100dayproductivity

[100dayproductivity]

28/100.

Oh boy. Need to regroup. Need to get thoughts out of head.

Outline:

Procrastination

Bullet journaling (BuJo)

Tiredness

Urban homesteading

(I'm just starting out this post as a rough draft so I don't think about it too much. Sometimes thinking is an obstacle to doing!)

Procrastination

Main points:

Been procrastinating A LOT again lately.

Need to look into why.

Usually, for me, procrastination means I'm feeling overwhelmed. Why am I feeling overwhelmed? I'm not sure. Will circle back to this. Let's keep going.

Another reason I procrastinate is because I'm avoiding an unpleasant task. What is the unpleasant task I'm avoiding? Honestly, all I can think of is the dishes. Well, not specifically the dishes, just chores in general. I'm so bored of it. Zero motivation to work towards making my home pleasant (which is basically my main goal currently).

But I was doing so well just a couple of weeks ago! I was on fire 🔥🔥🔥 What happened? Not sure. Let's come back to this.

Bullet Journaling (BuJo)

I started my first bullet journal last month. It was working out great! I felt so inspired! And I was getting so much done. And I felt so organized and efficient. I haven't touched it in weeks, though. What happened?

I think I know what happened. Eye surgery happened. (I had cataract surgery.) Leading up to the surgery, I was so nervous and had so many things to keep track of to get ready for it. The bullet journaling really helped me get all my ducks in a row and not forget anything important. It was such a useful tool! But post-surgery, my eyes needed time to adjust. The eye that had the surgery needed to rest and heal. The one that didn't have the surgery needed to learn how to work with the new eye. I still need to wear a contact lens in that eye, and can no longer wear glasses when I take the contact out. I can't really do any reading or writing once I take that contact lens out at night. And with the contact lens in, everything was really wonky at first. Walking outside and looking in the distance made me dizzy.

So because of all this wonky eyesight stuff, I didn't want to do any more reading or writing than necessary. So I put the bullet journal aside. I didn't have anything important coming up that I needed to keep track of, just my schedule, which is in my phone calendar.

Well, my eyesight is still a bit wonky, but definitely much better now. I pretty much read and write and use my phone as normal now. So there's no excuse to not use the bullet journal again.

But now that weeks have passed it's hard to get back into it. Why? Maybe because I feel like I've failed with it. But I really shouldn't feel that way! Just because I haven't used it in nearly a month doesn't mean I can't use it again now!

Maybe it's also hard to get back into because I'm dreading writing down all the stuff I should have been doing but haven't done. Where's the sense in that, though? Just because I don't write things down doesn't mean I don't have to do them! Also, I've been getting plenty of things done without the bullet journal!

So that begs the question: do I really need the journal? Do I feel like it's a waste of time to write things down if I manage to get them done anyway?

Well, the thing is, yes, I am managing to get things done without the bullet journal. But I've also forgotten things several times before I finally remembered to do them. It probably takes up mental energy to keep forgetting and remembering and forgetting and saying to myself, "Geez! I forgot about that again!" I also have a feeling there's things I've forgotten about that I haven't remembered. Like sending out my monthly invoices. I only realized I forgot because a client asked me, "Hey, just checking, did you send me an invoice?" What else have I not realized I'm forgetting about? There's low level anxiety associated with feeling like maybe you're forgetting something important. Again, an energy drain.

Furthermore, bullet journaling is not simply a to-do list. From what I understand, it's a practice that helps you organize your life. It's a record of past events and activities to look back on and a method of planning for the future. It's a practice that can help you get clarity and insight into your method to the madness, to see what areas of your life may need attention or tweaking. To see the bigger picture, not just your to-do list for today. To see the patterns you fall into, like going down a YouTube rabbit hole instead of doing the dishes, and then wondering why you just cannot seem to achieve a clean and tidy house. Just as an example. No reason. Completely hypothetical.

Truth be told, I have been feeling really discombobulated this past week. Really antsy, just itching to get something done, but physically tired at the same time, just wanting to sit and rest and scroll my phone. I want to go fast and slow at the same time. I think going back to using the bullet journal may help me get off my hamster wheel, and calm down and be efficiently productive again.

Tiredness

Which brings us to my next point: tiredness. I have just been feeling sooo low energy this past week or two. I especially feel it when I'm walking up the street, in the direction away from the lake. The ground elevation gradually increases going in that direction, but it's ever so gradual you normally wouldn't even notice it. I've never really noticed it before. But lately, on some days, especially if I'm carrying a backpack or groceries, I feel like I'm just barely trudging uphill. (It's worth noting that, although I am middle-aged, I am not overweight and relatively fit and healthy, so there is no good reason that I should be struggling with walking up a slight incline). Here are my thoughts on why I might be feeling such low energy:

Lack of sleep

Low vitamin D

Wonky eyesight

Poor nutrition

Lack of sleep

First and foremost, I have not been getting enough hours of sleep. No two ways about it. The main problem is I don't go to bed at a reasonable hour. This is an ongoing struggle for me. This is a huge habit I would like to change. But I keep falling back into the same patterns.

I was doing really well with going to bed at a reasonable time up until my eye surgery. That's because I shut off devices and read in bed. But now, because I can no longer wear glasses once I take the one contact lens out for the night, it's kind of difficult to read in bed. I need to figure something out. Because watching YouTube videos on my phone before bed is not working for me.

Low vitamin D

Where I live, it's recommended that people take Vitamin D supplements during the winter months. I generally do, BUT, I was told to stop taking all vitamins and supplements prior to my eye surgery. I just haven't got back into the habit of taking them. So this is an easy fix.

Wonky eyesight

I need to cut myself some slack. My brain has been working VERY HARD trying to adjust to one vision-corrected eye and one in a contact lens part of the time and just seeing everything fuzzy the other part. It is very tiring. I need to remember that this is exhausting my brain and my eyes, even if it doesn't seem like it should be a big deal. I actually have my one month follow up appointment tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get the green light to have surgery scheduled for my other eye soon thereafter. Once both my eyes are corrected, I should be feeling less tiredness from my brain and eyes working so hard. I just need to be patient.

