stray paper anywhere, ever
  • Sell books I no longer need
  • Get holiday cards out before Thanksgiving
  • Send mid-year update letter to family in Iowa
  • Create and stick to my budget

I left out some of the stuff that’s only interesting to me, so don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything. One of the things I didn’t add on my paper but I should is that I want to just generally get my damn life in order. That means ordinary stuff like cleaning the house (dusting, sweeping, sorting, washing) gets done on a regular basis, without being some huge ordeal that I have to suffer through. That’s where the automated task lists will come in very handy. What should I do on what night, and in such a way that I can still maintain my f*ing sanity.

I realized today, by the way, that I am not cut out to be a soccer mom. I can not handle events every single night of the week, taking D to cub scouts and V to band practice on the same day as the baseball tournament and the presentation at church, and oh, don’t forget the doctor’s appointments! No way. I think part of the reason that November was so hard for me is that I had so many personal responsibilities right on top of my kid’s activities, as well as trying to write a novel. It was just too much. I’m more laid back, and I desperately need to remember that when I start creating my lists.

So I’m trying to do a 2010 plan, with Remember the Milk tasks involved, and I may even find the time to read GTD (which I actually don’t own, but would really love to get my hands on) to help even more.

I’m gonna Nickify it.

Getting Back on Track

0 comments By Nicki Filed in Organization, Planning Tagged with , , , , , , , , , December 3rd, 2009 @ 8:39 am

to do...done!I haven’t done much reading lately due to my November commitment. I also did absolutely no web design, nor did I do anything, actually, to help support my family. December is also a rocky month, and so my goals are not too high, but I here is a quick list of things that I would like to accomplish and work back into my daily routine.

  • Regular reading of actual books currently purchased and on my bookshelf.
  • Design of real estate website templates for my coworker who then creates the actual sites.
  • Wii Fit exercise – at least 30 minutes/credits per day.
  • Walking – a few times a week with a friend who could use the company, I think.
  • Publication of new Squidoo Lenses. I’ve been nominated for Giant Squidhood, I just need another 40 lenses or so, and could write about…
    • The books I’m going to read.
    • Things I’m learning in my design travels.
    • Life experiences I’ve had and how I’ve dealt with them.
    • My favorite things.
    • My vacation to Prague two years ago.
    • My father’s disease.
    • The tattoo I recently started planning. (Excitement!!)

If I could get a schedule going, where I do X on Monday, and YY on Tuesday, etc, that would be the bomb. Having a schedule is, in my experience, the single best way for me to get things done.

When I went back to school in 2000, I began working the night shift at my job. I had the absolute best job, because I got to work for two hours, and study or read or whatever for the remaining six. My schedule was strict. Beginning at 11 p.m., I would work until midnight, where I would then take one hour to surf the Internet, chat, play games or read. Then from 1 a.m. until I was either done with my homework, or if it was a project I couldn’t complete in one night, until 4 a.m., I would study my ass off. Then from 4 a.m. until my shift was over, I would get to do whatever again – work, play, read, chat, whatever. Do you know what happened to my grades when I started that schedule?

I got A’s everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. It was a wonderous thing, especially since I had never considered myself anything more than a B average student.

So that’s the deal. As I work through December, I’ll keep giving updates. Maybe Monday mornings will be my update days, as Sunday evenings are usually the evenings when I have the least time. :)

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