Seriously, this TO DO-list of mine has been one of my best ideas for a LONG time. It works much better than any paper or computer list I have ever done before. I don't really know why.. I have been doing it in a similar way on my calendar for ages.. simply every week reporting last week's not done stuff.
( Redemption of the ProcrastinatorCollapse )

I'm starting something new today. I have always made "to do" lists, most of them loose pieces of paper which more often than not got lost long before the things I had to do could get done. Some of the stuff I need to do I write in my calendar, most exists simply in my head (and in the angry reminders from clients in my mailbox).

So what I will do now is every month to write an entry here, on LJ, which is a place I am sure to frequent often enough, and put a link to this entry on my main LJ page, right to "update", so I hopefully will go there at least once a day.

The entry will contain general stuff to do as soon as possible, and then things planned or required for the following weeks, sorted per "work", "music", "exercise", "spiritual development" and "house maintenance" and "other".

Just like in a normal "to do" list, the things that get done, get struck through - not canceled, I want to see what I have done, at the end of the month.
What doesn't get done, will simply be carried over to the next week, until it gets done.

I don't know how much this will help me to get organized, but it is worth a try. I just cannot go on like this.

And you all are more than welcome to get on my case for the stuff I am not doing, obviously. That's one of the goals of making this public.. it might put a little bit more fire under my lazy ass.

And now off, to write the first Power-Entry ;-) I also need a special icon for this, any ideas?

Intense days... I already said that, didn't I ;-)?

Well, I was speaking about singing and working. But today I decided to take a holiday break at least from work..!
( ok, this got a bit long, so I cut it :)Collapse )

For a few days now I have been trying out a new method of dealing with some of the emotional issues which are the cause of my continuing to repeat the same errors over and over.. principally regarding relationships, but not only.

It is called EFT, and here http://www.emofree.com/newcomer.htm you can find all the information about it.

I won't go into detail because who is interested can read it on the website, here just a short citation:
EFT centers around the profound effects of the body's subtle energies using the theory that "the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system." Accordingly, EFT is an emotional form of acupuncture except that we don't use needles. Instead, we tap with the fingertips to stimulate certain meridian energy points while the client is "tuned in" to the problem.

That's all. Easy, really. I have downloaded the (free!) manual and tried out the first simple steps, with the obligatory skepticism of somebody who has tried out everything, from EMDR to NLP, from medication to behavioural and cognitive therapy, and lots of other, less known stuff in order to tackle her "nodes" in the system. And who is well aware of the "novelty effect" which may or may not make things seem more effective at the beginning of everything.

Let me just say that I do feel a difference. And I have barely started. I don't want to go into over-enthusiastic mode here, but I wanted to share this, because even from the few things I already know, I think this is something that could work for a lot of people. And it is free, at least the introductory manual, with which already interesting things can be achieved.

A report on alcoholism I saw yesterday in tv made me think about the issue of addictions, and specifically my personal tendency to that regard.
Alcoholism does run in my family, my father's father and brother died from it (well, from liver cirrhosis, but it came from drinking) and my father slowly but certainly is heading into that direction. On my mother's side, there is less of this, in compensation there are lots of psych illnesses (depression, obsessions and worse) so I guess I'm in for a healthy combination.
"Fortunately" I don't have a tendency towards alcohol, nicotine and drugs. I have tried all of it, but everything stronger than the occasional glass of beer makes me sick to my stomach, cigarettes leave me dizzy headed, joints gives me panic attacks, same for cocaine, didn't try anything stronger. I was on tranquillizers (valium etc) for several months for anxiety but never got addicted to them, I still have a box of it around, it serves as a kind of "insurance" if I feel panicky, but I never take any.
So, nothing of the "heavy" stuff.

But I am an addictive personality all the same. I know it, and I also know that I have to do something about it.
My drugs are two, possibly three: chocolate (this is not a joke), novels and probably the internet.
Somebody who is battling with detox from alcohol or drugs probably will laugh reading this. I am conscious that those addictions may seem ridiculous compared to the "big" ones.
But they still cause problems in my life. And I have had a hard time even starting to admit that they ARE addictions.

The principal symptoms of an addiction are there:
- you tell yourself "I can do that or leave that whenever I want to" and when you try, you do succeed for a while, but then always fall back somehow.
- you do exceptional things in order to get your "drug" like making long ways, spending much money, confronting people you don't like.
- when you start with it, you seldom are able to limit it to the time/quantity you allowed yourself
- you forget other things when you do it (such as your weight, work you have to do, people who are waiting for a call, the cleanliness of the place where you live)and that leads to more or less serious problems in your life and relationships
- life without those things seems dreary/boring/sad/empty if you think about it or try to live it.

Specifically, I cannot eat just one piece or two of chocolate. If I have it, I will eat several boxes of it all together (and no, I don't feel sick from it). If I don't have it, I sometimes jump into my car at the strangest hours and drive to the next shop (or gas station, at night) in order to buy some.
Regarding the novels, I spend too much money on buying them, and when I start to read, I often forget everything else around me. There have been days where I realized at 1 pm that I had spent the whole morning reading without even getting dressed or checking at least my work mail, and my work cell phone was shut off.
The internet.. well I don't have to go into THAT I think. Though I tend to lose myself less in that these days.. it was much worse in the early nineties when I discovered it and spent night after night chatting in the various BBS and similar institutions. Nowadays it's just some mailing lists and.. well.. LJ ;-)

Winter for me is always a particularly hard time in this field. It does help to have a lot to do (work and singing), which distracts me, but then the effects if I "fail" are even worse, because everything gets soon chaotic and seemingly unrecoverable, which leads to further indulging.

Ok, off now to shut away the sweets and the books, close the computer and clean the house!!