My Day Today

Today, my plans in the morning were to buy a Father's Day card for my stepdad (the content of which I'm not going to mention just to be safe), turn in an application I had obtained and filled out on Tuesday, follow up on three convenience store applications I had turned in during a previous week, and request applications from a couple of liquor stores in town. In the afternoon, I would read a chapter of Candle in the Window (a book I'm currently on), do surveys that I had been invited to by email, give the three novel drafts on my computer 15 minutes each of editing time, do 26 sit-ups and 26 push-ups. If there was anytime left before five after I had done all of these, I would work on cleaning my gmail box until five.
I was successful in most of theses endeavors. I got the card and turned in the application I had filled out. When I did the follow-up at one conveniece store, it turned out that the hiring manager was on the phone at the time, so she had the cashier on duty get my name and my phone number. At the second place I followed up at, I supposedly had come at what would normally be the right time, but something came up with the owner of the store. The clerk on duty there said that as far has he knew, they weren't hiring at the moment, but he could be wrong. At the third store I followed up at, the assistant manager said that the manager hadn't started the interviews yet but would be in a couple of weeks.

I didn't really have any better luck with the application requests either. At the first store I requested one from, the staff member on duty said that he did not personally have access to the applications and that the owner was not in. (Unfortunately, the times that he said the owner would be in were times when I'd normally be at the Doggie Bag.) At the second store that I requested an application from, I was told that they weren't hiring, especially since the summer tends to be rather slow for them business wise. Oh well, at least I tried, right?

I was able to keep busy this afternoon. After I at lunch, I read the chapter Candle in the Window that I had planned on reading (as I've set myself a goal to read one chapter of whatever book from my reading list that I'm currently on), went through my survey emails (only to find out that I was either too late or I ended up not qualifying), gave each of my novels 15 minutes of editing time (which I try to do every day), did 26 sit-ups and 26 push-ups. (These days I try to do match my age in these. I've got to do something to get some exercise into my life.) I had roughly an hour left over after I did all of these, so I worked on cleaning my gmail box until five, as that has piled up quite a bit lately. (I had more than 10,000 emails in there. I was able to get it less than 10,000 before five, but I still have a LONG way to go on that.)

Yes, it's tempting to stray from "The Schedule," but so far my piddling around on my non-Doggie Bag days, either at home or in public, has been minimized. Having a schedule/task list for each day (around Doggie Bag hours for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and all day on Tuesday and Thursday) has helped me in predicting the day, and that it can be a full and productive one at that. It also goes to show that if I formalize plans to do something (especially if it's something that I've slacked off on), then I'm forced to do it, which will rule out thoughts of "I'm bored" and/or "I don't feel like doing that". I found that with longer tasks, such as the editing and the email box cleaning, it helps to allot short-ish amounts of time to it each day and thus it can be treated as a finite task that is over with once it's done rather than something that could drag on indefinitely (which is not a plus for me given my short attention span). 

Having said that, I try to keep the schedule semi-flexible. For instance, ideally, I will have lunch between 12 and 1, but this is not always feasible as sometimes, I'm not home from my errands (both job-related and non-job-related) until after one. I would also need to work around any appointments I have (such as a photography one that I have a week from this coming Tuesday) and anything else that comes up. I hope that the structure in my life that I'm trying to develop this summer will carry over into other seasons.