Poor nutrition

Okay, that sounds a bit harsh. I actually eat a lot healthier than the average person, probably. But I consume a lot more sugar than I used to. Pretty sure I have a sugar addiction. The thing is, if I have food prepared and ready to eat, then I eat very healthy. The problem is when I drop the ball with food prep and find myself hungry with nothing ready to eat. Then I just stuff my face with whatever, which isn't always the best choice. Usually it involves sugary foods. Which gives me an energy spike, but then I crash. The sugar binges are not helping with the low energy.

The other thing is, I'm pretty sure I've hit perimenopause, which means changes to my body and metabolism. I can't eat crap like I used to and get away with it. Well actually, come to think of it, one of the symptoms of perimenopause is tiredness and low energy. So there you have it. Mystery solved. I feel tired because I'm perimenopausal. That was an easy revelation.

But back to the nutrition: if I'm organized, then I always have nutritious food ready to eat when I'm hungry. The bullet journaling really helped me keep on top of food prep. So if I bullet journal I'll be more organized about food, which will lead to better food choices, which will mitigate tiredness... See how it's all interconnected?

Urban Homesteading

This has nothing to do with anything, except that I'm interested in the urban homesteading trend right now, so it's on my ADHD mind a lot lately. ("Wooh, another shiny new thing to add to all my other shiny new things!")

I'm not sure how I came across it, but suddenly last week I was looking it up and downloading podcasts about "how to get started". And as I learned more about it, I realized I'm already doing it.

(If you don't know what homesteading is, it's a lifestyle where you have some land out in the country where you can grow most of the food you need to survive plus make a lot of your own household items and produce your own energy with things like solar panels--basically be über self-sufficient. So "urban homesteading" is a smaller scale version of that, where you endeavour to live as self-sufficiently as you can within the context of a city. So you're not going to have acres of crops and cows and chickens, but maybe you have enough space in your yard for a summer vegetable garden. That sort of thing.)

So anyway, there's lots of homestead-y things you can do as a city-dweller. And one of the main things everyone seems to have at the top of their lists is preparing most of your meals from scratch, whether or not you grow the ingredients yourself. So making meals from scratch is something I started to learn how to do decades ago and keep getting better at. The thing is, this is one of the things I often get sick of doing--the constant and never-ending meal prep cycle: shop for food, prepare food, eat food, clean up after food, repeat. I'm not one of those people that enjoys cooking; I just do it because I enjoy eating. But seeing that it's one of the main ways you can become an "urban homesteader" got me kind of motivated. It's almost a kind of gamification for me, seeing how I can spend the least amount of money and waste the least amount of food. I think I've been feeling burnt out with the kitchen chores lately. I need some inspo, and maybe "urban homesteading" is the inspo I need.

Insights

Right. So let's tie it all together.

I mentioned at the beginning of the post that maybe I'm procrastinating so much lately because I'm feeling overwhelmed, but I'm not sure by what. Well, obviously, by ALL THE THINGS. There's just always so many things. And I think the bullet journaling was helping me manage All The Things, so I need to start bullet journaling again.

I also mentioned that I've been avoiding the kitchen chores lately because it's just blah. No motivation. So bored of it. I need to get inspired. And maybe my newest hobby, urban homesteading, is that little spark I need.

Once I get motivated in the kitchen again, I will eat better, because I'll be better organized with meal prep. Not only that, but I find that, for me, getting organized in the kitchen leads to getting organized in the rest of my life. And the opposite is true too--when the kitchen is in chaos, I become discombobulated in general. And discombobulation leads to overwhelm. And overwhelm leads to procrastination. See how it's all interconnected?

So what's my plan of action?

Start bullet journaling again. Approach it like it's brand new to me again.

Start with the basic daily "kitchen spiral" again. (My kitchen routine that moves in a "spiral" starting with clearing off the drying rack, moving clean dishes from dishwasher to drying rack, moving dirty dishes from counter to dishwasher, then moving to the top shelf of the fridge to start food prep.) I will have better nutrition, which will help mitigate the tiredness.

Part of getting organized in the kitchen involves refilling my medication dispenser with Vitamin D. That will help with the tiredness.

Once I get back on track with the kitchen and nutrition, I will start to have more energy and more productive days. Then maybe my sleep will get back on track too.

But right now I'm sooo sleepy. Going to post this and have a little nap. 😴

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #procrastination #kitchen #get motivated #bujoblr #bujo #bullet journal #urban homesteading #homesteading #eye surgery #cataract surgery #cataract removal #eye health #low energy #need a nap #vitamin d #reading before sleep #bedtime routine #bedtime reading #productivity #march #2024 #need inspiration

[100dayproductivity]

27/100.

I'm so happy about something that I can really only share in this blog with random, anonymous strangers: I FOUND MY SEAM RIPPER!!!

(Let me explain.)

I've been missing my seam ripper for MONTHS (possibly even for over a year 🤔). If you don't know what a seam ripper is, it's not really important to the story, but it's a little tool used by people who sew to, well, rip seams. Like a tiny knife. The main thing to know is that it's pretty small (like, half the size of a pen) and really inexpensive (like, $4 at Walmart). Also, I don't really sew. At least, not regularly. But I have all these ideas and once in a while I get the inspiration to try sewing something. Mainly, I have these ideas for taking apart existing clothing and other textile items that have holes or other damage in order to upcycle the material into something new. Hence, the need for a seam ripper. I have bags and bags of these damaged items, just waiting to be taken apart.

So, at some point, I couldn't find my seam ripper. The thing is, I knew why I couldn't find it. It's because I tend to accumulate piles of clutter and generally cannot keep my shit organized. And, I tend to not put things back where they belong. So I lose things in my house. Sometimes, when I'm expecting company and I have to clean up relatively quickly and don't have time to start sorting the clutter, I just grab the whole pile and shove it into a box or bag, to be dealt with "later". 🙄 Some of you may relate to this cleanup tactic.

