Monday, August 19, 2013

I really like spreadsheets

So. I made a spreadsheet. I am doing this Aug-Aug so it’s 13 months, though not really full ones! I broke some of the more nebulous ones into manageable goals with monthly “Tasks”. I have one Tab for Monthly (with a line/row for each month and activity) and a tab for the more vague activities. I have 13 things to do each month! Yikes! Luckily some of them are incredibly easy (call family, go to a new place, write a letter) and will just require that I remain aware that I need to do them.

I also created separate tabs for movies and books. I assigned myself 8 movies each month, which is about 2 a week. 13 doesn’t divide evenly into 100 so I have some wiggle room. If I have seen the movie in the last 5 years OR more than once overall I am marking it off. If time allows, however, I will rewatch those movies towards the end. I am setting a very important ground rule for these viewings. I will watch them as if I were in a theater environment. That means no cell phones, tablets, computer usage, etc. Of course, I will allow myself bathroom breaks and such! This way I don’t end up playing Plants vs Zombies for 2 hours while On the Waterfront plays. Some of these movies will be an exercise in patience. For that reason each week I will probably choose one movie I either look forward to watching or have no expectations for and one movie I don’t particularly look forward to seeing. This way, the latter half of this year won’t be loaded with all the things I avoided seeing.

Books I am going to be pretty laissez-faire about. I have TONS of books so will have no problem finding 24 to read. I do, however, want to step outside my horizons a little bit. For that, I looked up Entertainment Weekly’s recently posted “100 must read” list. There are a lot that I’ve read already, but I picked the ones I find interesting that I haven’t. There’s a pretty decent selection there of classic classics, modern classics, high literature, popcorn reading, etc. My list is complete. I have a nice selection of stuff I own but haven’t read, and stuff I have neither read nor own. I am cheating slightly by choosing a book on the EW list I already started, but I only got about 50 pages into it so I’m giving myself a little leeway.

The first two movies are Apocalypse Now and The African Queen. I’ve only seen AN once about 8 years ago? I think I may have watched part of African Queen many, many, many years ago but this was well over 15 years ago so it hardly counts. Also, it quite possibly could have been a different movie entirely. Who knows! I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing it. It was definitely on the “ugh, really?” side of the list. Anyone see this? Feedback?

The book I’m reading this month is A Confederacy of Dunces. Since the month is half over, I’m probably only going to be reading one book. The means I need to read about 20 pages a night to finish this one, which is more than doable. I like it so far. The main character is so unlikeable (purposefully) but in a way that delights me. He reminds me of most of the people in online comments on the internet. He’s just so terrible and smug! Ahahahaha.

So far, so good. At least as far as planning stages go. Plan, plan, plan. Planning is always my favorite part of just about everything. Next up I plan (heh) on making tabs for the more nebulous of goals and brainstorming.

0 comments:

 
design by suckmylolly.com