TIME GOES QUICKLY, WHILE IT GOES SO SLOWLY

What amazes me is how the long days last, but how quick the hours, minutes and seconds go.

You know what I mean. I start out with a list of things to do – not too long a last, but a list which is reasonable for the time I have. But time passes so quickly that I get almost nothing done.

And the weeks are event worse – it seems like it was yesterday that I wrote and posted last week.

If I go to check in my calendar when I did something – which I did only a few days ago – it has been weeks, maybe even months since I actually did it.

The summer just started – right? But now it is mid- autumn already.

 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How do YOU deal with this odd passing of time to get everything done? I really could use some help.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

 Two weeks without a post- sorry – not sure how they went past unnoticed.  Husband has had me busy working on projects.  

My husband and are - in addition to our professions – professional craft artists.  We have each worked in an assortment of media over the decades – husband, a larger assortment than me.  Currently husband is working at weaving.  

Our living room serves as a “loom room” from around mid January to mid December.  (I get the room back for remaining month to decorate for Christmas.)  He recently bought a smallish big screen TV which is also in the living room – due to lack of anywhere else to put it.  

Our reenactment unit has two events coming up in the next couple of months which are more of craft demonstrations than correct 18th century reenactments, so he can bring his loom to those to those 2 events and can sell items he has woven.  (It is a modern type of smaller loom and he has an even smaller version to take to events such as these.)  So he is working on weaving some additional items to bring along.  (I demonstrate embroidery – much easier to set up and needs much less room to work.)

When he sets up a project to weave (called warping the loom) we have to run the yarn which will be woven on across the length of our living room to have enough room – and now we (I) have to be careful not to knock into the TV and throw it over.  So, warping the loom now involves moving things so they are not in the way – which things never would have been in the way before.  

The process for each piece takes an afternoon for the part that I have to help him with (he then has to do additional things to finish the setup – but I only have to come in for a few minutes to check that the warp threads are evenly and sufficiently stretched.

We have done this process twice in the past 2 weeks – each one, an afternoon gone.  Now I will have time to myself as he is working on weaving this piece for a few days.  

So in between working at accomplishing my normal daily, weekly, monthly chores, I have been losing time to helping him warp his loom and posting to all of you was not done.  

HELPING MY HUSBAND ORGANIZE

Last Thursday I went to my client and of course everything went wrong - including my laptop dying and I did not have the cord with me.  The drive home took 2 hours, but at least my car did not stall.  I got home late and had to finish up from work around making dinner, etc. that evening. A rather anxiety causing day.

Husband is a big James Bond fan and he has a collection - of just about anything James Bond.  Last year we managed to clear some book shelf space in our bedroom to move his books into there from our office as we needed the shelf space for other books.  (We have LOTS of books of a variety of types, mostly informational, as opposed to fiction such as the Bond books.)  I figured out I could store the stuff that had been on the shelves in the bedroom (moved there for safety when the house was treated for bedbugs) which was other assorted Bond items - magazine articles and such in plastic boxes on one side of the floor in the spare bedroom closets (a suitcase and a wheeled backpack take up the rest of the floor space - each filled with some other similar pieces we wanted to keep when we cleared out our luggage a few years ago).  There are also 4 “tubes” with posters of varying subjects - including, of course, James Bond, that are stored standing on the floor.

Husband also has a shortage of space in his dresser for his clothes. One drawer was filled with additional James Bond stuff.  So I had an idea.  We bought 2 more plastic boxes (making 4 all together) and I fit the stuff in the drawer, the rest of what did not fit in the first 2 boxes, and some Bond items in an office closet into these 2 boxes. 