So I figured that's where my seam ripper went. Usually, when I do get around to "later" and start sorting through these piles of shit, I find all kinds of things I don't even remember missing. So I knew that I'd eventually find my seam ripper. (I mean, probably.) I just didn't know when. I'm the meantime, there were many-a-times that I really wished I knew where it was. I even gave into the thought, on more than one occasion, that I should just friggin' go out and buy another one. Like I said, they are really inexpensive. But I refused to do that on principle! Because it's my own damn fault that I couldn't find it! And if I would just clean up my shit, it would turn up!

And so this evening I finally tackled the clutter on my dining room table, which has not been used for dining in a very long time. It was sort of being used as a craft table for a while, with all my kids pencils, crayons, paint brushes and the like, all neatly organized. But then it devolved into a catch-all receptacle and it all went to hell in a hand basket after that. And the stuff on it overwhelmed me. I've been ignoring the mess for a long while. But tonight I patiently and methodically sorted through the stuff. And ta-dah! There it was. Hiding beneath the Lazy Susan that held all the pencils and shit. My seam ripper.

I feel rewarded for a job well done. 🏆

#100 days of productivity #100dop #declutter #cleaning #adhd problems #lost and found #getting organized #get organized #february #2024

[100dayproductivity]

26/100.

Shut off all devices and went to bed at 9:30 p.m. last night! Woot! Read for three hours. Finished the book I was reading: The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. Highly recommend. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#100 days of productivity #100dop #bedtime reading #bedtime routine #books and reading #bookblr #february #2024 #reading goals #reading before sleep #reading

[100dayproductivity]

25/100.

I am sooo tired today. Anyone else? 🙋‍♀️ One thing I am noticing about myself is that my energy comes in ebbs and flows. Or maybe it's fits and spurts? 🤔 I can have a really energized, productive couple of days, then I crash. And I'm always trying to fight this/feel guilty about it. Maybe it's time to allow myself to go with my own flow instead of fighting against it all the time.

So today is a crash day. Feeling burnt out. I've wasted a lot of time today, playing games on my phone on the couch. But sort of feeling bored with doing nothing as well. So I thought I might as well update Tumblr on my venture into bullet journaling.

It's only been a few days but going well so far. I've been writing absolutely every little task, and sub-task, that pops into my head. Has really helped me keep on track. I'm finding that I feel a little more relaxed when I jot something down because I know that as long as I keep referring to my list, I won't forget anything I was going to do. It could be something as simple as not forgetting that there are wet clothes in the wash that need to be put in the dryer. Or that I need to remember to pick up some milk on my way back from the post office. Jotting it down seems to free up some mental energy I would normally use to keep these little tasks in the back of my mind while doing larger tasks. It's also been helping me be more efficient. A few times I've noticed that while looking over my to-do list, I've been able to batch tasks together to save time and energy.

Right now I'm not feeling too anxious about doing nothing because I know what's on my list and there isn't anything on it that I can't do tomorrow. And, knowing me, after a crash like this, I will feel energized and productive again (eventually).

So, about the bullet journaling specifically: I'm starting with the bare bones, basic "core" layouts as per the Ryder Carol original bullet journal. Index, Future Log, Monthly, Weekly, Daily. No art, no fancy layouts, no frills. I added a reading log right away, as I'm currently trying to meet reading goals every night. And I just added a lights out/wake up log a couple of nights ago.

I know that you are supposed to customize your journal to your own needs, and I'm already thinking about some changes. I've already started doing a "rolling daily log" instead of migrating unfinished tasks every day. I just scratch out yesterday's date and put today's. If some unfinished tasks get left behind too many pages back, I'll migrate them then.

I'm also thinking about maybe dividing the daily log into three sections horizontally per page. As a task pops into my head, I'll jot it down in one of the three sections based on: a) priority and b) time of day. For instance, the other day I needed to remember that a neighbour was dropping by in the evening to discuss something and I had to remember to give her back her key then. It was jotted down halfway up the page, and there were a bunch of tasks that I jotted down, and completed, after it. With the three sections method, I would have instead jotted it down further down the page in the third section. That way, it wouldn't have gotten lost in the weeds of all the tasks I completed earlier in the day. I think this will just help me visually keep a rolling list of tasks that mostly get completed from top to bottom. As well, some tasks can only be done at certain times of day (i.e. during regular business hours). So if, for instance, there's something that doesn't really matter when it gets done but, when it does, it should preferably be in the morning, I'd always jot that down in the first section of the daily log. If I miss doing it, I migrate it over to the next morning's section. I'm thinking there's probably other ways I can divide the daily log page as well, like a section for kitchen chores, a section for online chores and a section for errands. That would help me batch tasks together. But I'm sure a logical setup will shake itself out as I continue using the journal.

Something I've learned about the bullet journal community: I've been watching YouTube videos for "beginner bullet journaling" and I'm beginning to understand that some people spend a lot of time making their bullet journals pretty. Like, maybe too much time. Like, maybe to the point where they quit bullet journaling because it takes too much time. Or, they don't even get started in the first place because all they see are these beautiful, trending journals and they have a panic attack before even cracking open their shiny, new, $125-dollar, leather-bound, gold-embossed, hand-made organic paper harvested on a new moon notebook. That seems like such a shame. I think we need a counter-trend: mediocre bullet journaling. I'll start. Here are the daily log pages (circled in blue) of my mediocre bullet journal. It's been about 5 days and I have three full pages of bullets already! The first two pages of bullets mostly have a lovely x beside them 👍💪

It'll be fun to look back on this and see what changes I make to the layout as I get further along in the practice.

P.S. My cataract surgery was cancelled!! Rescheduled for next week 😮‍💨 I think this is mainly why I'm feeling burnt out. I spent a lot of mental energy preparing for this last week, and now the adrenaline is gone.

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #procrastination #declutter #cleaning #get motivated #bullet journal #bullet journaling #bujoblr #bujo aesthetic #bujoinspo #bujo spread #bujo #cataract removal #cataract surgery

[100dayproductivity]

24/100.

