Archive for the ‘Re:Definition of Self’ Category
Published by
Laya under
Off the Top,
Re:Definition of Self on
December 25, 2008
I was laying here, going through my GReader’s “personal development” tag (that’s where I keep all of the feeds related to productivity, life change, and personal sanity), and as I read all of these great posts, I realized something.
I’ve spent a lot of time and energy over the past few days thinking about what I’m going to do with myself right now, and with my life in 2009. I came to one pretty big decision: 2009 is the year I leave Baltimore. I’ve calculated how much money that’s going to take (no splurging for me!), as well as what needs to be done to prepare for that move.
Yet, other than using a spreadsheet to do my calculations, I haven’t wrote a single thing down. Which means I am selling my self waaaaay short.
So this blog post is about just that: making a list. There are things I’ve already started on that I need to finish, things that I can’t do until I get paid on the 31st, and half-formed plans that I haven’t told a soul about. Actually, this post acts on one of those things: to start blogging about the changes I’m making, as well as the cool stuff I’m coming across as I completely renovate my life (again).
Or, maybe I shouldn’t say “again”. Maybe I should be a little more compassionate with myself. Maybe I need to remind myself that, even though I’ve tried to make changes before - some that stuck and some that didn’t - the fact that I have made mistakes in the past doesn’t mean I can’t do this. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be living a completely different life by my 30th birthday.
Maybe I’ve found a “niche” for this blog after all. :D
Without further ado, I present:
Shit That Laya Needs to Do
(I’ve got a flare for titles, don’tcha think? :D )
Read the rest of this entry »
Published by
Laya under
Re:Definition of Self on
September 12, 2008
It isn’t even half over, and already it’s been One Of Those Days. You know the ones.
The plumbing in my apartment decided to pick this morning to act up. I ran late for work. The bus was so crowded I had to stand at the very front and get off any time someone needed to get out the front door. Once I got to move farther back, there was a man who didn’t look crazy, but who mumbled and muttered, occasionally punctuating his reverie with a sucker punch of profanity that made those of us around him look at each other with classic ‘WTF?’ expressions.
*sigh* Read the rest of this entry »
Published by
Laya under
Re:Definition of Self on
September 10, 2008
In my travels around the wilds of the Internets (the blogosphere in particular), I was linked to an article on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s of America, Inc. site called “50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work“. I skimmed the list - thinking in particular about strategies for me to get through NaNo successfully - and one of the suggestions jumped out at me:
Pay yourself an hourly wage for time worked, and don’t allow yourself leisure activities (movies, dinner out, etc.) unless you can pay for it with this writing money.
Why didn’t I think of that? And then I remembered: Oh yeah. I *did* think of that. Except, I was going to pay myself a dollar every time I did something on my to-do list. There were only two problems with that strategy: 1) I’m terrible at to-do lists (making or keeping them), and 2) I’ve got champagne tastes. $1 is barely enough to get me to do something I want to do, let alone something I am actively avoiding. My procrastination-fu is legendary.
The article got me thinking again (always a dangerous thing, that). First, I need to pay myself more. $8 per hour sounds about right - enough to motivate me but not enough to break my budget if I get extra productive. Second, the “don’t allow yourself leisure activities” part is key. Except, for me it’s not about leisure activities (especially things like plays and concerts :P). It’s about media - books, DVD’s, video games, movies at the theater, and dear God, the music!! If I keep buying music at the rate I’ve been going, Amazon’s MP3 Store is going to have my first-born, iTunes my 2nd, and Sound Garden my 3rd. So, instead of just buying album after album only to discover only halfway to my next check that I’m just about broke, I will have to work for every $1 I spend on any form of media, from now on. And I won’t pay myself just to write, but to do anything I tend to be passive aggressive about: cleaning, doing laundry, organizing my stuff, doing my taxes.
And of course, I have a question for those of you out there: do you know any good prepaid credit/debit cards? I don’t want to open another bank account if I can help it, and I don’t want to leave it to just estimating how much of my total money I’ve “earned”…”Oops! I just spent three times as much as I paid myself in one trip to Barnes and Noble. Silly me! I guess I’ll just have to catch up!” Yeah, no. That way lies disaster. Any suggestions?
