Every year, I have the most free time from June to December.
One problem is that We’ve been working a lot since our team is small – just five of us in our office, and I’m the only one handling the money matters. Considering we make more than $4M in monthly sales, you can guess how hectic it is. I’ve made a schedule to manage my time better based on what’s most important to me.
My daytime job is like being the captain of a ship in unpredictable weather. As we operate our company with so few members, anything can impact all of us. If you’ve ever worked as an accountant, you might know what I mean – sometimes there’s too much work, and other times, not enough.
To smooth out my workload, I update our templates, do projects to automate some of the tasks, or create queries every month. I also ensure we follow the right rules to stay in line with SOX (a kind of business law). I mostly prepare for our yearly SOX audit, which takes place in July, April, and mid-May, until we start with a quarterly audit, budget, and consolidation report. This keeps me busy all year round, but I get a break from July to December. I will be tied up with Year End and preparing corporate tax returns between January to April.
During this time, I’m always excited about planning how to spend my time till December, when I get swamped again. Here’s what I want to do this year:
Travel: We decided to visit the Grand Canyon in October for about 4-5 days.
Learn about Greek and Roman Literature: I want to do this from July to October.
Earn more credits for my accounting designation by continuing my education from July to December.
Keep November to December open: I might study Greek and Roman Literature or learn about King Arthur.
Here’s what my priority list looks like:
Work: I mostly work from home except for Mondays. During my break, I won’t be working extra unless it’s really, really important.
House chores: I spend about 0.5 to 1 hour on this. We usually clean the house on Saturday mornings unless we’re having a family get-together.
Family gatherings: We don’t have them every day, but when we do, they’re usually on Saturday afternoons till early evenings.
Exercise: I work out for about 0.75 hours each day.
Piano: I practice for about 0.75 hours each day.
Professional education: I dedicate an hour to this every day except Saturdays and Sundays.
Greek & Roman Literature: I spend an hour reading up on this.
Time Schedule for 2023 2nd Half
Last modified on Jun 25, 2023
I’ve blocked out my time for all these activities.
Red blocks are for sleep – I will only change these if it’s a real emergency.
Green blocks are for other tasks. I’ll shuffle these around if something urgent arises based on my priorities.
Yellow blocks are for free time, which I usually spend reading or writing.
I’ve left some time open for writing because I’ve noticed that I struggle when I set aside time for it – it’s just a mental block. Instead, I’ll spend most of my free time writing or reading. I’ll probably use this time to write blog posts or read.
Every Sunday, I’ve blocked out an hour to review my schedule. If it seems too packed, I’ll tweak it. The hardest part for me is to stick to when I sleep and find enough time to read. I’m such a big fan of reading that I feel weird when I don’t get to do it. Whenever I feel stressed, reading is my go-to way to chill out.
I’ve left some wiggle room in my schedule, so I’ll manage just fine.
We had a carpeted storage room. The storage room has a light, and it was good size room. To make the space more usable, we decided to create shelving units. We also decided to remove the carpet and install a hardwood floor. I am a big fan of the YouTuber April Wilkerson. She has filmed so many DIY projects and uploaded them to her Channel. I want to learn how to do woodworking or carpentry like her, and this project was an excellent project to start. I was initially excited by imagining completing the project ourselves.
It took several months to start the project because I was procrastinating. I was hesitant to start the project because I felt anxious about starting. I was not ready for this task at all. I was so scared that I am not comfortable with the job. The last time I worked on flooring was a decade ago. So doing this project itself feels very risky because we might screw up the renovation. So, I sat with the idea for a long time without doing anything about it. Murray (2018) pointed out many of us procrastinate for various reasons, and some fit my situation.
Fear of the unknown
Fear of making mistakes
Wanting everything to be perfect or completely ready first
Fear of taking risks
Tasks seem too hard
A little procrastination is merely a peccadillo because it can damage us exponentially. Steel (as cited in Rice et al., 2012) studied the level of performance and mood outcomes resulting from procrastination. Steel concluded that procrastination could relieve anxiety only temporarily. Yet, the participants reported negative moods following procrastination (p. 3). The primary source of my distress was the guilt of delaying the project. The psychological damage impacted my mood; thus, it started affecting the performances of other activities.