Been a while since my last post. Cataract surgery is going ahead in 3 days. I've got everything sorted and ready to go, again.

Discussions with my ex about his moving abroad and taking my child with him are also moving along. We are near an agreement. Not the way I wanted things to go but I'm making peace with that and looking to the future.

New strategy for beating procrastination: I started a bullet journal last night. I'd heard of it before and was curious about it but didn't really understand how it worked or why I would want to use one. But the past few weeks I have found myself searching for an app to help me with my procrastination problem and tried out a few but everything out there [that is free to use] is essentially just a to-do list.

Then I remembered about bullet journaling and thought, you know, I used to have one dedicated notebook that I would use as a catch-all for everything on my mind, anything I needed to remember, to-do lists, phone numbers and passwords, things I wanted to remember to check out like books and music, goal-setting, pretty much anything would go in there. But I found that after a while I would lose track of the information I put in there and could never find stuff when I needed it. I always wanted to sift through to make it organized but found myself overwhelmed so eventually I stopped using it.

Then after a while longer I got a phone and discovered its magic ✨ Now I use my Google calendar for everything and just a simple notes app for everything else and I'd be lost without them. However, I'm finding that I'm spending more and more counter-productive time on my phone. Maybe having a pen and paper bullet journal would help cut down on the doomscrolling 🤔

As well, I really want to improve my bedtime routine and get to sleep earlier. I really want to shut down my phone earlier than I do. The problem is, when I do shut down early, I tend to remember this or that thing and find myself turning my phone back on to deal with whatever it is. If I use a bullet journal, perhaps it would help me break this habit. If I remember something or have something on my mind, I can jot it down on my to-do list for first thing the next morning, or journal about it if it's something that's bothering me. I can bring my journal to bed with me as part of my bedtime routine. I avoid bringing my phone even into my bedroom at all but especially into bed before bedtime because that inevitably leads to going down a YouTube rabbit hole.

So anyway, giving this thing a go. It is NOT like the trendy Instagram bougie BuJos that are all the rage. I would never get started if I tried to make THAT kind of BuJo. No, it's literally the old notebook I mentioned above, started at the first available blank page in the middle of the book, using just the original basic method. Nothing fancy or pretty, it's purely functional at this point. We'll see how it goes and, who knows? Maybe it will evolve into something Pinterest-worthy.

I'm kinda excited about it!

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #procrastination #declutter #cleaning #get motivated #get organized #productivity #time management #bullet journal #bullet journaling #bujo #bujoblr #journalling #planner #february #2024 #goal setting #adhd

[100dayproductivity]

It's my 1 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

#1 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone #100 days of productivity #100dop #yay me

[100dayproductivity]

23/100.

Last time I posted about my pending cataract surgery, I had a lot of loose ends to tie up still. A lot has happened this week:

I met with an anesthesiologist and cleared up the concerns about the reaction I had to a local anesthetic in the past. (If you want to know more about this, look up "reaction to epinephrine in local anesthetic" or "adrenaline rush dental anesthetic" or something along those lines. Basically, local anesthetic often contains epinephrine, the ingredient in EpiPens that gives a jolt of adrenaline for people experiencing an allergic reaction. Some people, like me, have a bad reaction to the epinephrine.)

I also had my pre-op admissions appointment with a nurse; got my instructions for pre- and post-surgery and filled out all the paperwork

I got the prescription eye drops (four different types!) that I will need pre- and post-surgery, as well as the schedule for when to administer which ones.

I saw my optometrist in order to renew my prescription for my contact lenses. She gave me a lens and I still have one left from before, so I have two to tide me over post-surgery. (The cataract surgery is only for one eye for now, so only one eye will have vision corrected. Once vision is corrected in that one eye, I will no longer be able to wear glasses. I will need to wear a contact lens to correct the vision in the other eye. Eventually I will have to have surgery on the other eye also, as that eye is beginning to develop cataracts now too.)

I was given a time for my surgery and confirmed with my friend that she could pick me up post-surgery.

I arranged for someone to walk the dog in my care the day of surgery as well as the day after.

There were also some unexpected things that came up. Namely, the eye surgeon wanted to re-do some eye measurements that I had done previously at another eye clinic. She was in contact with the other clinic and got the numbers from them but she said there was some "discrepancy" so she wanted to re-do them. The only thing is, I had to pay for these tests again. It cost me $400 the first time, now I had to cough up another $400. I was pretty upset about this. But this was on Tuesday this week and my surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday. I don't want to hum and haa about it and miss my surgery. So, fine, measure twice cut once, right? Whatever. Paid the $400 and got re-measured the next day, on Wednesday.

On Thursday, got a call from the clinic that the doc had crunched the numbers and turns out I have very slight astigmatism in both eyes. And so there are two lenses available that are suitable for me. Great. This is the exact same result the previous clinic got. They gave me the option of those same two lenses and I chose the cheaper of the two that time. (It costs about $200 for one lens.)

So whatever. At least I'm doubly sure they got it right. Chose my lens. All my other ducks are in a row. The only thing left to do now is show up for surgery next Tuesday. It's Thursday at this point. Feeling good about all the puzzle pieces falling into place.

Friday I get a call from the clinic that the lens I chose doesn't come in my prescription (I'm not sure if she meant it's out of stock or they don't manufacture it at all). Then there's the issue of the astigmatism. Neither option corrects for astigmatism. I pointed out that I've worn contact lenses that don't correct for astigmatism for 35 years and it's been fine. So ok, maybe that part is not an issue. But they still don't have the right power I need so I need to choose a different lens. Two options again, I chose one. We are good to go.

Friday afternoon clinic calls me again. Doctor has postponed surgery due to the lack of available lenses and wants me to come in on Monday to discuss lens options. Aaaargghhh! 😭 (I think there were some things lost in translation between the doctor and the coordinator, and the coordinator and me. I had questions I don't think the coordinator was really able to answer. So I think a conversation directly with the doctor about the lens options is probably in my best interest. Still sucks though.)

