The Kat Files

Today is the last day of February. Yes, you read that right, dear reader! Another month of the new year is quickly coming to an end, leaving me with one more month of the first quarter of this year to complete or continue working on goals chosen from my 21 for 2021 list. On the whole, I am delighted with my progress. Some tasks are one and done while others are monthly and yearly goals that are helping me develop better habits.

Scheduling my time has been an effective strategy for me to meet my goals. Each week, I get better at scheduling the tasks or activities that I want to engage in during my extra time. It boils down to making decisions on the best use of my time. In fact, just last week, I had to come to terms with not having enough time or energy to declutter and organize the rooms assigned for this quarter. I put that goal on the back burner until I can finish with a weekly commitment that will end at the Easter Vigil. Scheduling my time is becoming a good habit for me and helping me to become a better time manager. With that being said, I still encounter hiccups along the way, and when I do, I adjust my schedule. Some hiccups are out of my control, but some of them are self-inflicted. I experienced both this week. Regardless of the occasional hiccup, honoring the time on the schedule is important.

My first hiccup was not receiving my last musical from Netflix on Monday. Apparently, the post office is having some hiccups of their own. Anyway, I had scheduled Monday evening to watch it. When it did not arrive, I used that 133 minutes to read and take care of other personal tasks. The movie is still MIA which means I cannot complete my marathon until Tuesday when the copy I ordered from Amazon arrives. Therefore, instead of scrapbooking this Tuesday evening, I’ll be watching Across the Universe. Thankfully, Kelsi and I will have our chat about musicals this upcoming weekend, so I’ll have plenty of time to get it viewed and reviewed beforehand.

My second hiccup occurred yesterday. I had scheduled working on my blogging course from 6:30-8:30 in the morning. Creating an ABOUT page for my blog was my assignment. (Please click on ABOUT in the previous sentence, check it out, and give me some feedback. It can always be changed and updated at anytime.) Even though I already had this page on my blog, I needed to update it. It was almost 11:00 in the morning by the time I finished. I spent two and a half additional hours on my course than what I had allotted on my schedule. I had other items on my list that needed to be accomplished. They included grocery shopping, dusting, cleaning the master bathroom, laundry, cleaning the other bathroom (leftover chore from Thursday), and scrapbooking from 2:00-4:00 in the afternoon. Thankfully, my hubby got off early on Friday and took care of grocery shopping. I did complete my laundry and cleaning the master bathroom. Dusting did not happen. Scrapbooking did not take place. You guessed it, the other bathroom didn’t get cleaned either. And, while I am on the subject of cleaning that bathroom, I am removing it as a task for Thursdays because I have only accomplished it once since I started scheduling my time which was the very first week. It keeps getting pushed to the weekend, so that is where it will be scheduled in the future. Additionally, I spent a great deal of time researching my next movie marathon which will start tomorrow and run through the end of April (details are forthcoming). I basically fell down a rabbit hole researching movies and did not crawl out until later in the evening. Consequently, those two chores and scrapbooking have been added to today’s schedule.

I know you are probably thinking, dear reader, what’s the big deal? In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. Be that it may, it IS a huge deal to me. While not receiving the musical was clearly out of my control, spending an additional two and half hours on my blogging course was definitely within my control. I could have easily honored the time on my schedule (work 6:30-8:30 a.m. on the blogging course), completed by chores, gone back to my blogging course until 2:00 p.m., spent two hours scrapbooking, and then fallen down the movie marathon rabbit hole. Honor the time on the schedule. Now that I have been schooled, it is time for me to schedule my upcoming week.

Two more weeks until Daylight Saving Time and currently experiencing warmer temps has gotten me super excited. More daylight in the evenings and warmer weather is a gamechanger for me. How about you? Enjoy the remainder of the weekend. Happiness!

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” ~ Maya Angelou