routines vs. projects

playing with time
thinking about my little 168 hours experiment (still underway!), i got to thinking about routines vs projects.

brainstorming the old-fashioned way
■ to me, a routine is something built into each day (or week, or month) that becomes more or less automatic. following the right routines for you helps maintain health and sanity. this can (or in my opinion should!) be enjoyable.

i really have no problem with my current routines, although there is one routine i would love to add to my day, which would be 30-60 minutes of reading/studying for work.

■ projects are quite different. unfortunately, i have not mastered the art of sensible and enjoyable project completion. in fact, i dread projects and for the most part do not enjoy the time i spend working on most of them. perhaps this is in part because i am not choosing the right projects (or, projects are being chosen FOR me, as the case often is during education/training).

but i think part of it is that i am not good about breaking up said projects into manageable tasks, and i get intimidated. this brings out my inner perfectionist (she tends to rear her ugly head at the most inopportune times), who deems a perfect performance unattainable, and i’m left with a blank word document and steadily encroaching deadlines.

you can see what i’m getting at here.

grant-writing plan of action
✔ just write. section by section. i need to let go of the idea that it is going to come out perfectly the first time around, and just set a strict schedule of PRODUCTION. fine-tuning can come later and will always be easier than banging out that first draft.

✔ address roadblocks. every time i stare at the ‘methods’ section, i practically break out in hives. how am i supposed to detail how exactly i am going to do the proposed experiments when i haven’t set foot in a research lab in over 4 years and i’ve never even touched a mouse (nor am i looking forward to doing so, but that is another story)?

obviously, i’m not. i’m going to write things out skeletally, and then get help from those who have a clue.

✔ avoid misery. projects like this quickly turn to . . .well, misery when time starts to run out. that is not how i like to live my life. i need to develop some moderate discipline now to keep things from blowing up in my face later.

and with that, i am going to do a little yoga (routine) and get to work on writing (PROJECT!). well, one quick thing first . . .

succumbing to everyday happy smile
i honestly couldn’t help myself! i caved and bought the Journal J from the korean ebay retailer yesterday for $22.90, including shipping.

the Journal J, by korean brand iconic
i got the “turquoish”
(i can’t poke too much fun; their english is far better than my korean.)

i’m not sure what i will do with the full-page map of korea, but i am super-excited to have all of that built-in lined and graph paper to write lists on!

table of contents
i am sad that mine likely will not look this sparse, nor this cute, once actually used:

but i think there ARE fun stickers included. woohoo! am i 30, or 3?
i’m excited for this to arrive!
i’ll of course let you all know how it pans out.

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10.20.10

workout: 40 minutes ellip + ~ 15 minutes weights (upper + lower mix)

real simple: i’m keeping it really simple this week and basically not cooking 🙂 we were out last night with josh’s coworkers at mill town. the highlight was josh’s knackwurst sandwich on a pretzel bun (for oktoberfest, apparently!).