HTR Phase 2 +everything else

Ommi asked the other day about how I was managing to keep Phase 1 - work and home improvements - going with the Phase 2 workout requirements on my time. I don't have a complete answer for that, but I'll talk about a few things that I'm doing.

At the moment, it seems that settling the home requirements was far more intensive than maintaining them. It took a lot of focus and energy to get my house in order - especially the "big project" kind of cleaning that had not been done in a while. There are still big cleaning/sorting things that I have not done - like wiping down the walls, sorting through my craft closet, and weeding out my clothes drawers and shelves - but, for the most part I've completed all of the activities that only get done every 6 months or so. As for maintaining the rest of the house, I have some patterns in place that seem to be working. I have certain things that get done once a week - sweeping the tile, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, sweeping the wood floors. Somethings get done when they look like they need it - cleaning the microwave, windexing the mirrors, scrubbing the tub, some dusting. And some things are more than once a week - wiping the kitchen counters, vacuuming the living room (2x per week), general straightening up. For the most part, I try to work these in throughout my working hours. If I have 30 minutes or more between calls (especially in the early morning when it is still relatively cool) I tend to pick up one of these short maintenance tasks.

Busy work days, however, do interfere a bit with my house cleaning. My busiest time is, of course, also in the early morning when my UK team is still at work. With the number of projects currently needing my assistance, there are days that I don't get even the simplest task started during my working day. But, since I start at 5:30 (or, on days like today 5!), I am usually done by 2:30 or 3. With no commute, that leaves me a fair amount of time to get everything done, including getting to the gym 3 days a week, before dinner.

The key, for me, has been "The List". I know that you are all shocked to hear that I have a list. I include everything on the list - work, home, workouts, and other. When life is relatively quiet, and the house, job, and workouts are under control, the list is often in my head. On crazy-busy days, or days that I just don't feel motivated, I resort to paper. I am extremely data driven, so checking items off of the list really helps me. I use a planner that I bought for work to track the lists. Each day is a separate entity. I prioritize and I roll some items over to the next day if needed. For example, I was planning to vacuum the living room yesterday. There was plenty of time available for it. But it didn't need it very badly and HTH was free to run around yesterday. So we ran an errand and then went looking at bed frames to give us some ideas for the bedroom. The actual tasks were not a priority, but spending the day wandering with HTH was!

I guess what it comes down to is finding something that works for you. I like to focus on the details and work through the inertia of dealing with one thing at a time. Once I get out of the setup/startup phase, then I can add other things. In hindsight, it is clear I set up the HTR phases to meet my working style. As they so often say on the net, YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary - so what works for me may not work for you. But I hope that answers the question.