Misc ☆☆☆

[yuuago]

Stuff I did recently:

-Cleaned the entire house, including parts I normally don't clean.
-Worked on my RMSE letter.
-Practiced crochet for 20 minutes every day.
-Made peach ice cream.
-Made chocolate ice cream.
-Added some stuff to my daily workout; already seeing some improvement. :D
-Watched a whole bunch of Rose of Versailles.
-Word on an auction fic.
-Tried something new with cooking and didn't burn the house down. (Cooking bacon in the oven. I think I like it better this way than stovetop.)
-Started one day off very badly, but rallied and recovered!!

It was nice to have some time to myself.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

Comments

[merit]

How did the ice cream turn out? Peach sounds utterly delightful.

[yuuago]

:D
The taste reminded me a lot of the mango one that we made a few weeks ago, but the texture was a little different because there were chunks of peach added at the end, whereas the mango one was smoothly blended. Both were very good (and this one was richer because I used a higher fat cream, mmm!)

[kanadka]

Cooking bacon in the oven is more efficient, in my experience. And splatters less, too. I can see why people wouldn't tend to do it if it makes the oven smell like, well, bacon, and they want to go and bake a cake later.

I cannot get over how productive you are this quarantine. My god, man, what is your secret!?

[yuuago]

Baking bacon and then making a cake doesn't sound like a good idea, yeah. Except for those weirdos who put bacon in their baked goods. ;)

Anyway. The secret to being productive... hmmm... Well, a few things! One big factor is that, now that I'm not working, I now have an extra 8 hours of time every day that needs to be filled up....

-Before I go to bed, I make a list of things that I want to do the next day. This includes both not-fun things (vacuuming, cleaning) and fun things (watching a movie, reading the latest update of a fanfic I've been following, whatever), because I know that I need to make time for both.

-I break up chores into bite-sized pieces. Laundry has four steps per load (put laundry in washer, put laundry in dryer, fold laundry, put laundry away). It's satisfying to check them off, and it's easier to handle it when it's in discrete sections.

-I use both paper to-dos AND Habitica... for some reason neither on its own is enough, idk.

-Creative and learning-related goals are broken into specific and digestible pieces (study 20 minutes, write 100 words, whatever). Even working on my exchange letter was divided up this way. Having things without a limit is too vague and intimidating; it's easier to work on something for a certain point, and then know that I'm done with it for the day.

-Big projects (example: deep-cleaning the kitchen) are spread out over a few days, and broken down into bite-sized pieces. It's easier to think "today I'm going to tidy the spice cabinet" or "today I'm going to clean the dishwasher filter" than it is to think of "today I need to clean the kitchen".

I think I should probably add that Doing Things is part of the way I manage my depression/anxiety. If I'm not actively working on something, preferably something that involves physically moving (like cleaning or doing other household tasks), I end up zoning out and staring at the walls a lot and marinating in my miserableness. So at least this way, even if I feel bad, at least I can say that I dusted the living room or whatever.

Whoops, looks like I wrote a novel, sorry. :'D But now you know!

[kanadka]

:D ! Good novel tho, thanks!!

Lists have never worked for me, but I've also never done them at the end of the day. Maybe that was the secret all along. Also I like your thoughts on the creative and learning-related goals. That's always my problem too - they take so long and they're vague and ill-defined, so they're hard to 'finish' properly. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow too...

[yuuago]

Worth a try, at any rate! Good luck! <3 <3