Hold It a Minute--Or Five

Wednesday’s financial planning day is working out pretty well for me. I found a spot that works—at my desk in the office. I’ve moved everything that I need back there, except for a few things that travel with me as I work on other computer-related projects. I have a nice list that I have been following for three weeks now. I helps me have everything I need and gives me an order to proceed through everything so I don’t miss any details. I put on the free internet radio, and I’m off.

Numbers and I have a love-hate relationship. They aren’t my pals and buddies even though I respect them and the work they do. When I'm forced into their arena, I have a hard time getting started, though I’ve diminished that with the new routine. Once I do get going, I have a hard time stopping. I want to get everything done and over with. I am still using my Wednesday s for some catch-up work. I see light at the end of the tunnel and soon, instead of taking hours, I expect it will take much less than that to stay caught up. That will be a major accomplishment.

In the meantime, I’m trying to learn to take breaks. I know my mathematical productivity drops after so long. I can keep going but there is more need to double- and triple-check my work. I even set my countdown timer to remind me to stop for a little while. So many times, though I turn the timer off and push to “get to a stopping point” and then forget all about stopping. Or I get up and shred a few papers or work on a little filing and then I drift back into what I was doing before without really leaving it.

So I’m starting a list of 5-minute things to do that have nothing to do with money or numbers, and that will either relax the brain, or rev it up just a bit—depending on how I feel. My goal, though is not to do something else at the computer, but to get up and away from it for a while, so I’m not tempted to drift back into taking care of something I should take care of instead of something I want to do that would be more refreshing.

For that to work, I have to make e-mail the reward at the *end* of my session. :)

Some ideas:

• Pull weeds
• Dust and dance
• Drink water!
• Check in with Asher and see how things are going with him
• Walk to the stop sign and back again
• Nap, or simply lay on the bed and do nothing
• Sunbathe
• Daydream
• Rebound
• Dry-brush
• Get meat out of the freezer for dinner
• Get a load of laundry going. Or finished (folded).
• Clean a bathroom
• Sweep a floor
• ASL practice
• Daily text and/or Bible reading
• Desk stretch or workout
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uts1tLOfDfo
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl_Ck2LCGoE&feature=related
  http://thoughtsintime.co.za/2008/04/29/have-a-holiday-in-10-minutes/
  http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/you%E2%80%99ve-got-5-minutes-use-it-to-exercise.html
• A facial

Any other suggestions?