Oh, and I also ordered a book that was recommended in my foster adoption training and an awesome new pillow, both using my Amazon gift card from the nonprofit staff appreciation retreat. It's so fun to spend free money. 😊
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
11/07/2016
Not enough time in the day
Today was so super full, I'm barely getting in this day's post before I shut my eyes… Went to the farmer's market this morning with my housemate, met a friend for a beautiful walk by the bay, had a new client consult, wrote two current clients email summaries of their last sessions. Responded to a bunch of other emails… Blah blah blah.
5/22/2011
Making the Most of Freedom
I was thinking today about how I may have one month left of unemployment until I potentially start working full time in July. This is assuming the best case scenario that I will be hired by the cool manager of the One Stop Career Center I interviewed with last Tuesday. It's funny how having a limited quantity of something can somehow make you appreciate it more and become more conscious with how you are using it.
When I first became unemployed, I did have that sense of freedom that can come with a rare block of open time, like a vacation. But those of you who have been unemployed or not worked for a longer period of time can perhaps attest - I hope I'm not the only one! - that something shifts after a while, and you naturally tend toward creating a somewhat regular (less than exciting) routine.
My routine has generally looked like:
8 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Awaken, morning routine (dressed, take medicine, make coffee), read and respond to email, write in journal and map out specifics of day, eat light breakfast and talk to housemate.
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. - Go running or go walk the dog I walk three days a week. Sometimes volunteer for a couple of hours at the local Interplay office (in exchange for free classes). Shower and make lunch.
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. - Watch my soap opera. lol A guilty, inane pleasure that breaks up the day. . .
2 p.m. - 5 p.m. - If it's nice out, read a book/look at email and blogs on the deck for a while. Do job search and apply for jobs. Make necessary phone calls. Run errands.
5 - 8 p.m. - Cook dinner, eat dinner, talk to housemate, computer stuff. If have evening activity, attend that (community meeting, Interplay theatre, NVC group, etc.)
8 - 11 p.m. - Watch movie and or TV, computer stuff, stretching/yoga, sometimes reading.
Zzzzzzzzz. Wake up! Yeah, it's pretty boring stuff. Of course, there is the occasional interview in there, or a walk around the lake/happy hour with a friend, maybe a hike. I have done quite a few self and career exploration/personal growth activities. But generally, that's the weekday flow. My need for external motivation haunts me.
Yes, I've had a few specific accomplishments about which I feel good:
Yet, I can't help but question: Why haven't I been more motivated to take more full advantage of this time?
Which bring me to the present and the sudden possibility of this phase of abundant freedom coming to an end. What more can I do in this next month to take full advantage of this gift before it runs out?
Maybe. . . . I could:
What do you vote for? Anything not on the list that should be?
When I first became unemployed, I did have that sense of freedom that can come with a rare block of open time, like a vacation. But those of you who have been unemployed or not worked for a longer period of time can perhaps attest - I hope I'm not the only one! - that something shifts after a while, and you naturally tend toward creating a somewhat regular (less than exciting) routine.
My routine has generally looked like:
8 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Awaken, morning routine (dressed, take medicine, make coffee), read and respond to email, write in journal and map out specifics of day, eat light breakfast and talk to housemate.
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. - Go running or go walk the dog I walk three days a week. Sometimes volunteer for a couple of hours at the local Interplay office (in exchange for free classes). Shower and make lunch.
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. - Watch my soap opera. lol A guilty, inane pleasure that breaks up the day. . .
2 p.m. - 5 p.m. - If it's nice out, read a book/look at email and blogs on the deck for a while. Do job search and apply for jobs. Make necessary phone calls. Run errands.
5 - 8 p.m. - Cook dinner, eat dinner, talk to housemate, computer stuff. If have evening activity, attend that (community meeting, Interplay theatre, NVC group, etc.)
8 - 11 p.m. - Watch movie and or TV, computer stuff, stretching/yoga, sometimes reading.
