2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 28: Not as Expected

I had been hoping last week would be more productive than last week, but it turned out to be a bit spotty.  Part of it was that we were housesitting starting on Thursday, which meant my week was only really Monday through Wednesday, since I lost most of Thursday to packing and heading over to the house.  It also meant that my weekend, which is usually when I catch up on the things I don’t get done during the week (often house projects), was taken up with other things.

We’ll be housesitting a lot this summer, but fortunately for right now we have some time at home — and I hope to use this time to develop a good routine.  So even though this week’s rundown is a little discouraging, I have some plans to make the coming weeks better.

Writing

I did not write at all this past week, which means it’s now been about three weeks since I wrote last.  With any luck that unproductivity streak will be broken this week.

I did also get a blog post and corresponding social media post up, but just one (of each).

Decluttering and Organization

I didn’t work on anything around the house — partly because, as I noted, we weren’t home over the weekend — but I did formulate some plans and buy a few shelves that I’m hoping to put up this week.  I’d say that counts, but tentatively, since I do have a habit of buying things and taking a long time to actually finish the project.

Dolls

No time to work on dolls last week, especially since I wasn’t at home for half the week.

Taxes

I still need to finish going through emails — a big job, since I am (if  you haven’t guessed) terrible at managing my inbox — but didn’t get to work on that this week, partly because I took my iPad with me to the house we were watching, instead of the computer where my emails are downloaded.  I did, however, work on updating my time entries in Toggl, which I think counts as a taxes catchup project since the main reason I track my time is for business reporting.

Lessons Learned

I still plan out my week in my calendar-based to-do app every Sunday evening.  It rarely all goes the way I planned — partly because I am terrible at making realistic predictions of how long things will take or how much time I need between tasks — but it helps me to know what my goals are for the week, and what scheduling difficulties I might have in achieving them.

One thing I noticed last week while working on this was that my plan for working on my novel first thing after coffee was not working out.  I should have known, honestly, as it takes my brain some time to get up and running in the mornings, but I saw a scheduling recommendation of doing something creative in the mornings, and of course my first thought was working on my novel.  But I think I need to schedule something else in that time.  I’ve never been good at tackling the hard things first, and trying to force myself to write first thing was just contributing to my focus issues as I avoided what I didn’t yet want to do.  And then, because the rest of the day was fully scheduled out, it made it difficult to find time to get back to my novel later in the day.

This, as much as my busyness, may have contributed to me not writing for the past three weeks, as I think it was around then that I started trying out this new schedule.

So I think I’m going to try the revolutionary approach of working with my habits, instead of trying to fight them.  That is, I’m going to start scheduling time in the mornings to check Facebook and email, journal, and take care of any administrative things before I do anything involving more focus.  I’m just going to expect to start my day with those things, instead of constantly expecting myself to be able to do something else and being disappointed when I fail.  Actually planning for it also helps as I’m able to set reminders to combat my time blindness and help me transition to another task.

We’ll see if the new approach helps this week, and if so, I hope to establish an effective routine until housesitting disrupts it again.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Weeks 26 and 27: Two Weeks of Chaos

Last week was so chaotic that I didn't get around to writing my post at all, although I tried to start one several times toward the end of the week.  At the beginning of the week we were still housesitting and dogsitting, and then the last four days of the week was spent running a table at Fan Expo Denver.  We have had a table for NaNoWriMo every year at Fan Expo Denver (formerly Denver Pop Culture Con, formerly Denver Comic Con), but of course this year NaNoWriMo shut down since we signed up for the table.  So this year we were promoting our own local organization, which we've decided to call Denver Novel Writing Month, or DenNoWriMo.

So that basically absorbed all of my time last week, and I got very little else done.  Rather than trying to do a catchup post and remember specifics since my last post two weeks ago, I'm going to mash both weeks together into one post and do my best to tally everything correctly.

Writing

The last two weeks were dismal for my writing goals.  Of course I wrote my blog post two weeks ago and posted to my author Instagram account, and last week I did get an IG post up that we were at the con.  Unfortunately, the last time I worked on my novel was June 24, two weeks ago tomorrow.

