Sunday = Cleaning Day

I re-start university this week. Last year was "written off" in a combined leave-of absence and it's just as well I think.

Any way, I have this notion that success will be partially dependent upon me treating the Masters as a "9 to 5 job". That is, I will go to the uni, do my stuff, and then come home (with appropriate chores or detours on the way). At first I thought Monday to Friday would be best, but I think instead, Tuesday to Friday. The main reason behind that is that most holidays seem to be on a Monday. If that's not a "uni day" then I'm not missing anything. So - four days for uni studies, and three days for other stuff. Four days at the university, where I spend at least six hours there (even if it's twiddling my thumbs), so say 10-4, of 11-5, or 12-6 (13-7 is not practicable because of bus timetables). I must get something done if I stick to that.

In response to that though, one of the three non-uni days will be a cleaning/work day, where I do housework, gardening and so on. The optimum day is Sunday (like today) , because fewer buses run that day and it's harder to get to anything and back again.  I think two, having three days means that I can be flexible as well, so it won't matter if one weekend it's Sunday, and another that it's Monday, so long as it's one day in the trio. That'll be a day when I don't get on the study PC (and by implication email or web stuff) until I've done all my chores. I don't fuck around or piss away the time until after that.

Another day I think will be Comic Day, and I'll focus on drawing and creating my web comics on that day. Last year what happened (partly because I was distracted, but also because my time was mostly unstructured) was that I failed to almost any Masters stuff, and a bare minimum of webcomic stuff. My web comics are important - they are a form of play for me that "doesn't matter". That is to say, that unlike the Masters it won't be too great a tragedy if I fuck up in some way when making them, but it would be a tragedy if I didn't do any at all. So of the three days no uni studies, one is cleaning/work, another web comics/play (including videos). The third, well that'll be whatever (movie day?) comes up, including extra work or play. Last year I had a gap of 139 days between web comics. I don't want to repeat that. I hope to do at least one webcomic page a week. (the ideal is 3-4, released 2-3 days apart)

Maybe this sounds a bit rigid, but I can't afford to fuck up on the Masters, or at least fuck up by not doing anything (a glorius fail is OK, because at least i will have done something). The biggest issue I have it seems is one of procrastination. And procrastination in me is manifested by conflicting urges. The inner child/artist wants to have fun and play; the inner drudge/critic wants to have a house that I feel comfortable in and could invite friends to. In the past what tends to happen is that they cancel each other out and I don't end up doing either, feeling more and more guilt because I've "wasted my time". But - by sticking to a loose schedule, then maybe I can satisfy all the conflicting desires in me.

But, to make it work I've got to follow through on the commitments. If I skip rather than reschedule the workday, then my inner critic's going to lay a guilt trip on my inner artist, and if I fail to take advantage of the comics day it'll be the same in reverse. Today was the first workday in this. Today, I did:..

1. Clothes washing;
2. Dishes washing;
3. Cleared out a laundry trough;
4. Transferred the good base of a broken student chair that Kevin had left here, over to the good top that was left on my student chair that broke a couple of days ago;
5. Mopped kitchen and sun-room floors (and removed unsightly marks left by fridges and other stuff);
6. Chopped down one tree growing outside a back window (less than a meter away from the house) and pruned another;
7. Mowed front and back lawns (and refilled the water containers); and
8. Vacuumed the carpets with the new cleaner (golly you should have seen the muck!).

...and while I feel hot and sweaty, I also feel pretty good, because that stuff is done now, and I have no guilt in doing stuff like surfing the web, doing Live Journal and Facebook, or going on to Second Life. 

Not of course that every work day is going to be as productive, just as every comic day will end up with a certain quota of comic pages, but it's a start, and the inner drudge/critic in me is satisfied that now this stuff's been, it's fine to play. For now I'm looking forward to reading in a nice bath, and tomorrow will be the first comic day. 

Whoa!