Zzzzzzzzz. Wake up! Yeah, it's pretty boring stuff. Of course, there is the occasional interview in there, or a walk around the lake/happy hour with a friend, maybe a hike. I have done quite a few self and career exploration/personal growth activities. But generally, that's the weekday flow. My need for external motivation haunts me.
Yes, I've had a few specific accomplishments about which I feel good:
- Several coaching sessions and greater clarity about my career path
- Three trips to Oregon to see family and meaningfully participate in my brother's wedding and grandma's memorial
- Starting and maintaining this blog
- Initiating a running routine and losing weight
- Reconnecting with an old flame, processing the past, and having a short relationship, which demonstrated we should not be in relationship
- Obtaining a really excellent tan. . .
Yet, I can't help but question: Why haven't I been more motivated to take more full advantage of this time?
Which bring me to the present and the sudden possibility of this phase of abundant freedom coming to an end. What more can I do in this next month to take full advantage of this gift before it runs out?
Maybe. . . . I could:
- Take a beginning drawing class - low cost or for trade
- Spend a lot of time with sound healing/chocolate man doing interesting, fun dating stuff
- Actually break out all my new paper crafting tools my mom gifted me for Christmas and make something fabulous. Any ideas? Again the curse of needing external motivation. . .
- Choreograph a dance because I love to choreograph. Offer to teach it to some friends for fun.
- Go on at least one "Artist Date" (from the Artist's Way) a week, like visiting local galleries and museums, painting pottery, or seeing a dance/theatre show.
- Go up to Oregon yet again to spend a few days with family, most especially my brother, niece and nephew, and grandpa.
- Commit to finish all the development-focused books I started on: career assessment, emotional health/intimacy in relationship, and non-violent communication.
- Choose to master a skill that will help me in my career and find resources to help me master it. Possibilities include basic website design, graphic design, time management, learning about a couple of new career assessment tools, or ?. Btw, would you be willing to share your time management system or program/resource, if it is working well for you?
What do you vote for? Anything not on the list that should be?
5/20/2011
Interview Rapport and Loose Ends
First, I wanted to share that the interview this afternoon went really well!
I liked the woman who interviewed me, my potential future supervisor, a lot. Based on initial appearances, she seemed to have some soulful qualities: she was wearing a loose, silky scarf and had an interesting tapestry on the wall.
The questions were straight-forward and didn't include the annoying tricky "test" ones, like "What is your greatest weakness?" or "How would you handle a conflict with your supervisor?" She just asked questions relevant to the job and my background, and we had a comfortable, warm rapport.
When I asked about the work culture there, she shared quite a bit of information about recent budget changes, the relationship between the two different career centers and respective staffs, and also her thoughts on managing the future dynamics of the team.
And just like on a good date, when the guy talks at the end about the next time you will get together, as I was walking out after the interview she mentioned, "The next time you come here. . ." Good sign, right?
Tying up loose ends:
Sound Healing/Chocolate Man. We never Skyped, but we've been emailing. He was surprisingly supportive around my interview preparation, offering a few helpful reflective questions like, "What three things do you want them to remember about you?" and "What feeling do you want to leave them with?"
On the latter, I decided I wanted to leave them with the feeling that I was qualified and brought added benefits such as a psychology M.A. And that they would be lucky to have me. It helped my confidence to focus on that.
In his email this morning, he invited me to go to Sushi next week when he gets back (yay).
The guy from my theatre class who was somewhat aggressive in his invitation to be friends outside of class: that whole situation ended rather anti-climactically. He wrote an email asking me to go to coffee and reiterating things he admired about me. I wrote him back saying I had gotten clear that, while I really enjoyed interacting with him in class and looked forward to continuing, I wasn't interested in being friends with him outside of class at this time, in that way.