Decluttering and Organization

I did manage an organization project almost two weeks ago: I reorganized my china cabinet to accommodate some family stuff my mom gave me.  I've been planning to also reorganize the linen drawer in the cabinet to hold the genealogy things she also gave me, but between housesitting and Fan Expo, I didn't have a chance.  I'm hoping to tackle that this week.

Dolls

There were no opportunities to work on any dolls, but I did do something I haven't done in a while, and picked up a couple of doll lots from Facebook Marketplace.  I went through both of them immediately and completely inventoried one of them, which is worth mentioning because usually I'm really bad about doing that.  I need to inventory the smaller one still.

I want to get to work on doll projects soon, but I may first work on organizing.

Taxes

I didn't work at all on the catchup project, but I did inventory the larger lot I picked up, as I already mentioned.  This is a big deal because it means less to catch up on when I'm working on this year's taxes next spring.

Lessons Learned

I had a lot I was juggling the last two weeks, and I feel like my goals for the year were sidelined for a lot of it.  I need to remind myself that it's not necessarily a bad thing, as the things that got done instead — such as dogsitting (income!) and promoting DenNoWriMo — were also worthwhile.

I also think it's worth noting that we're now halfway through the year.  I'd like to go back and see how I did on my weekly goals the first six months of 2025, but if I do I'll make that a separate post.  It would be interesting to review, and maybe learn some things to help me tackle my goals during the rest of the year.

Later this week we'll be housesitting again, but since it'll be a shorter duration and that's the only major disruption, hopefully it will be a more productive week.  I'm hoping to get back to work on my goals, and be able to establish a bit more of a routine.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 25: Well, That Didn’t Go As Planned

My husband has joked before that “Well, That Didn’t Go As Planned” would be a great title for a memoir.  It also, as it turns out, describes last week pretty well.

Between my still-recovering repetitive strain injury, house sitting for my dad, and general chronic procrastination, I did not get done what I had planned to prepare for the sale.  I decided I was fine with that, since I was already mostly organized from the last sale; it just meant I didn’t have a lot of new stuff.

So we went to bed early (for a pre-show night) Friday night, figuring at least we could get some decent sleep before the sale.

…Only to be awakened at 3am by gunshots.

It turned out some kids that had been partying in the community’s clubhouse and someone brought a gun.  After that, we were awake off and on the rest of the night, watching the drama (or what we could see of it from our window) unfold.  Cast of characters: several dumb kids, the police, and at least one police dog.

It was all over by about 7am.  We had to get up at 7:30am.  Adrenaline and caffeine kept me going at the sale, but I pretty much crashed afterward, and we spent a slow Sunday recovering.

So ended a crazy week in which I feel like I procrastinated all week, but still somehow achieved a decent amount of my goals:

Writing

I wrote two blog posts and posted to Instagram once last week, achieving the goal of one blog post and one IG post per week.  Working on my novel I did less well, with just two days of writing, but I rather expected that with all the pre-sale stress.

Decluttering and Organization

I did organize the sale stuff a little better when we brought it all home (although I still have more to do), but I’m going to count it and consider this goal of one decluttering or organization project per week to have been achieved.

Dolls

I restrung one of my sale dolls during a slow moment at the sale, so I’m also counting this goal (one doll project per week) achieved.

Taxes

Nope.  Nada.  But this was expected.

Lessons Learned

I suppose I learned that a week can feel like a hot mess and I can get nothing done, but still make it look good on paper?  But I’ll take it as a win, because why not.

More importantly, I’m feeling motivated to do more of these things (like organizing, and working on dolls).  Hopefully I can keep up working on all of this at a more normal pace now, without the crazy looming deadline stressing me out.

All of that being said, the next two weeks will be really busy.  We’re house sitting for my husband’s parents, which means we’ll be traveling back and forth between the two houses for the next week — always time consuming.  But hopefully with the dogs at the in-laws’ house with my husband (who will be working from their house for the next week), I’ll be able to get some good organization done even with the more limited time.

Fingers crossed…!

Writing and Repetitive Strain Injury

I mentioned yesterday in my weekly goals post that one of the main reasons I didn’t get a lot done last week was due to a suspected repetitive strain injury that was causing a lot of discomfort.

