Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2015-08-15 08:51 pm
edenfalling) wrote2015-08-15 08:51 pm
wherein Liz is surprisingly productive
Things I have done today:
1. Get a haircut.
2. Buy groceries.
3. Enroll in the Not the IRS tax prep course which starts mid-September.
4. Prune the daylights out of the shrubbery at the side of my house, which was encroaching heavily upon the driveway. If those suckers want to be trees, then I will make them ACT like trees and have no branches until at least eight feet up. *resolve face*
5. Start applying for a job at Not the IRS. (I haven't finished because I want Vicky to look over my cover letter for improvements. I am very bad at writing cover letters.)
...
I don't feel completely wiped out by all that, either, which is nice! Having a regular job doesn't alter my physical energy levels one way or the other, but it does noticeably raise the amount of mental/emotional spoons I have on an average day -- and today is an average day, not one of those once-in-a-blue-moon 'I can do anything; watch me go!!!' days that I try to milk for all they're worth when they come around. I think it's a combination of reduced stress (less panicking over finances) and an external regulator for my schedule. I am terrible at internal motivation for... well, pretty much everything... so having an externally imposed framework around my days is a godsend. It keeps me anchored to time instead of drifting off into the vast untethered gray wilderness.
(I've been trying to anchor myself a little by walking to Cascadilla Creek and taking a picture from the Tioga St. bridge every day, which has been helpful, but that's not the same as an actual 'be at Place X at Time Y' job requirement.)
1. Get a haircut.
2. Buy groceries.
3. Enroll in the Not the IRS tax prep course which starts mid-September.
4. Prune the daylights out of the shrubbery at the side of my house, which was encroaching heavily upon the driveway. If those suckers want to be trees, then I will make them ACT like trees and have no branches until at least eight feet up. *resolve face*
5. Start applying for a job at Not the IRS. (I haven't finished because I want Vicky to look over my cover letter for improvements. I am very bad at writing cover letters.)
...
I don't feel completely wiped out by all that, either, which is nice! Having a regular job doesn't alter my physical energy levels one way or the other, but it does noticeably raise the amount of mental/emotional spoons I have on an average day -- and today is an average day, not one of those once-in-a-blue-moon 'I can do anything; watch me go!!!' days that I try to milk for all they're worth when they come around. I think it's a combination of reduced stress (less panicking over finances) and an external regulator for my schedule. I am terrible at internal motivation for... well, pretty much everything... so having an externally imposed framework around my days is a godsend. It keeps me anchored to time instead of drifting off into the vast untethered gray wilderness.
(I've been trying to anchor myself a little by walking to Cascadilla Creek and taking a picture from the Tioga St. bridge every day, which has been helpful, but that's not the same as an actual 'be at Place X at Time Y' job requirement.)