Category: Dear Diary

Housekeeping: Office Drawer – Check!

Tina Leave a comment

Also known as: Like I said, this is a reason to blog. Clean up, part 1!

One of the things I keep on having to remind myself is this: things get done when you just do it. It’s very simple, but it’s always been the thing that goes away when I procrastinate over some things. Another thing I realized is the things I often procrastinate on doing usually don’t take too much time to do once I start doing it. You know how we put off some things for later because we feel like it would take ages to finish, but when you sit down and do it, it takes only a few minutes of your time? That. I am constantly realizing that, too.

The point is: I’ve decided to get moving on some of the things I listed down in my Housekeeping post. I managed to clean most of it in record time, and I am proud of myself. :D So part one of Clean! All! Things! to-do list is:

Organize my office cabinet. Or mobile pedestal, as we call it. Right now, I could fool myself into thinking that I have a nice, clean office cabinet since we got issued new ones after our nth move to another building in the last how many years. It barely contains anything — just some snacks, a notebook and my laptop when I go home after work — and I could think of so many ways to organize the things I can put in there…but alas. I can’t do that. Because I have an entire lateral cabinet-full of things that I have accumulated in the past four years I am in this company. And I need to clean that. Soon. Really soon.

A few days ago, I arrived at work with a note posted on my sort-of empty cabinet, about cataloging all the drawers and removing the ones that were unclaimed. I didn’t know if they also meant cleaning out the other lateral cabinets, but I thought it was…so I figured maybe I should stuff my things in there already and work on clearing it all out later on. Just to make sure my junk stuff are safe, you know?

So I got my things and I was surprised that it wasn’t really that bad. Okay, fine, I left some things at the lateral cabinet, things that I know I won’t be using anymore. The rest of the things, I was meaning to stuff in my drawer until I decided: What the heck. Let’s organize all these.

I ended up throwing some things, of course. The rest I managed to put in my cabinet and still have some leftover space. I know, I can hardly believe it either. Unfortunately, I don’t have before photos, but I have after!

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One Little Word (and then some)

Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: On having a word for the year

I’ve been stalking some LJs and online places of old friends lately and I’ve been quite inspired by some of them who were brimming with positivity and amazingness ((This isn’t a real word, but hey, I can use it)) with everything that they did in the past year and all in this year. You know those people? Who just seem to be bright rays of sunshine, so inspiring that you also kind of want to be like them? Yeah, I’ve been reading their blogs for the past hour or so.

So I’m trying to figure out what makes them just that: amazing. Not that I don’t think I’m anything less, but when you’re flailing on and off thinking about what you want to do in your life and feeling like time is running out when you’re not doing anything, my inherent amazingness is easy to forget. I want to have the same thing they have, but not exactly the same. I want something of my own, something to make me look back in this year and the next and the next and be proud of what I see. You know?

Other than having goals, five year plans and vision boards, here was one thing I thought was pretty simple: a word. I’ve read how some of them choose a single word to define their year and by using it, reminding themselves of it and just repeating it everyday, the days, months and years became exactly that word.

I could do that. I like words. I can use a word to describe what I want 2012 to be. Right?

I remember doing something like that sometime in the past — 2004 I think? I remember saying something like, “This year will be AWESOME!” and it turned out to be just that. There was 2007 with GREAT ADVENTURE (that’s two words, but that worked). Oh, and there was 2008 too: my word was EXTRAORDINARY. It did turn out to be a pretty extraordinary year for me.

Extraordinary
Extraordinary 2008

So yes, I could start with that.

Now, I know I said something about initiate and follow through, but I’m honestly not sure if those words capture exactly what I want for my year to be. I mean, yes, I need to initiate and follow through, and those are things I need to do. But as for what I want to be? And what I want?

Hmm.

So, so, so. Here’s the plan and I’m giving myself until my 26th birthday to do all of these (I love that my birthday happens early in the year — it’s like another new year). I’m posting it here for accountability, but I’m also writing it down in my planner and somewhere else visible so I won’t procrastinate on this. Here’s what I need to do:

  • Choose my word for the year.
  • Come up with a five year plan using this method
  • Make my vision board

I think maybe one of the reasons I feel like I’m running in circles is because I lack focus and I tend to just wing everything because I’m lazy. There is nothing wrong with winging it sometimes, but thinking about that just makes me panic. No more just going with the flow — I need to step up a little.

So. A word. I found this today, too (credit for my post title), and I wonder if it’s worth it to invest in this class? I could use all the encouragement I can get. I like what she says here too:

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow. From my own personal experience, it can be a catalyst for enriching your life.

Thinking about it now, I actually have several ideas, but I may need to figure it out first. How about you, though? (You, the few people who actually read this blog.) Have you ever had a word for your year? What were they? Do you have a word for 2012, too?

Housekeeping

Tina 1 Comment

Also known as: Cleaning up, in all ways

I need to do some housekeeping. Literally and figuratively.

