June is behind me, and I had mixed success with my June goals. I figured I would post my July goals today, but I haven’t decided what they should be yet. I’m in the process of making changes in my life. The big one is changing how I use the internet. I am tired of being constantly connected via Facebook. There’s too much junk versus actual content, and too much conflict. It brings me down and saps my inspiration. My first step, which I’ve been doing for almost two weeks now, is to change my morning routine. It used to be that I got up and went straight to my computer and loaded up Facebook, Twitter, and my e-mail (personal and dance). I’d browse around for a bit, then get my breakfast and a cup of tea. Browse while consuming that. Then brew a second cup and keep right on internetting. This could go on until 2 or 3 in the afternoon easily, at which point I’d finally settle down to the business of writing a blog post. What a waste of time.
Now I get up in the morning, immediately grab my breakfast, and then I sit down in the living room and read. During the week, I read non-fiction books related to dance. On the weekend, I read whatever novel I’m currently enjoying. If what I’m reading really engages me, I might sit there for a couple of hours. This seems like a much better use of my time because I’m controlling the input I receive, starting the morning off on a positive note, and after I’m done eating, I’ll usually end up with one or more pets snuggled up to me, so it’s quality time for my furry friends too.
So far I’ve been going straight from reading to the computer, where I still get sucked in for a few hours. Today I’ve decided that I don’t want to do that anymore, but I’m not sure what I want to do instead. I probably don’t want to dance right after breakfast, so maybe I’ll tackle some chores or do some costuming or do my makeup, so that I can then sweat-test it with some dance practice. Whatever I choose, I really feel like I need to wait and not get on the computer until the afternoon, at which point I can then sit there and do my browsing and my blogging and my Facebook fan page updating until my husband gets off work. I think this will make me a lot more productive, as soon as I decide what I want to fill those productive hours with.