Goal-ie

[Cross-posted from Daydream Believer]

I let the weekly goal setting fall by the wayside when the time came to start gearing up for NaNoWriMo–since that was pretty much the only goal I’d intended to focus on through the end of November, and it seemed pointless to reiterate that every week. Then, of course, life happened, and the holidays, and apart from just getting through those with my sanity intact I was pretty aimless there for a while. And although I know I said I don’t feel like setting any big goals for the year, I still have plenty of Stuff I Need To Get Done, and breaking it down into weekly goals has proven a pretty good way to get myself on track.

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Goals for the week, and Halloween paper crafts

(Cross-posted from Daydream Believer

It’s Sunday night and, like I said, Monday’s are heck-a busy, so let’s lay out some goals for the coming week. But first, a quick recap of my day, most of which was spent with part of Husband’s side of the family, where meat was smoked and then consumed, rowdy, excited dogs (well, one) were petted and petted and assured that they are very pretty and that yes, I love them even though I just met them, too, Guitar Hero and Scrabble were played, mead (yes, actual mead) was drunk, and a fine time was had by all. All, that is, except our own pets who, judging by how forlorn they acted when we left and how pee-their-pants happy they acted when we got back, were lonely and depressed and miserable the entire time we were gone. Either that, or they’ve got us so fooled that we don’t even suspect them of partying the entire time. I like to think it’s the former. Poor babies.

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Last week, this week, and a month from now (yay NaNoWriMo!)

(Cross-posted #)

I know I said I’d start posting my goals again last Monday, but then I got slammed with work. So far this freelance biz is feast or famine, and my regular clients all seem to be on the same cycle as to when they have work for me. I’m not complaining. The busy times are great, as they mean we get to eat and pay the mortgage, and the stress of multiple deadlines isn’t nearly as burdensome as the stress of wondering how to pay the bills.

My brain was pretty fried by Friday night, though, and I spent the weekend trying not to think about work and just recover so I could dig in again this week, which promises to be another busy one. I actually had planned to get a lot done on Saturday, including blogging and posting the next ep of This Old Haunt, but I got hit with a pretty bad headache, and all I managed to get done were some errands and a few scenes of Hero Factor marked up for revisions. Then I spent Sunday puttering around the house getting the cleaning and laundry done. Well, mostly done. I’m still waiting on the last load to dry so I can put it away before I get to work on client projects.

I also put out the Halloween decorations yesterday, which made me ridiculously happy. I love October and Halloween so hard. (more…)

Why being too focused is a bad thing.

[Cross-posted #]

If you’ve been reading the Twitter updates that get gathered up and posted here once a day, then you already know I’ve got a perfectly good excuse for not posting anything else last week–I was bogged down with a big web redesign project that the client needed done ASAP. I kept my head down in hyperfocus mode, coming up with mockup after mockup trying to capture what the clients wanted, and feeling frustrated and a bit depressed because everything I came up with was just passably adequate and completely uninspired. I was giving them everything they asked for, but nobody was happy with it. (more…)

One of these things is not like the other: macabre surprises, police apathy, and this week’s goals

[Cross-posted #]

I just posted Episode 8 of This Old Haunt, in which Ron learns her true feelings and Sarah shows her true colors.

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If you were following my Twitter stream last night, then you already know about the disturbing discovery I made yesterday while picking up trash in my front yard. We live on the corner of a busy arterial street, just a few blocks down from some pretty unsavory apartments, the kind that has been on the news for gang-related activities, and where we can hear gunshots fired on a fairly regular basis. The sidewalk running along our yard sees a lot of foot traffic, and I’m constantly having to pick up trash that people toss on our lawn. I’ve never found anything worse than broken beer bottles and cigarette butts, until yesterday.

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Understanding what it means to work for myself

[Cross-posted #]

It’s been an awesomely busy and productive week, with no shortage of paying work waiting for me each day. I’ve been trying out a new work schedule all week — not starting until 3 and working as late as I need to — and so far it’s going great. 3 PM is early enough that I can still handle East Coast business calls if I need to, and late enough that my brain fog has completely lifted and I’m able to get focused and stay that way for many hours. Because it doesn’t matter how early or late I get up, I’m never fully awake until around 3:00, and evening has always been when I’m most energetic and able to concentrate. I am and have always been a night owl, and after a couple of decades of conditioning to conform to a day person schedule, I’m finally realizing that I have the freedom to keep night owl hours.

I don’t know why that realization has taken so long to sink in. I think it’s partly because I’ve also had a hard time understanding that I’m my own boss and it’s okay to keep my own hours. I started out viewing my clients more as supervisors, because that’s what I was used to, and thinking that I had to keep the same hours they did and be available during their office hours — never mind that they’re spread out over four time zones. I was really not enjoying myself.

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