I then went back to the bedroom and started going through husband’s sock and underwear drawer.  He has more socks than he needs, but has trouble finding socks, so will not get rid of any.  I moved the socks that he rarely (meaning never) wears to the bottom drawer that had the Bond stuff in it.  I moved his junk jewelry to the bottom drawer - never used.  I moved his new shoelaces “collection” to the bottom drawer (and will add the ones in my drawer when I guess a chance).  I moved his warm weather socks to the bottom drawer - you know, the very heavy ones that one only wears if the temperature is really low and one’s feet might freeze.  I separated the items in the bottom drawer into shoe boxes (and a space between them) to organize them for him.  I then went back to his top drawer and sorted the socks so each style of socks was separate - with a space for the ones in the laundry.  I had a shoe box on one side of the drawer for eyeglasses, cases for same, and pocket knives.  I found a “space pen” that we had not been able to find and had replaced.  Not bad for maybe 45 minutes work at most.

I was so glad that now his drawers would be neat - after all I had previously organized his sweatshirts, tee shirts and pjs right?  I showed him what I did (understand he knew I was going to do this in advance) and he was happy (not egacstatic - who would be, but “great, that is wonderful” happy)..  I had not been able to find some socks I knew he had for sleeping and asked him about them.  He found them on top of his dresser and I stored them in the drawer.  Finally, done! 

Ha, ha.  He showed me the tee shirts stacked on his dresser top.  I thought that they were in use  - no, he had no place for them.  I started pulling open the middle drawers as everything used to fit.  One drawer was partially filled with clothing and partially filled with electronics - mostly old electronics and some space around it all. 

So, when I get another 45 minutes or so, this drawer will gone through to see what is in there and what can be done with it.  I had found plastic photo slide cases (for one to set their own slide film into slides) in his top drawer - do you all remember slides?  I then put them in with other photo stuff elsewhere.  

I have been working on the notes for the talk I am going to give next week (hopefully it will not snow and result in a canceled meeting) at my embroidery chapter.  I have also been noting photos I want to print to show the members.  I was bound and determined not to rush and do this at the last minute (even this is later than I planed to do it) and I am sticking with that.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Sometime someone in your household needs help with their organizing.  Help them - but offer first, don’t just “touch their stuff” without permission.  If you know what you will do explain it to them first.  Don’t throw out anything (unless it really, really is garbage) without permission.  I know that every scrap of paper was something he wanted.  The one or two tiny scraps I was unsure of I asked about and was told what they were and that they needed to be kept. We all have stuff that makes no sense to others for us to keep, but we really feel those items are special. 

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS CATCHING UP

February may be the shortest month - but this year it seems to be cruelest month as well.  Not just for my husband and myself either.  At a club meeting today I heard that a friend found out that in her second home, which she rents out, the toilet kept running when no one was around - she had to deal not only with the flood resulting from same but mold and a time limit to get it done as her new tenant was waiting to get in.  Another friend found out her significant other has a serious medical condition.   Our problems were just annoying - individually they would be an amusing story, but when the small problems keep coming - they add up. 

We were eating lunch last Thursday - luckily at home - and husband let out a scream - and mumbled something about his teeth.  I thought he broke a tooth or one came out or one moved out of place and he bit it and hurt his other teeth.  No, his upper partial plate broke in half - he now had a left side and a right side.  He was eating a very dangerous meal - cream cheese and jelly sandwich!  He managed to glue the two pieces into his mouth adjacent to each other for a temporary fix.  I called our dentist, but he only had morning hours on Thursday.  I left a message explaining and asking him to call back - which he did almost immediately.

Now, we were planning, again, to go to Lancaster, PA for the day on Friday.  It was our third attempt this year.  Luckily the dentist could see us first thing in the morning so the trip to Lancaster started to fade away again.  I had an idea.  How long could it take for the dentist to repair the partial or take a mold for a new one?  We would probably not get out until after 9:30 anyway.  So we went ahead and put together everything we needed for the day trip.  When we went to the dentist the next morning we put it all in the car.  Dentist fixed the partial as a temporary thing - husband says the stuff used to fix it tasted vile.  He also took a mold to make a new partial - we are going in tomorrow for a fitting for the new partial.   Breathe a sign of relief that this was done.