He wrote me back thanking me for my clarity and being cool about it. He said something about how in the past people have hesitated and he assumed it meant no when it didn't, so that's why he was persistent, but he's sorry if he made me uncomfortable. Interesting.
I kinda want to know more about that other situation he mentioned, just because I'm curious. I'm thinking whatever it was, that it was an anomaly and not something on which to base an approach to life. . .
My waking/sleeping experiences with time. I guess I'll just say that I've had dreams lately about being given a challenge or problem to solve and having time constraints/pressures. And I keep getting distracted in the dream or things take too long and I miss the deadline or, in one dream, the little girl I was supposed to set up the high chair for and feed, gets into graham crackers in the cupboard because she's hungry and I'm taking too long and all this time has passed.
I know I have already shared (a couple times) about how the last week/week and a half has been creeping by. . . but then blocks of time like a couple hours will zoom by really quickly and freak me out.
Sooo, maybe it's about the time crunch I feel to have a kid or get a job, or fears of job performance (which I do have because of difficult ending to last job). Also, just having a lot more free time right now than people generally have. . . and being in a limbo, in-between things kind of place.
Maybe there are reasons? But it's still weird.
I liked the woman who interviewed me, my potential future supervisor, a lot. Based on initial appearances, she seemed to have some soulful qualities: she was wearing a loose, silky scarf and had an interesting tapestry on the wall.
The questions were straight-forward and didn't include the annoying tricky "test" ones, like "What is your greatest weakness?" or "How would you handle a conflict with your supervisor?" She just asked questions relevant to the job and my background, and we had a comfortable, warm rapport.
When I asked about the work culture there, she shared quite a bit of information about recent budget changes, the relationship between the two different career centers and respective staffs, and also her thoughts on managing the future dynamics of the team.
And just like on a good date, when the guy talks at the end about the next time you will get together, as I was walking out after the interview she mentioned, "The next time you come here. . ." Good sign, right?
Tying up loose ends:
Sound Healing/Chocolate Man. We never Skyped, but we've been emailing. He was surprisingly supportive around my interview preparation, offering a few helpful reflective questions like, "What three things do you want them to remember about you?" and "What feeling do you want to leave them with?"
On the latter, I decided I wanted to leave them with the feeling that I was qualified and brought added benefits such as a psychology M.A. And that they would be lucky to have me. It helped my confidence to focus on that.
In his email this morning, he invited me to go to Sushi next week when he gets back (yay).
The guy from my theatre class who was somewhat aggressive in his invitation to be friends outside of class: that whole situation ended rather anti-climactically. He wrote an email asking me to go to coffee and reiterating things he admired about me. I wrote him back saying I had gotten clear that, while I really enjoyed interacting with him in class and looked forward to continuing, I wasn't interested in being friends with him outside of class at this time, in that way.
He wrote me back thanking me for my clarity and being cool about it. He said something about how in the past people have hesitated and he assumed it meant no when it didn't, so that's why he was persistent, but he's sorry if he made me uncomfortable. Interesting.
I kinda want to know more about that other situation he mentioned, just because I'm curious. I'm thinking whatever it was, that it was an anomaly and not something on which to base an approach to life. . .
My waking/sleeping experiences with time. I guess I'll just say that I've had dreams lately about being given a challenge or problem to solve and having time constraints/pressures. And I keep getting distracted in the dream or things take too long and I miss the deadline or, in one dream, the little girl I was supposed to set up the high chair for and feed, gets into graham crackers in the cupboard because she's hungry and I'm taking too long and all this time has passed.
I know I have already shared (a couple times) about how the last week/week and a half has been creeping by. . . but then blocks of time like a couple hours will zoom by really quickly and freak me out.
Sooo, maybe it's about the time crunch I feel to have a kid or get a job, or fears of job performance (which I do have because of difficult ending to last job). Also, just having a lot more free time right now than people generally have. . . and being in a limbo, in-between things kind of place.
Maybe there are reasons? But it's still weird.
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