Cancelled my friend. Cancelled the dog-walker. Booked a Monday appointment. Uggghh, I was so close to getting this done 😭

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #cataract removal #cataract surgery #eye health #anesthetic #anesthesiology #anesthesia #epinephrine #epipen #allergic reaction #contact lenses #vision correction #eyesight #astigmatism #healthcare #january #2024

[100dayproductivity]

22/100.

I got my box of vegetables delivered today! I subscribe to a monthly produce box; you don't get to choose what's in it, and it's always the same price regardless of what's in it. Currently it costs $27 + $4 delivery + 50¢ tax = $31.50. You can check online to see what's in the current week's box but I never do, so it's always a fun surprise to open the box and see what we've got to work with. What's in the box tends to determine my meals for the month.

Let's open it, shall we?

Woo! a big bag of pre-washed spinach. Nice. Prepared and packed in Canada, but where was it grown? 🤔

A cucumber, a bunch of bananas, celery, broccoli, 2lb bag of carrots...

About a half dozen each of apples, oranges, potatoes and beets.

The bag is huge; I keep it to use as a trash bag. The box is nice and square with handles; perfect for holding and storing stuff like books (which I'm constantly rescuing from the curb but not reading nearly fast enough 🙄).

So there you have it. I started ordering this box back when we were in lockdown. It only cost $25 then, not $27, and it seems to me there was slightly more in it. I remember counting 11-12 items per month back then, and it just seemed like there was slightly more of each item. Now I consistently count 10-11 items (this week there are 10). Well, that's inflation for ya. Everyone is feeling the squeeze. The jury's still out on whether this is still a good deal for me or not. At $31, that's about $3 per item. 🤔 I'm really bad at remembering prices. I just bought the literally exact same bag of carrots and broccoli bunch last week from my local grocer that is just around the corner from me, but do you think I can remember what it cost? I'll have to try and note prices from now on.

Ok. Next on the agenda. I have to do some kitchen spiralling 🌀, and I need a shower this afternoon and I want to pick up a bottle of this new local beer to take to a dinner I've been invited to this evening. It's "barrel aged barley wine with prunes and dates". 🤯

#100 days of productivity #100dop #kitchen #seasonal produce #groceries #fresh vegetables #fresh veggies #fruits and vegetables #fresh produce #cost of living #food costs #inflation #food prices #grocery prices #fresh food #fresh fruit #budget #budget meals #beer #craft beer #local beer #brewery #january #2024

[100dayproductivity]

21/100.

I did all the eye surgery related tasks yesterday. Well, I still need to ask for some help for my post-surgery recovery but I was hoping to speak to a specific person, in person, at the dog park. But the weather today is absolute shit! So I didn't go to the dog park. So that one is still pending.

So I'm kinda waiting for responses for the most important things on my list. Other than those important things, I don't have anything pressing I feel like I have to get done today. And this is making me feel sleepy 🥱😴

So... time to light a 🔥 under my butt!

Where do we start when we have zero motivation to start anything? At the starting point of our chore spiral! 🌀 (I've talked about how I think of chores as spirals in a previous post).

But first.. lunch!

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #get motivated #eye surgery #cataract surgery #so sleepy #january #2024 #spiral

[100dayproductivity]

20/100.

Ok, I've done all the things I had on my short-term new year to-do list: mini gut-reset, reach out to a handful of people that have been on my mind (ended up getting together with three of them in person--as an introvert, this feels like a lot!), read over draft of legal document from ex and message my lawyer to make an appointment for a consultation, take down tree. Was that it?

Next: I just remembered I need to contact the surgery coordinator for my upcoming eye surgery (eek!). It's for cataract removal. I have a date but no time yet, and I'm wondering why they didn't give me a prescription for eye drops (when I started this process several months ago at a different clinic, they had me start on a variety of eye drops to prep my eyes for surgery about a month before the surgery date), and I'm also supposed to consult with an anesthesiologist about a reaction I had in the past to local anesthetic. Surgery date is just over two weeks away and I feel like they should have filled me in on all this stuff by now.

On a related note, I must remember to arrange for some help I will need around my surgery date. I can do that this week.

Oh, and... I should probably get in touch with my optometrist. I'm overdue for my annual eye exam and I'm out of contacts and my prescription is expired. The eye surgery is going to fix my eyesight in my right eye only. I won't be able to wear my glasses, I'll need to wear a contact in my left eye only. This will be a problem if I don't have any. (I think I have one left, which will last me about 3 weeks).

So the eye surgery situation is kind of top priority right now.

So here's my short-term to-do list right now:

Email eye surgery coordinator

Make appointment with optometrist

Arrange for help around surgery date

Confirm with my friend that she can come get me after surgery (need surgery time first). If she can't I need to find someone else!!! Sucks not having any family nearby. (Although even if they were, not sure I would be able to count on them lol 🙄)

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #january #2024 #eye surgery #cataract surgery

[100dayproductivity]

19/100.

We are 5 days into the new year and 4 days since my last post. I did do a gut reset on the 1st. I did send out messages of greeting to the people I had in mind, and I got together in person with two of them so far. Another responded to me and I have yet to reply back again. I have de-decorated the tree but have yet to take it down. I have not done up invoices. So I'm only partially through the things I wanted to get done this week. But I have to set those aside for now because today is the day I deal with The Thing.

The Thing is a legal document from my ex pertaining to my younger teen child. I need to consult with my lawyer before I sign anything. But before I get in touch with my lawyer I need to read over the document line-by-line and make sure I know what questions I need to ask my lawyer, as well as come up with alternative solutions to the things I don't agree to (and I already know there are things I don't agree to). The reason for the legal document in the first place is because of a major life-change my ex is making that is unfortunately going to affect me: he is moving abroad and wants to take my child with him. This makes me very sad. I've been avoiding dealing with this but today is the day I have to deal with it.

I have this feeling of paralysis when I think about opening the document and reading it. Even now, as I write this. This post itself is just another avoidance measure. But at the same time, writing these posts has often been what helps me push past the paralysis and get the thing I'm avoiding done.