We finished up in about 45 minutes - 15 minutes behind when we would have gotten out of the house to go on the trip and the dentist is closer to where we are going than our home.  Had a nice day finally in PA.  Managed the trip home using the detour to the Delaware River Bridge alright.

Monday we were out running errands in the car and we heard an odd noise.  Not sure if it was just something in the car knocking around we bagged up everything in the arm rest, the glove compartment, and spare eye and sunglasses.  The noise continued than stopped.  Tuesday we went out and the noise was there again.  Since we were planning a day trip to a quilt show out of state - originally tomorrow, Thursday, now due to the dentist on Friday - if it doesn’t snow - we wanted to make sure the car was okay and stopped at our mechanic.  He checked the car and it was almost out of oil - and no, we are not the sort of people who don’t check same.  He refilled the oil and put it up in his shop overnight to see if there was a leak.  In the meanwhile husband went looking and found out that there is a problem with our year and make of car (as well as others) in which the oil is too hot and is used up.  We will have to take the car to the dealer to have it checked for this - luckily covered by the manufacturer - it could result in needing the pistons replaced.  Somehow I know this will take more time than we can easily spare the car for.

Today I had my embroidery chapter meeting and what was suppose to be my day out.  I drove our van and came home quickly after the meeting to run errands with husband and go out to lunch with him (Ash Wednesday so he was looking forward to a fish sandwich out) as we had just our van to use.  We picked up the car when it was ready and drove it a bit to see if we heard the noise - we did not.           

I went to pay bills tonight and figure out how much money we need in the checking account for the coming week - and got stuck as I had not matched slips to credit card statements when they came in earlier this week - husband had to take a test online to renew a professional license and the credit card slips and other papers made too much noise, so I set them aside - and forgot about them until I needed to make sure I had enough in the account to pay one of them.

I also had bill for a party room I had to pay for a club we are in (from the club’s money).  The venue mailed the bill to the wrong address.  A copy was sent and arrived yesterday - picked late in the day.  They had not only the wrong date on the bill, but also the wrong day of the week!  I left a voice message last night - they had closed for the day - and left both our house and my cell phone numbers.  If they called the house husband knew what to ask and how to deal with the problem.  No call back - I called them and they have the right day marked on the calendar for the party - not sure where the wrong one came from.  Check went out when I came home after my meeting today.

So in the past month - we almost had a fire resulting in needing a new all in one printer, which did not work with all of my software (and I have not finished installing on this laptop), my eyeglasses had to be replaced, husband broke his upper partial, and the car has a major problem.  In addition to the loss of time which needed to be devoted to all of this, we have credit card bills triple what we normally have for a month as a result of all this - and the car still needs to be looked at by the dealer.

Now in addition to all of this - I am working on business tax returns for clients and we are coming up against a deadline for husband to pick Medicare part D and Supplemental Medicare policies.  I had done all the research and presented it to him - but he questioned everything and I had to research it all again.  Finally he believes me the choices I picked are the best ones and now we have to find the time to register him.

February is over.  Hopefully March will be better.  The realization that much worse could have happened instead goes far.

I did manage to store all of the rest of the Christmas decorations except the teddy bear village which needs to packed away and since it is all that is left - it is time. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

How long has it taken for the stuff in your house to get to where it is?  Our stuff has piled up in this house for almost 30 years and a lot of stuff came here from 9 years in our apartment, plus what came from decades living at home with our parents.

Stuff that has taken decades to accumulate is not going to be dealt with in a week.  One has to be patient and do what one can.  Some items we know when we see them should go - whether to the garbage, for donation, back to who we borrowed it from, or even that it is something which someone we know would appreciate much more than us.  If we get as much of this “definite to get rid of stuff” as we can - and try not to add any more of it (if Aunt Susie brought a cake on her plat and left it with the cake, hopefully the cake gets finished and the plate washed - make a point of getting the plate back to Aunt Susie - she will have it to reuse and you won’t have it taking up space.  Next time transfer it to a paper plate - or one of your plates after it finished being served, wash her plate and give it back to her when she leaves - no matter how much she protests your doing so. 

