libkitty's 101 in 1001

test post

libkitty — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 09:18:48 +0000

Just checking to see how posting by email works.

Filed under: Progress

Getting set up

libkitty — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 09:16:55 +0000

Perhaps I spent too much time on it, but I’ve put most of my list items into a checklist on my iphone. I’m hoping that being able to carry it around with myself and update as I finish might help.

Filed under: Progress

Let’s try this again

libkitty — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:41:31 +0000

I got a bunch of things done from my previous list, more than I had realized, even though I hadn’t really worked on it much past the beginning. It may be just because of the timing, but I’m feeling inspired to try self-improvement again. I don’t imagine that I’ll finish everything on the list, but let’s see how far I get.

Filed under: Introduction

New beginnings

libkitty — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:14:57 +0000

It’s been a rough week, with health issues. Still, I kept up with some of the things I was working on, which I’m counting as a win. I’m also thinking of some modifications, and already made one. I changed the “not being late to work” on to not being late unless I’m sick or it’s not planned. I’ve been doing really well about not being a few minutes late, and since that what I was getting at, didn’t want to penalize myself for taking care of my migraines.

Help with being on time in the morning?

libkitty — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:20:35 +0000

I don’t know that I’m willing to go this far, but I think that this alarm clock from ThinkGeek.com just might solve my problems getting going in the morning!

Seriously, I’ve been doing pretty well, but this last week or so has been pretty tough. I’m hoping to get the group together this week, though, and am optimistic that the encouragement of working with othes on this will help.

Any of my group folks, if you’re reading this, I was thinking something like yahoogroups might work better than LiveJournal for keep up together. What do you think?

In the blahs

libkitty — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:44:38 +0000

I’m working on several items in my list, but they’re longish term items, and I want to just finish something. I think I’ll work on something that I can complete fairly soon, perhaps the book thing for A, or something financial. Immediate gratification while doing something good. Nice.

eta: I started working on signing up for my work savings account by contacting family members for information so I can list them as beneficiaries. Yeah, me!

Why there’s not more under “church”

libkitty — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:51:23 +0000

I was thinking about posting about this blog on MyChurch.org, and that got me thinking about the spiritual aspects of this journey, which then led me to wonder if some might be surprised that the church portion is combined with the volunteer part and is a ways down my list. Yes, my mind follows a somewhat circuitous path sometimes! So, considering this clarification rather than justification, here are some of my reasons:

My faith is very important to me, but for the most part I see it as an integral part of my life, not as a separate category. Therefore, spirituality is an important part of all of my goals, even cleaning!
In reading about setting up goals like this, everything I saw suggested employing concrete, easily quantifiable goals. I think that faith is hard to quantify in such a way, except where it is integral to everyday life (as discussed in #1).
Balance is important. In the last few years, I think my balance may have been off in terms of church and other volunteer involvement. I don’t think I did too much, but I think I may have done too much in areas that didn’t turn out to be healthy for me. I think I need to back off a bit, temporarily, in order to figure out the best ways for me to do this without burning out. In fact, I have found myself to be less effective in some ways, and have already started this process as a result.

#2, Create tracking lists, DONE!

libkitty — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:41:37 +0000

I’m mostly using Joe’s Goals, but a few things will be tracked here at my blog or elsewhere (LibraryThing, my own spreadsheet). I wanted to put everything online, but decided I really don’t feel comfortable doing that with my finances.

#2, Create tracking lists

libkitty — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:52:51 +0000

I’ve made a good start on my second thing, creating tracking lists for multipart items. I figure I’m going to be using this for a while, so I want it to be good and easy. I thought about getting a small notebook, making a page for each item, and just carrying it around with me. In some ways, this is probably the most practical, but I know myself and I have a strong suspicion that it would end up at the bottom of my backpack, all torn up and obnoxious. So…I decided to check out free, online options. I tried Zoho and Backpack and Joe’s Goals. I think it will end up being a combination of items, but at this point I’m liking Joe’s Goals best for things I plan to do regularly.

Cleaning

libkitty — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:58:50 +0000

One of my hardest tasks is going to be cleaning my apartment. In discussing this, I’ll also explain a bit about how I came up with my blog’s subtitle.

I’ve always had a really hard time cleaning and maintaining a clean space. It got even harder when I had a difficult time and it got to be so bad I didn’t really know where to start. Last year (I almost wrote, “earlier this year.” Oops!), I had an epiphany. I realized that God really loved me. And yes, I’ve known this forever, but I really felt it, felt that I might not be deserving of that, but I was still worth it. And if God really, truly loved me, wasn’t I worth taking care of myself? Wasn’t I worth living in a clean, pleasant space?

I was really inspired by this, and I cleaned regularly. Not just the public areas, cleaned for others or out of embarrassment, but the whole thing, starting with my space, my bedroom. Because I was doing this for me, not out of fear or shame, I didn’t do this like crazy, but bit by bit. But I did work on it regularly. Then, I had company and took a trip and got sick, and got out of the habit. It became really hard to get back into the groove.

Joy of joys, I think I got my groove back today! I cleaned for a while earlier today, and it was actually fun! I feel like this is the real thing, and that I’ll be able to continue, a little bit at a time. I think that in a week or two I might be caught up to where I was this summer, and then I can start making new progress: sorting, organizing, getting rid of stuff, and deep cleaning. This is just what I was hoping for from this project. I know that this is early yet, but I’m starting to feel optimistic.