If you're wondering why I don't just say no to my child moving abroad with his father, it's because said child wants to go (has been brainwashed to want to go?) He's not super-gungho, but he is never super-gungho about anything so that's not an indicator of his desire to leave vs stay. He has expressed that he thinks it might be interesting to go.

I would prefer he stay living with me, his mother, and finish high school in the country my parents came to for a better life, and his father's grandparents came to for a better life. It doesn't make sense to me that my child, the descendant of immigrants, is now not going to benefit from the sacrifices made to get here. I would prefer he stay here and spend the summers abroad, when his sister would also be able to spend summers abroad. It really doesn't make sense to me that he would not be here when his sister comes home for holiday breaks during the school year, and that he would be here when his sister goes to visit their father during the summer. We have never separated them before, why would we separate them now?

It also doesn't make sense to me that all of a sudden an opportunity to go to high school abroad is so vital to a child of ours' success in the future. My older child completed high school here and she is excelling in university now. I don't know why my younger child suddenly needs some sort of "better opportunity" than his sister had.

The argument being made is that if my child completes at least three years of high school abroad, then he would be eligible to attend university for free abroad. I don't know the truth of this. One would think one would need to be a citizen of a country that offers free post-secondary tuition in order to be eligible for the free tuition. I really don't know anything about it. I suppose that's part of the problem here. My ignorance about the school system abroad. However, bottom line is that we have been saving for our children's educations since they were born so we already have the bulk of the money needed.

I'm going to look into this tuition thing, because I feel like it's a load of bs.

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #january #2024 #procrastination #avoidance #difficult decisions #parenting #coparenting #children #custody #post secondary education

[100dayproductivity]

18/100.

New Year's Eve.

Time for some reflection. Get my thoughts in order.

I had a fun Christmas week with my kids. They left today to spend the second half of the break with their father. The week was hectic and now I feel a bit like I'm coming off of a high. Though luckily I'm not feeling depressed at all, which has often been the case in the past. I don't feel exhausted either, which is also often the case after an on-week with my kids. But I do feel a bit discombobulated. My usual routines are not in place because of the holiday. I guess I need routines to ground me or something. Not sure.

I really had a very enjoyable week with my kids--except for one day that wasn't. My ex ruined the day for me. I won't go into details but it involved me yelling and swearing at my own children, and taking off for a couple of hours to cool down. We recovered the day later on but I'm so pissed it happened at all.

The root cause of the tension is something that will have to be dealt with, I just didn't want to deal with it over Christmas break with my kids. Now that my week with them is over, I will have to deal with the thing. So that's going to have to go on my to-do list. *Sigh*

Ah, well, yes, I suppose "the thing" is at least partially, if not wholly, responsible for my current discombobulation.

So this morning was the end of my holiday week with my kids and I did allow myself to more-or-less do nothing today. Ate a bag of Doritos for lunch. That sort of thing. But tomorrow I need to get back to my to-do list. I've been cooking all week and doing a great job keeping on top of dishes but yesterday being my last night with both my children for a while I let things slide. So there's a bit of a disaster in the kitchen at the moment. I also need to take the tree down. I like to leave it up at least until Jan 1 but after that it starts to depress me. Also, being the beginning of the month means I need to do up invoices. And, of course, I need to deal with The Thing.

Oh, and also, tomorrow being New Year's Day, I thought it would be nice to send a message of greeting to a couple of people I have been neglecting and are on my mind. I've already sent a couple of messages out today but there's a couple more I really ought to send.

And... Another thing I was thinking of doing tomorrow is a gut-reset. I have this fibre drink I was thinking of having first thing in the morning and then fasting for a bit, to "clean out" my bowels (lol). I'm feeling a bit bloated from all the Christmas treats I ate this week, I don't think a bowel-cleanse would be a bad idea (especially since I won't really need to go anywhere or see anyone tomorrow, it's an ideal type of day for a bowel-cleanse.)

What else.

Right. So one thing I was musing on during this week of constant food prep and clean-up is how I seem to function best if I go about doing things in a methodical manner. Otherwise I seem to get overwhelmed/bored/distracted. (Is this what ADHD looks like? I'm still wondering if that's a label that could apply to me 🤔) So in the kitchen, what has been working for me these days is to always start in the same place, and move through each step of a process that looks like this:

Put dishes on drying rack area away (always start here).

Move dishes from dishwasher to drying rack (put away anything that is dry, otherwise put on rack area to finish drying).

Reload dishwasher with dirty dishes sitting on counter and stovetop area. Run dishwasher.

Wipe down stove and countertops.

Move any overflow dishes left on table to counter.

Wipe down table.

Go back to Step 1 and repeat the entire process until there are no more dirty dishes.

Lately, when I'm feeling completely unmotivated to attack anything on my to-do list, I go to Step 1 of my Dishes Process. I find I can usually get motivated enough to at least do Step 1. And once I start there, I can usually follow through to the end of the process. And once I've got at least this portion of the kitchen cleaned up, I am usually able to then focus on other tasks.

Once I've completed The Dishes Process, the next process I start on is The Fridge Process. For this process, I basically look at each item in my fridge, starting from the top shelf and working my way down, and go through the following checklist:

Is it rotting/moldy/rancid? If yes, throw in compost. If no, go to Step 2.

Does something need to happen to it before you can use it? Does it need to be washed, peeled, chopped or prepped in some other way? Can you prep it now for use later? (For instance, lettuce and kale leaves can be washed, carrots and celery can be cut up, block cheese can be sliced or shredded.) If yes, then prep it now. If it's already ready to use, go to Step 3.

Should you just eat it right now? If yes, then eat it! If no, then when is it going to be eaten? For what meal? Do you have a plan for using it? Is it part of a recipe? What else do you need for the recipe? Have you got everything you need for the recipe? If no, then add it to the shopping list. If you have everything you need, then go to Step 4.

Is there anything missing from the fridge that you need to restock? If yes, add it to the shopping list.

The process for the freezer is similar except I ask myself if I need to take anything out of the freezer to thaw.