Since procrastination can harm us both mentally and physically, why do we procrastinate? I guess just like Steel pointed at (as cited in Rice et al., 2012), it makes us feel better. The problem is the effect is only temporary (p. 3). It is like moving the pile of garbage from one corner of the room to the other corner of the room. The garbage stays and continuously torments me until I remove them. Rice et al. (2012) also concluded perfectionists tend to procrastinate. Procrastination correlates with poor health performance due to psychological distress resulting from procrastination (p. 12).
Procrastination prevents us from growing because it promotes stagnation in our growth. In the modern, rapidly shifting era, we need to acquire skills to deal with new challenges to survive. Murray (2018) said we don’t even see the reason for it as they hide very well. Procrastinating conflicts with our rapidly changing external world just like Homo sapiens were engaging complex planning 100,000 years ago, enabling them to evolve. At the same time, the Neanderthals were resistant to go out into the cold from their comfortable cave (para. 9). Procrastinating is one way for us to conserve energy, but on the other hand, we must start working on more complex tasks to evolve with our rapidly shifting eras.
I gained no benefits from this procrastination. It was pretty uncomfortable sitting with a non-progressed project. I remembered reading Brian Tracy’s “Eat That Frog,” Tracy (2001) recommends eating the ugliest frog first thing in the morning to be productive if you must eat one. So, I decided to deal with my frog.
To overcome my procrastination, I did list the possible challenges from this project to deal with them one by one.
Can I Install a hardwood floor by myself? It has been a long time since I did the hardwood floor installation last time. Since this was the first experience for my husband to install a hardwood floor or a shelving unit, I will be leading this project.
Can I build a strong shelving unit for our storage room? I was unsure whether the method I wanted to use will work for this space.
Which tools do I need to buy?
How long will this project take?
How much will this project costs?
When can I start this project? I will not start this project until October as I was leading a large project at work.
By looking at the list of my challenges, I can overcome these obstacles with some researches. Instead of doing everything at once, do section by section. The project can be broken into two main tasks.
Installation of the hardwood floor
Installation of the hardwood floor
Installation of the Baseboards
Installation of the shelving Units
Installation of Shelving supports
Installation of Shelving units
Paint shelving units
I could deal with the root of my anxiety by researching how to complete the project. So, I researched YouTube channels and other blog posts on installing hardwood flooring, baseboards, and shelving units. I decided to use engineered flooring because it seems easier. We bought the hardwood flooring from Home Depot online. When I was researching, I observed the tools each YouTuber was using. We must get a few tools such as a Miter saw a jigsaw, a level, a Pry Bar, Spacers, and a tapping block. A miter saw can be expensive, but we can use it for other projects.
We decided that the best time to start the project was Columbus day since I knew I would be busy until the last day of September. We purchased tools and materials in small increments over four months until the starting day. We still had four months until the project starting day. We have a compact passenger car, so it was impossible to purchase everything at once. Unexpectedly, having a tiny car created more challenges than any other source. Thanks to my husband’s surfeit of packing skill, we managed to carry all tools and materials we purchased. Later, I found out that Home Depot rents out a truck and will consider renting it for future projects.
Initially, I estimated we would complete this project by the end of Thanksgiving day; however, it took longer due to my stomach problems. We completed the project by the end of last year. The outcome was better than what we had originally thought, even though it was far from perfect. Since we took a long time planning and purchasing materials and tools, it cost us approximately $150 less than I budgeted. We may not have a perfect storage room, but it is functional. The important thing is that I regained my confidence, but I finally managed to remove my psychological distress. I gained satisfaction from completing the project ourselves.
We already have another plan for home renovation. Since neither of us is a professional renovator, it will be another challenge for us. But, that will be another chance to learn something new.
New Hardwood Flooring in the Storage RoomUsed Wall Mounting Technique for Pantry ShelvingCompleted Pantry Shelving
References
Tracy, Brian (2001), Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Errett-Koehler.
Murray, John. (2018). Start now, get perfect later: how to make smarter, faster & bigger decisions & banish procrastination. [Skillsoft version] Available from <https://roberthalf.skillport.com/skillportfe/main.action?assetid=149423>
Rice, K. G., Richardson, C. M. E., & Clark, D. (2012). Perfectionism, procrastination, and psychological distress. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(2), 288–302.