As I was preparing to write this post, I figured I would look up the other times I’ve dealt with repetitive strain injury over the years as a writer.  I was surprised to realize it was more than just once or twice.  I remembering having developed wrist pain early in my writing career.  I hadn’t remembered the headaches I started getting from being on the computer a lot (though I did remember the vision changes).  I also hadn’t remembered the repetitive strain injury in 2008 after spray painting caused a flare-up, or the time in 2011 after a fall from my horse caused some issues in my left wrist.

It’s the left wrist I find most interesting since the issue last week was also on the left side.  Most of my repetitive strain injury has been on the right side, typically from mousing (or, apparently, spray painting).  I’ve had plenty of minor flare-ups over the years that weren’t worth mentioning.  A little heat, ibuprofen, and reminders to stretch and move periodically, and they would go away.

A couple weeks ago — I’m not sure exactly when, since I didn’t pay it a lot of attention at first — I started experiencing some discomfort in my left pinky finger that would worsen with a lot of typing.  Initially I assumed it was something about typing on my iPad’s keyboard, since working on the iPad is fairly new to me.  About a week ago, I realized it was more than that.  I was also getting numbness at times, and it seemed to be after periods of bending my left elbow a lot.  Sometimes it was even disrupting my ability to type, because my pinky finger couldn’t keep up with the rest of my fingers.

I felt sure it was nerve issues stemming from my elbow or shoulder, particularly since bending my elbow a lot seemed to make things worse, so I looked it up and apparently ulnar nerve entrapment is a common issue.  I tried icing my elbow without much improvement, so before bed one night I decided to try heat.  Initially the heat made my elbow feel stiff and swollen, but the next day the issue was noticeably better, and every day since has been a little better.

I’ve been trying to remain aware of anything I might be doing to irritate it further, making sure not to sit with my left elbow on the table (like I had to be careful of when I had similar issues in college), and trying as much as possible not to sleep with it bent too much.  And when I work at the computer, I try to remember to straighten that arm periodically and stretch it out.

Fortunately, it does seem to be improving.  It scared me a little when I was having trouble typing.  It’s a good reminder not to take even the simplest abilities (such as being able to use both hands and all ten fingers for typing) for granted.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 24: Crunch Time (Again)

Well, here we are, once again less than a week away from a hard deadline with a pile of dolls to rehab.  Why am I like this?

To be fair, last week was challenging.  I was having some pain from a suspected repetitive strain injury that was making typing — and other motions needed to accomplish the things on my to-do list — uncomfortable.  I’ll write about that in more detail in another post.

We also went to the No Kings protest on the weekend, which basically eliminated my entire weekend: We got stranded downtown afterward, as they stopped all light rail service to accommodate the march, and I was exhausted and unable to focus on Sunday.  We slept in and then napped in the afternoon, so yesterday was not much more than a recovery day.

So last week’s goals progress was less than spectacular, and I’ll have a lot of cramming to do this week.

Without further ado:

Writing

I worked on my novel Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday (I could have sworn I had Wednesday too, but I guess not), and then fell off the wagon for the weekend.  My word counts were pretty low too.  I don’t expect to do well this week, but hopefully next week I can start making up for lost time.

I only got the one blog post, but I did post on social media several times with pictures from the protest.

A huge reason I didn’t write more was how uncomfortable it was to type.  Thankfully, that seems to be improving.

Decluttering and Organization

I had good intentions of working on organization last week, but it never happened.  I blame the pain in my hand.

Dolls

Samesies.  I actually can’t imagine working on dolls last week, with my hand so uncomfortable.  That would have been even worse than typing.

Taxes

Same as above.

Lessons Learned

The lesson here?  Sometimes our bodies make us take a break (even if we try to ignore it and push through).

This week is crunch time, with a sale coming up on Saturday.  Fortunately it’ll be a small one but I still want to feel prepared!  I may need to sacrifice some writing time so I can focus on getting dolls ready.  We’ll see how the week goes.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 23: Busier and Busier

I feel like Alice in Wonderland, except instead of "curiouser and curiouser," the theme is busier and busier.  The rabbit hole analogy is about right, though!

