Thursday, March 19, 2009

Not Getting Much Accomplished

 Not Getting Much Accomplished

death-and-taxes_qjpreviewth Update:

  • Back to original weight (see my Diet Tips below)
  • Finished the chapter I was working on. I’m not super happy with it. There’s a huge loose end I tried to tie up but the way I did it sucks. Well I guess that’s what editing is for. I did increase the word counter by about 4K so that’s good.
  • Mostly finished my tax return, still need to review a few things.

I’ve spent almost a week now trying to get organized, and I feel like it’s a losing battle. Every task seems to drag on forever. My “hit the ground running” intention has turning into more of a “hit the ground and splatter” result. Even though I’ve saved the time commuting to and from work, I still wind up spending a good part of the day in the car going to the gym or to the grocery store or running some kind of errand. I don’t know where all the time goes. I think I’m also trying to get too much done at once, and I need to focus on more specific goals.

So I was pretty much done with my 2008 taxes…except that I discovered that TurboTax Online doesn’t allow me to hand-edit certain forms that I need to deal with…so now I had to start a whole new return with the downloaded edition. Remind me never to try their online version again. I had to re-enter all my information. Fortunately TurboTax lets you download your tax data directly from the bank. After I went through this whole exercise I found out that I didn’t need that form…turns out I have a net capital loss for last year…so I can’t deduct investment expenses. :( However, the downloaded version is showing a larger rebate than the online version by about $300. :) I should get it filed today.

Diet Tip of the Day:

Weigh yourself every day, the same time of day, under the same conditions. I like to do it first thing in the morning. Your weight can fluctuate by 3-5 pounds during the course of the day, and by a couple pounds day-to-day depending on what you ate, how much salt you ate, how much you drank, how much you exercised etc. It’s good to establish a range and then see how much your weight varies from the range. If it hits a new low then there’s a good chance you’ve lost something.

2 comments:

  1. Here's what I do to organize my day: I bought a cheap daily planner/journal--the kind with a page for each day--and use it as a to do list. I have a regular schedule of things I need to do around the house, and I enter those things first. Then I add my writing goals and exercise. I try to limit my errands to the two days a week I go to the gym, since I am already out at that point. I usually check my list first thing in the morning when I am having my coffee, and add any one off activities like appointments or whatever. At the end of the day I cross off everything I have accomplished and move the things I haven't done to the next day. I also write down something good that happened to me.

    I have a palm device that I could use to do this, but somehow the physical action of crossing things off is much more satisfying.

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  2. I've made some lists and I'm trying to focus on the top priorities. I did get my taxes done :).
    I have a crapload of paperwork to go through and it's just a struggle trying to get organized and still have time for writing. I'm making progress just not at the pace I envisioned. So much work, so little time.

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