Procrastination....

I have always been the kind of girl who never puts off till tomorrow what can be done today. From very early on, the importance of getting things done early was ground into me on a continual basis. I kept up with all my homework so that it was done days--sometimes even weeks--before the assignments were actually due. This helped me make sure that I got everything done in time to go spend my weekends goofing off with my friends. However, I've begun to notice that over the last few months I've begun to heed this fundamental childhood lesson less and less. Assignments for school are getting put off until the last minute. Laundry piles up in the basket until it overflows and I begin to hear complaints from my husband about how he has no pants to wear to work the next day because they're all dirty. Dishes pile up, and a thin layer of dust settles on everything. Some would call it laziness. I say, "I'll just take care of it tomorrow."

I know it's not healthy. And eventually, everything ends up getting done. Mostly it's because my husband complains about the house looking messy, which motivates me to take care of it and clean up. But there's something deeper here. My ethics haven't changed, I still want to get things done far ahead of the time before they are due. When I thought about it more thoroughly, I realized that I have lost some of my motivation to take care of things. Life has been busy, and my brain says "NO MORE!!!" so I sit down on the couch and stare at the television screen and want to do absolutely nothing.

What does this have to do with anything? I think a lot of people run into this situation, actually. It's disguised as laziness, and sometimes it really is. But with the pressures of life and the expectancies of people at their jobs and the demands they have at home, it is easy to fall into a pattern of wanting to do absolutely nothing. It isn't because there are things worth doing, or because the things that need to be done (and are inevitably neglected) are unimportant. It's because the brain--and the body--get tired. Sometimes they get so tired that they can't take any more work. That's what happened to me.

I further confirmed this with myself when I slept in on a day I had off, then proceeded to further procrastinate with much of my duties because I was too weary to do any of them. As the day continued, I started to regain some of my energy. With it returned my motivation, and my determination. I began to feel more like myself. I got up and started doing things I wanted to do. And then, in record-breaking time, I realized that all of the housework was done and I was free of responsibility to do whatever it was I wanted to.

I think it is important that people take into account that they need a lot of rest to be able to feel whole and well. So much of society drinks coffee with an addiction and uses energy drinks as fixes for sleep deprivation, then wonders why they crash at the end of the day when there is still so much to get done. If they would spend a little more time sleeping, or take a little more time for vacation, giving themselves the time they need to rest properly, then I believe that people would be happier, feel more productive, accomplish more, and be more successful at everything they do. I know I do.

Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival

The 19th Annual Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch Studios was hosted on April 21 and 22, 2012. Guests came to celebrate and experience the Western culture of the 1800s, a scene set by those who dressed in clothing authentic to that time period, by those who performed the cowboy music and poetry the Festival is famed for, and by those who sold cowboy memorabilia throughout the Melody Ranch set. This unique historic event attracted thousands from all over the nation who share the fascination of old time Western culture, and opened the doors to all who wished to spend a day visiting a time that has been glamorized through the wonders of film. Visitors were able to step through the doors of time in visiting this event and experience a town as authentic to the 1800s West as the best in the business could possibly design.
 

A Quest for Time

     I've said before that life has gotten away from me. It seems that with everything going on in my life, time has been something I have not been able to grasp. I spend it and spend it, wasting it away with all the "duties" I have to take care of during the day, but I never earn any of it. It just keeps passing by, like a rushing river, always escaping me.
     Time is of the essence, or so I've heard. I never really figured out what was meant by that, but I find myself constantly nodding my head in agreement. Time is something very valuable. People do so much to have so little of it to themselves. They work all day long just so they can spend a few precious hours at home with their families and loved ones, or to spend it alone with themselves. But if time is so important, it is interesting to see that so much of it is spent working, wasting, searching for more valuable time. I find that when people complain to me about not having enough time, they often spend the time they do have to devote to whatever they wish wasting it away, as if they've forgotten how valuable it is and how badly they wanted it while they were busy.
     "Time doesn't make itself," my mother always told me. "You have to make time to do the things you want." But how do I make time? Push responsibilities aside? Get less sleep? Plan my day out more carefully? All of my options have varying consequences, all of which I'd rather not have to face. But my mother is right. If I do want more time to do the things I like, I'll have to make it happen. I'll have to carefully plan out my days to be able to take care of everything I need to, and have enough time left over to do the things I like. Which will, consequently, take up more time.

First Post!!!!

While this may be the first post of this blog, this is not my first post to a blog. Left Anonymous began as a homework assignment in Spring of 2011, where I was to post my findings on various websites and topics found online. It was my first blog, and it familiarized me with the basics of blogging to the point that it sparked my curiosity about it.

Nearly a year later, I decided to continue blogging, though not as a requirement for good grades. I wanted a way to stay committed to my creative writing, and I thought showing a few friends some of my work would do the trick. I began by writing an introduction to what my blog would be--a serial of sorts, where I would post one chapter each week of a story idea I had, so that the commitment wouldn't be overwhelming.

It lasted a week. I posted the prologue to the story in January. Then life took over my... well, life. I was still struggling to find a way to balance my part-time job with my full-time school schedule and take care of my new house and spend time with my husband of (then) five months. "Don't worry about it right now," he told me when I emailed him the link to the blog. "Life is going to get busy. You don't want to be bogged down with the commitment when you have other commitments that are already heavy on your shoulders." And, as he most often is, he was right. When push came to shove, the blog was the thing I pushed to the side.

Life still hasn't slowed down. I do hope to pick it up where I left off, though. One day I'm going to sit down, spend a couple of hours on chapter one, and post it. Then the next week I'm going to sit down, work on chapter two, and post it. Then the next week... well, hopefully I'll be able to post something every week, even if it's only a portion of the chapter.

For this class I decided to give Left Anonymous a face-lift with all new posts. It makes me want to return to my creative writing. I like that. Time to reorganize my daily schedule to include a few minutes of creative writing!!!