Last week was — as advertised — a little freer, with more time at home.  I struggled with motivation for a few days when the weather was gloomy, but ended in a rush of productivity over the weekend!  (When the weather was nice — go figure.)  Looking back, it was a more successful week than I thought at the time, despite the rainy day blues.

Writing

Once again, I got four days of writing in last week, Monday through Thursday.  It's been a little tougher to maintain on the weekends because we've been working so hard on our garden and patio projects.  I also wrote two blog posts and posted twice on my author Instagram.  So all in all, I did pretty well at achieving my writing goals for the week.

Decluttering & Organization

The flower bed is mostly finished and I'm very happy with it!  The patio is also mostly finished; I just have a little general cleanup and junk removal to do, but it's in a usable state right now, which is everything.  Gardening and working on the patio is almost all we did over the weekend.

This coming week, I need to get to work on organizing and going through my doll stuff, partly because I've been wanting to work on my doll room next and partly because I need to get together what I want to sell at the pop-up doll shop coming up in two weeks (*gasp*).

Dolls

I thought I would make more progress on doll projects last week, but I didn't.  A great deal of it was because of my struggles with the weather and motivation.  If I had gotten more done those days, I likely would have gotten around to working on the dolls.

Taxes

I succeeded in working on my taxes catchup three days last week — just a little each time, but I feel good about starting to make a habit of it.

Lessons Learned

If there's any lesson here, it's probably that I need to not be so hard on myself when things don't go as planned.  Midweek I thought I was doing terrible at everything.  I had no motivation and felt so sluggish.  But as it turned out, I actually didn't do so badly last week.  I wrote four days, worked on taxes three, and got a whole lot done on my current "organization" project over the weekend.

This week I need to ramp up my time spent on doll projects.  I have a sale in just under two weeks and not a lot of time left to prepare!  I also need to do some social media marketing for the sale so that people need to come.  Sharing photos of current projects should help with that.

Other than that, I hope to keep up my habits of writing and working on taxes a little every day (ish), and also to keep working on decluttering and organizing around the house, especially with stuff that will help prepare me for the pop-up doll shop.

Gray Day Procrasti-nay-tion

Is there any particular circumstances, any sort of day where you just know you’re not going to get anything done?

For me, it’s the gray day™.

I woke up yesterday morning to a damp, overcast day.  It had poured overnight and threatened to rain more most of the afternoon.

And I struggled with motivation.  All. Day. Long.

It was not a surprise to me.  I’ve realized as an adult how much my mood is tied to the weather — or, probably more accurately, the sun.

My dad has a story about me in high school, probably about eight years after we moved to the Denver area.  He says (I don’t remember this) that he was driving me to school one winter morning, and I was looking out the window and said mournfully, “I haven’t seen the sun in three days.”  And he realized then that I’d become as heliotropic (dependent on the sun for my mood) as a native.

Living in Denver, where we get 300 days of sunshine a year*, we become really accustomed to enjoying sunshine year-round.  Even in the winter, our snowstorms alternate with bright, sunny days that melt snow and make the temperature feel much warmer than it actually is.

As a young teenager, I had been in Colorado long enough — and during formative years of my childhood — that I was starting to feel that connection to the sun.  And now, after nearly four decades in the state, I have realized how entirely dependent I have become.  I have never been an early riser, but I have noticed I get up earlier in the summer fairly naturally, and just in general tend to be more motivated and engaged when the days are longer.

Of course, not every day is bright and sunny, and on overcast days like yesterday I definitely feel the energy has been sucked out of me.

Ultimately, I did get a little writing done, but only about 60 words of my novel and two-thirds of this blog post.  I’m glad I tried, but I hope today will be better!  I was worried today would be a repeat of yesterday when I woke up to another overcast sky, but thankfully by midday the sun had come out.  We’re not out of the woods yet, as we have rain forecasted for later today and, honestly, for a lot of the days coming up — but I’ll take advantage of the sunshine motivation while I can!

*Note: The “300 days of sunshine a year” claim has been theoretically debunked by defining a “sunny day” as a “mostly clear or clear day,” that is, cloud cover over 25% or less of the sky.  I thoroughly disagree with this definition, because even on days that have, say, 50% cloud cover, it still feels like a “sunny day” because of how rapidly clouds tend to move across the sky in Denver due to air currents coming off the mountains.