The Many Labors

Labor Day is the official end of summer in my mind, and summer is definitely my favorite season, but it's also the time of year when my discipline and ability to stick to a schedule breaks down almost completely, due to all the days off at work and lovely weather and etc. etc. etc.

So I spent all day today reclaiming my ability to effectively manage my time, and it worked so well that I declare it my new Labor Day tradition -- think of it as a day full of New Year's resolutions for the fall, i.e. the season when you actually need to get shit done. Today's accomplishments:

• Bought groceries. This is no small feat when you order delivery as much as I do. The hope is that the $60 of groceries I bought will turn into at least twice as many meals as ordering out would yield. I also paid for all but $18 of that grocery bill with the coins I'd been collecting since May or so, which is a great feeling -- like getting something for free. Coinstar machines totally rule.
  
• Worked on my financial plan for the next few months. I recently got a raise at work (nothing ground-shaking, but every little bit helps), so I'm taking a more structured approach to my money for the foreseeable future -- finding ways to budget so that I can pay down my credit-card debt faster and start a real savings account. I set up a Google Docs spreadsheet with all of my monthly recurring expenses in it, so I know exactly what's left over on a weekly basis for food, entertainment, impulse buys, etc. The answer seems to be "not enough," but that might just be my self-indulgent side talking. I'm very curious to see how long I can hold myself to this (honestly very realistic) budget.
  
• Got rid of a giant pile of comics that had been sitting on my bedroom floor for months and months -- I removed all the Vertigo and super-violent stuff, sorted the remainder into "All Ages" and "12 and Up," and labeled each stack as such and left them out on the street by my building. Either I'll grow a couple of new customers, or I'll scandalize some parent somewhere when they realize just how violent and dark superhero comics have gotten. Sigh.
  
• Cleaned off my windowsill. That sounds really stupid, but it's a deeply recessed window, so the sill is actually desk-sized and has kind of become my generic dumping ground for crap I don't know what do with. Now it's all cleaned off and organized, and there are pegs on the wall for hanging my keys / sunglasses / earbuds / etc. I'm probably only a few weeks away from turning it into another giant pile of nonsense, but it's lovely for now.
  
• Swept off our front walk and got rid of the hideous plastic chairs and dead plants that have been sitting out there for months. I maybe should've done that at the beginning of the summer so we could enjoy the space out there, but better late than never.
  
• Signed up for the ridiculous-sounding "ActivTrax Pro" system at my gym -- basically, you tell the system a little about yourself, input the data from a test workout it recommends, and it builds a custom exercise regiment for you based on the specific machines available at your branch of the gym. I'm doing the test workout tomorrow evening, and we'll see what the results are afterwards. I have a strong suspicion I'll be ditching the NYSC soon in favor of the YMCA here in my neighborhood, since it could save me $20/month to do so, but that's not set in stone yet. I figure I'll exhaust all the options I can at my current gym before I make the switch.
  
• Downloaded iGTD. Throwing myself wholesale into the GTD mentality would probably fry my brain, but a basic task-manager application is sorely needed in my life (I don't know that I love iGTD yet on the specifics, but there are other options out there to fill the niche if I decide I really don't like it). I'm on a Windows machine at work, and I get the feeling I'm going to need a task-manager there in a big way, since I have countless little things to do in a variety of areas that I simply can't stay on top of in my head alone. I feel like my productivity at the office has flagged severely this summer, so I'm looking to September as the month when I attack my job with a new vigor. Hopefully I can do it sustainably, without burning myself out and slacking off again.
  
• Aaaaand folded a pile of clean laundry that had been sitting on my floor for over a week. (What? It was all socks and underwear, I folded the things that could wrinkle only... uh... two days after I washed them... ahem...)