Take a carton (or more than one)  - you probably have one around - and fill it with items to donate.  Then set a date - soon - to take it for donation or call for someone come and pick it up at your door. I try to gather items and take them for donation when I have my day out after my meeting (the day I missed today).

Toss out what you can - there are items that as much as it seems a waste to toss them out - no one will take them or want them.  One cannot even donate TVs which are not flat screen to the Salvation Army.  I know around here if we leave some items out when the garbage will be picked up with a note “free, please take” (and sometimes even without the note) people go around during the night and take things.  We got rid of a lawn mower that way.  It had gas in it.  We would have to drain the gas for the garbage department to take it and did not want to deal with same and it would have to start - which it did not - for it to be donated.  We left it out with a note attached and by the next morning it was gone.

Whatever you get out of the house leaves that much less to deal with - especially if you don’t add to what you have.  Don’t be upset that it does not all instantly disappear.  A little at a time is a step forward.  After we had the bedbugs I had to put away 3 dressers worth of fabric pieces which had been removed, heated and bagged (which in itself was a project done 2 bags a night until over 60 bags were done - this included our household fabric items also - clothes, towels, bed linens, etc).  This was an overwhelming daunting task.  I finally decided that I would put away 10 pieces of fabric a night.  I was also making a small swatch card for each piece of fabric - something I always wanted to do and while I had to put the fabric away it seemed a good time.  My husband said to me that 10 pieces was nothing - but I pointed out - it would be 10 pieces more put away than was put away before.  Some nights I felt like dealing with more than 10 pieces, some nights circumstances did not allow me to do 10 pieces and some nights I could do no pieces out all.  Within a month and half the fabric was all away and I had the fabric swatch book I always wanted.  By doing it in small amounts it was not tedious and I was able to keep at it. 

So, if you can’t deal with the big problem - deal with a small part of it and then do so again.

A New Year?

Today was Yom Kippur - this is the holiest day of the Jewish calender.  10 days ago this holiday period started with Rosh Hashanah - which means “head of the year” and is generally referred to as “Jewish New Year”.

Okay, so I am vamping a bit as I don’t have anything written.  Monday was Columbus Day, We went to the eye doctor last week on Friday and husband’s niece’s birthday party on Sunday so I have had a busy week. 

Last night I normally would have written my post for this week, but could not as Jewish holidays start the night before the day of the holiday.  (There is a biblical reason for this, but I am not teaching bible class here - feel free to post back and ask if you want to know.)  We have a huge lists of things we cannot due on Jewish holidays, most of the time I tend to ignore the list and do the things if they arise, but I try to set these two holidays - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur apart from other days due to their significance, so here I am, with no idea of what to write at the last minute (sound familiar to you).

As I mulled this over tonight I thought the significance of this period - the two holidays and the time between them are a period of reflection and its relation to becoming more organized and less cluttered. 

Huh?  This was the time of year when Jews take the time to think about the past year - what they did wrong, what they would like to change, how they could have improved their life and the lives of others.  One is suppose to apologize for wrongs they have done in the past year to those to whom the wrongs have been done - whether spouse, child, boss, employee, friend, foe, the annoying teller at the bank, the sales girl who was too slow, the customer who could not give you their order properly, the neighbor who thinks you play your guitar too loud, your dog - you forgot to walk him, and God.  By making these apologies one is clearing up the past and getting ready for the future.
                                   
We also think about the coming year - what can we do to make the coming year better for us and those around us.  Sort of like regular New Year’s resolutions but not exactly.  I will call my mother more often.  I will be more generous to charity.  (This period is to Jewish charities similar to what Christmas is to general charities, people are more generous and several of the charities have their donation campaigns during this period.)  I will try to get my blog posts written ahead of time and have them make more sense.  I will try not to annoy my husband with stupid things so often.   I won’t lie (as much?). I will actually clean the house when it is on my to do schedule.  And so on.    