I've been wanting to use this for a while now. :D

Back in college, I was so proud to brag that I clean my room thrice a year. I had a schedule for that because my college school year was divided into three, so I usually just schedule a day in my term break to clean my room. When I started working, though, it became a different thing — I had no term break, ergo, no time to clean. That never really fared well with my mom, so I try to take a weekend to clean my room. Being the packrat that I am, it takes me a day to clean my room, usually involving getting rid of papers, pens and fixing and dusting my bookshelf. You know, just making sure there’s a semblance of sanity in my room.

Of course, when Ondoy came, I was forced to clean what was left in my room (which was still a lot). And then we moved to the apartment so our house can be renovated, and all my things were put in boxes and huge plastic bags. Then we moved back to the house, and it was a mess, until I got all my stuff up my room…and I sort of cleaned. I fixed my closet and my shelf and the rest, I put there. In the room. Since I was saving up for Europe, I didn’t really set aside  money to buy furniture for my room. Until now. Not that my room is still a mess — it’s an organized mess, if you’d allow me to use that. I did do some cleaning a few weeks back, but again, since I don’t have the containers and furniture, they all just got stacked back where they were, but with less of the junk.

The point is, I need to do some cleaning. Not just my room, but in other aspects as well. And this post is really for me to list them down so I would somehow remember (I’ll try, anyway), and maybe posting it here is some kind of accountability measure.

And maybe because I changed some typefaces on the blog yesterday, I just felt like blogging again.

Anyway. So, what kind of housekeeping do I need to do?

  1. Delete old files in my work and personal laptops. I can’t remember the last time I deleted files in my computers, for both personal and office laptops. Since I have a pretty big hard drive and I have an external hard drive, I just tend to save. And save. And save. A few days ago, I had a meeting at work, and I realized that some of the files in my laptop were almost five years old. And I’m sure most of them aren’t relevant or needed anymore. Same goes for my personal laptop. And maybe even my hard drive. I need to delete files and organize the folders again so I won’t use the Find function more often (even if that is really the point of that function).
  2. Organize my office cabinet. Or mobile pedestal, as we call it. Right now, I could fool myself into thinking that I have a nice, clean office cabinet since we got issued new ones after our nth move to another building in the last how many years. It barely contains anything — just some snacks, a notebook and my laptop when I go home after work ((I leave my laptop at work now instead of bringing it home all the time — my back is thankful)) — and I could think of so many ways to organize the things I can put in there…but alas. I can’t do that. Because I have an entire lateral cabinet-full of things that I have accumulated in the past four years I am in this company. And I need to clean that ((This may mean bringing home office junk to the house…which is very unfortunate, since I already have so much junk in the first place. Why am I such a pack rat?!)). Soon. Really soon. DONE!
  3. Organize my music folder(s). In my external hard drive, I have a folder there for my music. It was only supposed to be named as “Music”, but I realized that I have music in my personal laptop and music from my work laptop. So I decided to name it that folder “ORGANIZE! Music” to remind myself that I need to fix that. I created that folder in 2009. It still has the same folder name. And I’m not even sure which folder has the most accurate music. And if ever my iPod crashes (knock on wood), I’m not sure if I can restore everything.
  4. Organize my photos. I’m not even sure what the state of my photo library is. I need to check that. Can’t have computers crashing and me losing my photos again. :/
  5. Weed out my bookshelf. Okay, I kinda do regular housekeeping for this, because every time I meet up with my book club, I bring some of the books that I’ve read that I know I would probably never read again. You know, those books that I don’t really like. I’ve been doing pretty good with that. Lately though, someone planted an idea in my head: letting go of books from my to-be-read pile that I will probably never read anyway. Without reading it first. I was flabbergasted. The pack-rat in me was thinking, “But what if you suddenly read a review about that book and it turns out to be really awesome and now that you want to read it, you don’t have it anymore? Better keep it!” But there is wisdom in that idea, because that would significantly reduce the amount of books on my unread pile. Some of those books are impulse buys on sales, and all that, but you know, I never got to read. I still don’t know if I will do that…maybe I will try. Maybe. At least I know I have friends who will eagerly get some of them.
  6. Get some closet space. I really need to do that “give away what you haven’t worn in a year” type of things. I haven’t really done that regularly because I’m a pack rat I haven’t really done major shopping and I’m afraid that if I remove all the clothes that I haven’t worn in a year from my closet, it would be empty. :( Which comes the next note to self: go buy myself something nice to wear. Same goes for shoes. Ah, I want a shopping spree.
  7. Go to confession. Because it’s been long overdue. And the soul needs some housekeeping, too.

So. I’m pretty sure there’s more, but let’s leave it at a manageable list of seven. Now I hope I can get to that soon sometime before 2012 ends within the first half within the first quarter of the year. I just really need to stop procrastinating and start making time for housekeeping. Maybe I can start small. With my photos, probably.

Let’s see. Oh, and finishing housekeeping stuff gives me something to post here, too. :p Hmm.