Reactive vs. Proactive

Sleep
I stayed up too late last night, knowing I'd get up at 6 a.m., to get enough sleep. I got about 6 1/2 hr.

Water
Nick found my pitcher and was kind enough to fill it to 2 quarts for me today. I still have 3 cups to go at 11 p.m., but I drank a few glasses of wine tonight with friends. It would be in my best interest to finish it off before going to bed even though I might have to get up in the middle of the night for a potty run.

Eating
I hate keeping food journals, like everyone does, which is why the SWEET Life has a SWEET Life Plan which charts everything you need in a day to live the SWEET Life. All you have to do is to mark off the quantities that you complete for each aspect of the SWEET Life; i.e., not much to write down. Today, I didn't really keep track of what I ate, but I know that I generally ate healthy foods. I only ate 1-2 Halloween candies; I didn't eat much junk food (only chips with guacamole come to mind). I did have dessert after a healthy dinner with friends. But generally, I'd say I ate pretty well, even though I didn't keep track of the details.

Exercise
This morning I ran with my friend Maureen, whom I hadn't run with in a long time. It was nice to catch up with her. I got home and had time to do my ab exercises before the girls woke up.

Tranquility
The girls took a long nap today, >3 hr! I decided I need to set my timer before doing anything, and sure enough, I got a lot done this afternoon! It's such a good feeling! I just set my timer for either the amount of time I thought something would take or the amount of time I wanted to spend on a project and off I went, rushing to finish before the timer went off. I'm so much more productive when I do that, but I need to do that more often. (Right now I have 10 minutes to finish this blog.)

How do I feel?
I feel very accomplished today. It's good to cross a lot of things off my To Do List, and many of them don't take very long. It's just a matter of doing it! I tend to spend too much time checking and responding to email and yahoo groups that I belong to. What I mean is, I tend to spend too much time being reactive instead of being proactive; I I respond to other people's inquiries rather than completing what I want to complete. I wrote myself a big note on my computer, that I might make into my computer desktop. It says, "1. Set the timer. 2. Check To Do List." I might decide that I'm going to spend 5 min. checking my To Do List, but the tick-tick-tick of the timer helps me remember to stay focused and not spend too much time on it. It works well with my kids too. I'll set the timer for 5 min. and say we are going to put away all the books and toys. Then, I'll give specific tasks to Maya, like putting all the books in the book shelf, while I do something else to tidy up. It works well; we usually finish within 5 minutes. Then we'll move on to another room that needs tidying.