Once I've gotten through The Fridge/Freezer Process, I have a pretty good idea of what meals I'm going to be making, what needs to be used up and by when, and what grocery items I need to buy. Honestly, going through The Dishes Process and The Fridge/Freezer Process on a daily basis leading up to Christmas is what enabled me to be super prepared for making home-cooked meals for my kids every day this past week. I had many culinary successes this week with no waste and never unexpectedly running out of something we needed.

So, that's been working well for me and I will be continuing with this methodical approach, and probably adding more "processes" as I get more and more organized (?!) I call my methodical way of attacking my kitchen chores The Spiral Method, because I always start in the same place (the drying rack) and work my way out and around from there in a "spiral" (I mean, sort of. Depends on the shape and layout of your kitchen whether it's an actual spiral, lol. But it's the idea of moving from one task to the next in the same order each time from the same starting point each time that makes it a "spiral").

(Also, pro-tip, it really helps with the boredom factor if you put on a podcast or your favourite playlist whilst spiralling in the kitchen. For me, my kitchen spiralling is when I listen to Dateline (they have the shows in podcast format).

Well. I actually have more stuff inside my head I wanted to set down "on paper" but I'm actually quite sleepy now. I've been working away at this post for a while and there is now exactly 15 minutes left of 2023. Maybe I'll wrap this up now and post it in time for ringing in the new year.

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #chores #procrastination #kitchen #cleaning #get motivated #adhd #december #2023 #new years eve #happy new year

[100dayproductivity]

17/100.

Ugh. It's a "chore day" today (which basically means a day I'm "not working [for pay]" so I have "time [motivation]" to do household chores). It's nearly noon and I've done NOTHING. Just been sitting like a slug on the couch scrolling social media. INERTIA.

The problem was I needed to respond to an email from my ex about our children, and this always leads to paralysis on my part. However, I have now responded (this, unfortunately, will not be the end of the discussion but merely the beginning of a likely long and painful exchange) and so now I have to get my butt going. Lots on my to-do list today.

Do laundry.

Shower.

Make soup and crepes for dinner.

Accept payments, update ledger, and remind chronically rogue client to pay me!!!

Hm, the list doesn't seem as long as I thought it would 🤔 But there is A LOT of laundry to do, and I wanted to get this all done before my kid is home from school, so there's only about 4 hours left for me to get this all done. Chop chop 👏👏

And the rest of my to-do list:

Gmail account sign in.

Buy new charger for Pixel phone.

Buy mason jar lids.

Check previous clinic's paperwork to see which lens they recommended.

Xmas gifts:

Sort through clothes purchases. ✓

Try on my clothes. ✓

Remove tags. ✓

Launder. ✓

Pick up gifts from post office. ✓

Hide gifts. ✓

Wrap gifts.

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot.

Do hamstring stretches.

Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5 - 0/5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #december #2023 #to do list #chores #procrastination #get motivated #inertia #laundry day

[100dayproductivity]

16/100.

I ended up going in-person Christmas shopping yesterday like I said I would! Unfortunately, I waited too late in the day to go and so I ended up having to come back home during rush hour. Not fun. But that's my own fault for having procrastinated. But I did get it all done!

I went to a Value Village Boutique, which is Value Village but they curate the best items to sell at the Boutique locations. So there are fewer items overall but better chances of finding good quality items. I bought a few things I wanted to get for my kids. Actually, I mostly bought stuff for myself, lol. But I wanted to get myself Christmas gifts too! I spent about an hour or so shopping and ended up with about 16 items for a total of about $200. The cost of each item ranged from ~$8 to ~$22, with most items costing around $12-$15. Only two items are for my son, lol. He's hard to shop for. Four items are for my daughter. The rest are for me! Basically, it's my new wardrobe for the next few years, lol. I rarely shop for myself but when I do, I tend to get a lot at once so that I don't have to do it again any time soon. I got a couple of things for each season so I should be all set for the next long while.

So that was my priority yesterday. Done! Today's priority is to sort through all the things I got. And take off all the tags and launder everything.

Oh! Also! The gifts I ordered online from Amazon the other day have arrived at the post office already! So I will be going to pick them up, I think tonight, and so that is my other priority for today (almost) done.

Ok, time to sort through my haul. There are no change rooms at the store so I actually have no idea if anything fits. A little nervous to try things on. There may be dieting in my near future, lol. Wish me luck. 🤞

Updated to-do list:

Gmail account sign in.

Buy new charger for Pixel phone.

Buy mason jar lids.

Check previous clinic's paperwork to see which lens they recommended.

In-person Xmas shopping. ✓

Sort through clothes purchases.

Try on my clothes.

Remove tags.

Launder.

Pick up gifts from post office.

Wrap and hide gifts.

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot.

Do hamstring stretches.

Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5 - 0/5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #procrastination #get motivated #christmas shopping #thrift store #secondhand clothing #value village #clothes shopping #budget #december #2023

[100dayproductivity]

15/100.

Inertia. Why? Because my priority for today was to go do some in-person Christmas shopping and I'm lazy to go. I don't love shopping and then there's the whole getting there and back part of it. However, I do want to get my kids a couple more things and this is the only week I'll have time during a weekday daytime to go. I absolutely want to avoid any shopping on an evening or weekend! And the closer we get to Christmas, the worse it's going to get. So... I need to get my butt in gear and just get it over with! (I should probably tell myself it'll be fun, too.)

In other news, I sent my kid a schwack of money to pay for tuition+board+a bunch of other fees. Listen, if you are a parent to a small child and you do not yet have an RESP set up for them, you need to do it stat! (Assuming you're Canadian, not sure what education funding options are available elsewhere in the world.) Look, you put $2500 of your own money into the plan per year and the government gives you $500. That's 500 free dollars every year you contribute from your child's birth until they turn 18. You can catch up if you miss years too, up to 2x$500 per year. Listen, you gotta look into this. We opened up an RESP for my kid when she was born and now we have the cash for 100% of her costs (tuition + living expenses) for the next four years. This means she doesn't have to stress about finding a part-time job, she can 100% focus on her studies. If she does end up earning money while a student, that's hers to use for whatever she wants, such as travel, a down payment on a house, or perhaps to help fund her little brother's education cuz Idk how much will be left for him by the time he graduates high school 😅 (Nah, I'm kidding, we've saved up for his education also.)

