Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Finished, finally: The Now Habit

I finally finished this book I borrowed nearly half a year ago, The Now Habit (a book to overcome procrastination--oh yes, I totally see the irony):


Besides being more productive in general, or at least productive without the proverbial gun to my head, I'm aiming to be more efficient with my time for not only things I have to get done, but also things I want to get done.

Which of course, made me think of my New Year's Resolutions for this year:

- At 158 (about 2 pounds heavier than last year's New Year Day), I AGAIN aim to break 150

Argh, not even close. I managed to gain weight during the year but only drop back down to the 158 I am today.

- Manage productivity better: declutter and manage time better

Ok, honestly, I think I've gotten much better with the decluttering. I already got some positive comments from friends and family who have visited me now (and knew me before) and said I have definitely improved on decluttering. To my credit, I have really enjoyed having less stuff and often look for ways not to accumulate more stuff and still see what I can get rid of. One of my new favorite websites this year has been Unclutterer to help keep me in that mindset.

In terms of time management--hopefully this book will help me.

- Get a better workflow for post-processing photos (I have no trouble taking lots of pictures, it's the uploading and clean-up editing that takes so much time and daunts me)

Epic fail. Not even close.

- Get comfortable with flash--yes, including my 580EXII

Finally, a Yes!

- Do 6 photo shoots (including post-processing) in 2011 (including one inspired by the beautiful Tim Walker book my sister gave me)

Not close again. I did one planned shoot and one learning shoot this year so far...but didn't produce finished pix.

- Make stuff (using the stuff I moved out here to SoCar) - focus on upcycling

Okay--not bad here, I'm going to give myself a Yes. I had my porch redo, I upcycled a stained sweater with a patch, made French Macarons, and of course, made zippered pouches for my big project, "Crafting for Alzheimer's", where I used up a nice portion of my fabric stash. And best of all, now I'm really itching to do more...

- get out more--especially with the girl

This I could do better. Except a trip to the beach during her spring break, our excursions have been mostly for errands and taking her to her activities--though I will qualify that conversations, games, and any time I get to have with her has been quality, considering how much more time she likes to spend talking and hanging with her friends.

- read 10 books in 2011

Falling short so far--I have a near dozen books I have started that I haven't finished. In terms of finished books I read: This is Where I Leave You (by Jonathan Tropper), Bossypants (by Tina Fey), Ape House (by Sara Gruen), and The Now Habit (by Neil Fiore). Yikes, let's see if I can finish 6 books in 2 months.

- watch 12 good movies in 2011

I'm going to say Yes on this one. I did catch up on bunch of movies: Young@Heart, Pulp Fiction, Source Code, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The King's Speech, The Social Network, Bridesmaids, The Town, Beginners, Crazy Stupid Love, Tree of Life, Cedar Rapids, Due Date, Horrible Bosses, and Bad Teacher. Though I wouldn't necessarily rave about all 15 of them, I'd recommend the first 10.

- write more

Well, this was vague, wasn't it? Write more than what? Hmm, I'll give myself a pass on this one. That's one thing confirmed from the Now Habit--much more specific goals.

Okay, let's see what I finish in these last 2 months of 2011!

2 comments:

Blah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pound said...

it's not about fulfilling goals, it's about ....i couldn't think of anything witty to finish this sentence. as long as u can still park in the garage you're golden.