I offer you this holiday period (albeit after it has ended - another thought for next year, offer it when it is about to occur) to help you.

Take the time to apologize to anyone you have wronged.  They will probably be surprised and will feel better about you.  You will feel better because instead of thinking “I wish I hadn’t told John he shouldn’t eat so much and I wish I can take it back” you will know that you have let the John know you are sorry you said that.  Do this even with someone who has passed on if you feel you have wronged them.  It will clear your mind and your heart of past errors and let you start over.

Do this with your self also.  Apologize to yourself for what you have done to yourself.  Don’t be angry with yourself any longer for things left undone or things done incorrectly or things you have done wrong.  Let it go - forgive yourself.  This will also clear your mind and heart and let you start over.

Set aside time and think about what you would like to do in the coming year.  I am talking not only in terms of organizing and decluttering, but in general.  Try to sort out your thoughts and ideas.  Try to make some sense of them.

I have not made a New Year’s resolution - secular or Jewish New Year - in decades.  My last one was not to make resolutions - I have kept it.  I do try to get some idea of what I would like to do in the coming year and try to make some plans towards doing same.  It is a general plan - I might have some specific ideas, but I never think “I will” or “I must”, I think “I will try to”.

When I was a child I could not understand what the big deal was about the New Year (either one).  Every day starts a new year.  I could not understand what made one starting point more  important than another one.  Try letting go of what has happened in the past year and think about the year to come.  If today is not good - then tomorrow or next week - because every day is the start of a new year.

WEEK OF FALLING BEHIND AND TROUBLE GETTING THINGS DONE - ACHOO!

Well, it has been one of those weeks - you know them - everything takes longer than you figure it will and it is hard to get anything done and then it all goes along like a ball rolling along and picking up more delays and problems.

I hate when I don’t have time to do something right or time to finish it and I have to set it aside and go back and finish it.  When I started today I felt like I had added another 5 days of backup to what I have to do.  The pile on my desk was growing. 

Last Sunday our reenactment unit had its annual party.  While we are no longer involved in the party planning and buying for it, I am still the treasurer and I am chasing down members who have not renewed as I need to send paperwork and payment for our members to our national group - by March 1- over week ago.  So the end of last week I had to gather all my paperwork for same and call those who have not responded to emails, of course the phone call is more than just “you must renew now” as we are all friends - “is everyone okay” “what is happening”, etc.  Then two of the people who promised to renew at the party still have not done so and did not come to the party and I have to chase them down again.  Also the party, while I enjoy going, took up an entire afternoon when I could have been doing other things.

On the other hand a craft related group I belong to was contacted by a stranger in reference to something that was found on ebay related to our chapter and I spent time, also the end of last week, to deal with contact between the person who contacted us and the various members of the group until we resolved it - sort of - we are still discussing the situation.

As an accountant “in real life” I have corporation taxes for clients due out by March 15 and sales taxes for clients by March 20. I spent part of last week getting one corporation return in particular done to the point where I knew it would get finished in time to go to the client this week when I went for the regular monthly trip to do her books and get the return in the mail to the government on time, as well as calculate her sales taxes to then come home and redo same online as required by our state. 

So bills I paid last week were paid, but not posted to my computer.  Other similar items.  I have bills to pay to members of the craft group for items they purchased for same - just sitting in the pile and I really should reimburse them.

Then came this past Monday.  What I had hoped was just a dry throat from the furnace heat, had finished developing into a cold.  So now I feel rushed and I am coughing and sneezing and my brain feels like it is enveloped in “stupid”. (Actually just stopped to sneeze.)  My husband is trying to avoid me to avoid getting sick - but I am still cooking and washing the dishes and doing the laundry.  I am using hand sanitizer like crazy.  I am using my tv/cable remote from upstairs  - downstairs, so we are not both touching the same controller, but the TV is different and has to be worked manually and I like the TV much lower in volume than he does and that has to be changed on the TV itself and it is driving me crazy.