So that's my little personal finance tip of the day. Now, let's do some shopping!

Updated to-do list:

Gmail account sign in.

Buy new charger for Pixel phone.

Buy mason jar lids.

Check previous clinic's paperwork to see which lens they recommended.

Transfer kid the money. ✓

Go to bank. ✓

Do up invoices. ✓

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot.

Do hamstring stretches.

Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5 - 0/5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #to do list #procrastination #get motivated #resp #Registered Education Savings Plan #tuition #university #student life #canada #finances #personal finance #savings #christmas shopping #financial health #financial planning #post secondary education

[100dayproductivity]

14/100.

Online orders for Christmas gifts: DONE! I may still order more things and I will probably do some in-person shopping, but the main things I wanted to order for my kids is done and will likely arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. Unlike previous years where I couldn't opt to order things online because I had left it far too late. Winning! 👍

You know how else I'm winning? I only had to spend about $5 of my actual money for the $100 worth of things I ordered! I mentioned in my last post that I have points from doing online surveys to redeem, so I had $110 sitting in my Amazon account from that! After tax and shipping, I only needed to pay an extra 5 bucks for the stuff. Yes, I did have to do surveys to earn the points, but honestly, it's not that hard and usually kind of fun. It feels like free money! 💵

So let's update this Bad Boy:

Gmail account sign in.

Buy new charger for Pixel phone.

Transfer Web Perspectives Amazon e-gift card to Amazon account. ✓

Check previous clinic's paperwork to see which lens they recommended.

Make appointment at bank. ✓

Print out bank documents. ✓

No printer service at library--do I need to print it? Download to thumb drive and think about next steps. ✓

Compare cost of books Indigo vs Amazon. ✓

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot.

Do hamstring stretches.

Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5 - 0/5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #december #2023 #to do list #christmas shopping #free money #online survey #budget #winning

[100dayproductivity]

13/100.

So anyway. Here's my above-the-fridge cupboard in its well-hung glory.

I used this type of hardware, three of them along the top end of the cupboard. It's called a toggle bolt.

Alright. My next priority is Christmas gifts for my kids. If I'm going to order anything online I have to do it soon. Tick-tock tick-tock! The thing is, in order to stretch my budget, I want to use points I earn from doing surveys. I have about $100 worth of points with this one survey company called Web Perspectives. I've been doing surveys off and on for years, and I tried a whole bunch of different ones out when I first discovered you can earn a bit here and there doing them. Somehow Web Perspectives is the only one I do these days. Not sure if that means they are better than others, but there must be a reason why I still use them and not others.

There are a couple of ways I can cash-in the points. Two options are Amazon e-gift cards and Indigo e-gift cards. You just trade your points for the cards, then login in to Amazon/Indigo and apply the cards to your account. I'm thinking about getting my kids a couple of books and need to check whether I should get them from Amazon or Indigo. The Indigo cards cost 1000 points for a $10 gift card, whereas Amazon costs 1200 for $10. So you get a little more bang for your buck (er, point) with Indigo. However, you obviously have more things you can spend the money on with Amazon. You also have to factor in shipping costs. Also, I think Indigo changed something recently where you can no longer add a gift card amount to use for later, you have to apply it at checkout. With Amazon, you can squirrel away gift card amounts to use whenever you want. I currently have $70 of credit on Amazon, plus another $20 I haven't added yet.

Another detail about this process with Web Perspectives is that you can only redeem points for a maximum of two gift cards per day. So even though I have about $100 worth of points, I can't redeem them all at once, I can only redeem about $20 per day. So you need to plan ahead a little bit to use them.

The other company I use for points is called Nielsen Homescan. You get a scanner or, more recently, just download an app, and you scan the stuff you buy and they collect the data for companies that pay them for market research. In return you earn points that you can redeem for stuff. They used to only have a catalogue of actual stuff, which was kind of limiting because maybe you're not interested in any of the stuff in the catalogue (for instance, I've redeemed points for movie tickets, pillow cases, and a camping lantern in the past). And the stuff was really "expensive" (you needed a shit-ton of points to just be able to get the most inexpensive things). But now they also have an Amazon gift card option! I think this is fairly recent.

So that's the background info on my foray into online surveys. You won't get rich doing it but it's an easy way to earn a couple of bucks when you have 5 or 10 minutes to kill. It's great for when you have to be physically but not mentally present for something. For example, waiting for an appointment or a bus or a client, or when you have a couple of minutes gap between meetings or classes that you would otherwise be spending being bored out of your skull, or when you've taken the kids to the playground or the dog to the dog park and are just sitting there while they play and you just need to look up from time to time to make sure everyone is ok. Everyone has these sorts of "in between other things" times, why not earn some money while you're doing nothing anyway?

Alright, so here's my updated to-do list:

Gmail account sign in.

Buy new charger for Pixel phone.

Transfer Web Perspectives Amazon e-gift card to Amazon account.

Fill out eye surgery forms. ✓

Take photos and email back to clinic. ✓

Check previous clinic's paperwork to see which lens they recommended.

Make appointment at bank.

Print out bank documents.

No printer service at library--do I need to print it? Download to thumb drive and think about next steps.

Compare cost of books Indigo vs Amazon.

Recurring:

Alternate heat and ice on foot.

Do hamstring stretches.

Reference: https://www.sports-injury-physio.com/post/top-5-stretches-plantar-fasciitis

Roll out knots in leg muscle.

Do Sun Salutation x5 - 0/5

Take inhaler

#100 days of productivity #100dop #november #2023 #to do list #kitchen #home maintenance #home repair #diy #diy projects #kitchen cupboards #kitchen cabinets #handywoman #surveys #earn money online #earn money from home #earn money easily #online survey #how to earn money online #amazon gift card #chapters #indigo #christmas shopping #budget