In my neverending quest to become more organized and efficient, I thought that this week I'd take a page from my fiance's book and start by making a daily schedule the evening before. Joe's been trying to get into a routine that will help him remember everything he needs to remember each morning before work and get him out of the door at least 15 to 30 minutes early every day. His schedule actually starts in the evenings, when he does things like put his wallet and keys in his work shoes, lays out his clothes for the next day, packs his lunch, and preps the coffee maker. It's been working really well for him, so last night as we watched a few WEEDS eps on the DVR, I penciled out a schedule for my Monday.

The thing is, Joe's schedules mostly cover the hour and forty-five minutes before he leaves for work and the hour and a half before he goes to bed. He's got a desk job, one with regular hours and duties, and his priority list there changes at a moment's notice. Because I work from home, I don't normally have to report in anywhere by a certain time, or worry about beating rush hour traffic, or dress myself in anything other than what basically amounts to PJs - like the baggy Elvis t-shirt I refuse to give up, even though it's three sizes too big, and the workout pants that used to fit me like leggings but now barely stay on my waist. Unlike Joe, who hops into the shower each day between 7:15 and 7:20, I can postpone my shower until after, say, my 8 - 8:45 a.m. yoga session. It's nice, having that kind of freedom, but also kind of ... well, overwhelming. I mean, my daily to-do lists (previously my lone stab at organization/efficiency) often have 17 items on them, more than half of which usually get cut and pasted onto the next day's list. It's so easy to think you'll spend 45 minutes reading/answering e-mail, only to have three and half hours fly by just like that.

So last night, after making my schedule and powering down the laptop for the night, and counting how many ounces of water consumed that day (76, if you're wondering), I felt good. Like, really good. I had a schedule! I was prepared to kick time management's butt!

But of course, my schedule was predicated on waking up the same time the alarm went off for Joe - a fact I neglected to mention to him. So while 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. read something like this:

Wake up, vitamins, wash face/brush teeth, pour first glass of H20

I didn't, um, even get out of bed until 6:57 a.m.

No worries, I told myself. This is why I'd given myself half an hour to accomplish five tasts that shouldn't take more than 10 minutes total. Since I was already so behind schedule, I made the executive decision to skip the face-washing, which I then moved to the 9 a.m. shower block.

But then Scout needed to go out, which is something Joe normally does at 6:45 but didn't today because Scout, like me, overslept. When I got back in, it was already 7:11 a.m. - 10 minutes into the hour when I was supposed to "write blog, read e-mail." (Oops! Forgot that e-mail part. Pausing to read.)

And there's no no e-mail, because it's only 7:26 a.m. as I type this sentence and I always check my in-box before bed. So, that's definitely a part of the schedule that will need to be tweaked.

What to do, what to do?

Another problem with today's schedule is that, even though I left myself large blocks of time for certain tasks (like 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., the hour in which I am to "prep packages and decide how best to mail"), I didn't quite count on waking up all zombified. If I'd gone to bed at 11:45 p.m. the night before, as planned, then I might have risen with the alarm, fresh as a daisy and ready to conquer the day.

As it was, Joe and I got sucked into our mini WEEDS marathon, and he didn't even head off to sleep until 12:45 p.m. himself. Then I made the mistake of flipping through EW before turning in, and read that EUREKA, a show that we both really like, returns to the Syfy (formerlly Sci Fi) Channel Friday night. I figured that I better set the DVR right then so I wouldn't forget, but even before I could press "record," the blue glow of the television transfixed me. I thought, "Hey, if I watch THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR tonight, I won't be tempted to tomorrow, like during my 9:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. block ear-marked for 'phone calls, breakfast, pull[ing] recipes for the week, Shoprite list, coupons.'"

And this was how I found myself dragging my butt into bed at the completely unsanctioned, unscheduled time of 2:10 a.m., because of course, after THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR, I couldn't resist the pull of the season premiere of RUBY, recorded earlier that evening. Also, staying up past midnight usually requires a small snack (your body knows it's supposed to be asleep, after all, and if you won't let it, then by god, you better give it some fuel!). So after my crackers-and-cheese fix, there had to be a second round of teeth brushing, further delaying my nighty-night.

So now it's 7:39 a.m., and I'm still moving as slowly as a hungover frat boy on Sunday morning (metaphorically, not literally). And there's nothing really stopping me from crawling back into bed and catching a couple more hours of snooze time. No set appointments, no places I need to be by X a.m. Just an optimistic schedule, scrawled on a 4" x 6" notebook around 11 p.m. last night.

This is where the bargaining begins: Did I really need to leave myself 45 minutes for "protein drink/make bed"? Will it really take me another 45 to "shower/dress"? Even if I lotion every inch of every limb after I towel off, the most time I need for those tasks is, like, twenty minutes, right?

The schedule, clearly, will be a work in progress. Because I know - not just think but actually know - that if I don't get some more shut eye, there's no way I'll be able to make it through my 3 p.m. energy crash. Which is crucial, because the 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. block is devoted to the revamp of my web site.

Oh, well. At least I wrote this blog post while downing 14 ounces of water - and in that regards, I'm at least 6 minutes ahead of schedule.*

*yawn*


*Actually, after hyperlinking all of the TV shows, it's more like 2 minutes ahead of schedule.