My husband just finished a weaving project on his new loom and is trying hard to deal with the aftersteps alone, but I usually help him and, unrelated to him doing it alone, the piece has creases in it which he cannot get rid of, and with my brain stuck in stupid, I cannot really help - or even hear him half the time.  Today we spent the entire afternoon looking for large white bath sheets to buy for him to roll the piece in after wetting it again - after several hours and giving up, we realized that we had towels useable for the purpose in our RV.  So time which could have been used to catch up - was gone.  He is very excitable and managed not only to use up most of the afternoon, but get himself so dizzy with what he did with soaking the piece and rolling it up in the towels, that he got sick and had to go to bed for a couple of hours.  And we never did the grocery shopping we needed to do.

I finished the corporation return for the client on Monday.  On Tuesday I decided that there was no way I would be able to deal with going to the client in Manhattan on Thursday as planned, especially if it may rain then, as well as the client is an older woman and I would hate to give her this horrible cold.  I called her and explained and that I would mail the returns to her, she would send them out, and I would be in late next week when I was better.  She agreed.  I then had to finish assembling the returns and write instructions for her - my normal forms would just confuse her.  I spent yesterday afternoon and evening doing this. (Which is why I did not write this post last night as I normally would have done.)  Just as I was finishing - I was writing the instructions for the last form, a NYC form, I found out that the payment has to be sent separately with a different form - and I could not find that form online as a paper form.  After about a half hour of looking I found what must be an example form as it said “company name, company address” etc.  A couple of labels to cover the information and a quick scan and fill in her information on the form and that was done.  Her return went out to her today.  I still have to finish scanning my copy of her return and my paperwork for same and it is sitting in “the pile” in a folder.       

We had dinner out last night to save on my cooking and washing the dishes and spreading germs.  We planned to go to the chain buffet we normally go to, but the company just closed around 50 or more of their locations and this turned out to be one of them.  So we ended up driving to the next county to their other location - an extra 45 minutes between going (during rush hour) and returning. 

After we came home today I managed to catch up on my email - I don’t have much, but like to check it every day on weekdays, I then paid 3 bills due out now - will be out in tomorrow’s mail.  My husband has said that he will go out and run errands tomorrow so I can catch up (though he did it before he felt ill). 

I have been working on setting up information about our bills and paying them for my husband or anyone else who might need to do it - just in case something happened to me.  A car accident three years ago started this project and I am now scanning in one of each bill with all the info I fill in on it filled in, as well as a scan of the check that pays the bill and the envelope it is sent in. So I had to stop and do this for each of the 3 bills and add them to a spreadsheet of when bills are due that I also just started to go with the step by step directions written in the past. 

I then went to post a bill I paid last week for our business.  Quick thing to do - do it all the time.  Hah!  We had returned something to a store and I had posted the credit “memo” on the computer.  The software automatically subtracted same from what needed to be paid, something which should not have been done as the return was done after that statement’s cutoff.  By the time I was done I had to delete the entire accounting software file for our business and replaced it with the one from the last backup (yesterday - that’s why I backup a lot) and started over.  I had to remove the entry for the return and then after posting the payment, reenter the entry. In the middle of all this my husband came up and told me he was so sick from the weaving that he was going to bed - Oyyyyy!

I did a few other things on the computer and cut the pile down a bit.  I then went and checked with my husband about dinner - could he eat?  What did he want to eat?  And then came downstairs and made dinner, did the dishes, and then started writing this post at 11 pm. 

Husband just came down and does not feel well again.  I hope I have not given him my cold as he is not good at being ill.

Well, we have a saying “It could be a lot worse, and probably will be” so I will go back to trying to catch up. I hope the week to come lets me catch up and all is better here by next week.

I am sure you all have weeks like this.  Hopefully the coming week will be better.

MANAGING MY TIME

While I can judge time fairly well when I am attentive to time passing, I tend to lose track of time when involved in something, as well as being a procrastinator.  (Are you?)  I have figured out ways to deal with this over the years.

I check my email once a day in the late afternoon.  The exception to this rule is when I am expecting an email and it is not there or if I send out an email - new or as a reply - and expect an answer. I have several email accounts.  Most of them start with my initials and then have something special to the reason for the account.  I have a main account for my family and my accounting clients and my friends.  I have one for each organization I belong to.  I have one that I use for accounting for the various government notices I need to get.  (Have I mentioned that I am an accountant, but not a CPA?)  I have one that I use for my husband so we can send each other things.  I have one for the crafts business my husband and I have.  I also have one that is without one of my initials which can confuse people by sound, so I use this one if I have to give my email by telephone so there is no confusion.  I also have an email for my online groups and such and one which I give to and contact stores and such with to keep same from my other email.  Separately, as they are not technically my emails - I have one for a client who does not use a computer and has things which need to be done online that I do for her, and one each for 2 organizations I am involved in for the organizations themselves which I check for the group.  Yes, that is a lot of emails.  I use a software program which will check all of them at once.  Any junk mail is deleted at once when I check my email. If I am traveling I will check email by going to the website of my email provider and I will only check the ones I need to check . Similarly using this system, if I have limited time I can just check the relevant email addresses and save time or just recheck the email addresses I am looking for an email from.  So email time is fairly limited and organized. 

I don’t have Facebook (which I have almost no presence on) or yahoo groups or other social media emailed to me.  I go to the sites at my chosen times and check the sites then.  This way I don’t find the entire afternoon was used up following something when I should have been doing something else.  I like cartoons, for example, and read several strips online.  I go Monday night and read the strips at their websites rather than receiving them daily which would waste needed time.  Of course sometimes Monday is Tuesday if something is happening on Monday and I don’t have time or sometimes they continue into Tuesday, occasionally even Wednesday, if I run slow on reading them.  But I choose the time I will spend online on all of this and when I will spend that time so that I do not lose my focus to do other things.

When I am working at tasks, such as my afternoons working on the computer, I often forget to check the time - yes, it is right in front of me on the computer, but I still forget.  I also forget to do little things like make needed phone calls, take out chopped turkey to defrost for dinner as well as stuff I don’t want to do - the laundry, the garbage, etc.  I use my computer and my cell phone to help me with this.  I have a calendar program which syncs with my cell phone (more or less, but I will wax ecstatic over my software and how I juggle things to make it sync in some later post).  I set reminders to remind me when it is time to do something.  I have a reminder which goes off at 6:45 pm to remind me to start getting ready to shut down and go make dinner.  I then back up what I have been working on and my calendar and sync my calendar with my cell, at least in theory.  In real life, I usually reset the alarm for 7pm and then possibly even 7:15 pm.  I have an alarm set to go off weekly on the day we usually have burgers for dinner to remind me to defrost the meat for same.  I have a weekly reminder to do the laundry, one to take the garbage out, one to change the towels, one to change the bedding, etc.  No, I don’t have alarms go off for everything just things which are time sensitive during the day.  Something like “Laundry” it is enough it is listed for the day as I will see it and remember.  One of my reminders, set for daily, is “Check blogsite” to see if any of you have left me comments which need to be moderated and, hopefully, posted (I really would like some more of these - feel free to comment), as well as one to remind me to post.  Does everything get done because it is scheduled to be done - of course not.  Sometimes it is done on a different day, sometimes I just delete the reminder as I have a reason for not doing whatever it is which is scheduled.

It is not a perfect system, but it helps remind me of what I have to do and prod me to do it.  What do you do to keep on schedule and stop procrastinating?