one thing at a time

After laying in bed for over an hour, I've come to several important conclusions:

1) I need to stop going to bed so late/ sleeping in so late/ staying up so late because I'm not tired/ sleep in so late... my sleep schedule is all messed up and I have stuff to do so this needs to change.

2) I have a lot of mental clutter to take care of:
-- I have to finish the 5 pager and the 10 pager. ASAP. This has been hanging over my head and I cannot be productive in the rest of my life if I'm constantly pre-occupied with them.
-- I have to get caught up on all the reading for my classes. I embark on every semester knowing that  I have to handle it differently than I handled all the previous ones, yet I never acknowledge how much stress I create for myself when I put it off. I feel like the stress paralyzes me, and I would actually like to do more with my time than think about how stressed I am for not doing the things that I need to be doing.
-- I have to get this place cleaned up and clear out all the clutter. J and I talked tonight about how much visual "noise" there is, and how we both would be exponentially more productive if there wasn't so much stuff everywhere.
-- I have to lose weight. I know it, I've known it for a while, and though I can (theoretically) pretend it doesn't matter for as long as I'd like, I do know that overweight women (not men, but let's not talk about that) get paid less than their healthy-weight counterparts, regardless of qualifications. So, for the sake of money and vanity, I want to weigh less and do more.
-- We have to send out "thank you" cards. This has been bugging me for almost 6 months, and there's no need to keep it hanging over our heads.

3) To take care of all encompassed by #2, I need to start only on one thing. I propose I deal with Tuesday's exam, then tackle the 10-pager (I only need three or four more pages). When that's done (by Tuesday night), I will tackle the rest of the 5 pager (3 more pages).
When that's done, I will work on the two 4 pagers I need for Friday. The first is more than halfway done, and the second strongly correlates with a speech had I had to give as a junior in high school (meaning that I just need to reconstruct the argument).

To reiterate: one thing at a time. I have a hard time dealing with this, but I will do my best not to have a million tabs open and have all the documents open. I will deal only with information that's pertinent to the paper at hand.

4) I also need to work somewhere other than our apartment for the time being. It's messy and cluttered, and I can't concentrate here. I have no doubt that I can wrap up everything in a fraction of the time I've spent on it thus far, simply by not being surrounded by such a mess.

5) Once all those papers are out of the way (one at a time, one at a time), I can deal with the apartment. I will probably add a number of things to our "to sell" pile, and hopefully by April we will be able to clear out the library.

6) Once the mental and physical clutter is taken care of, I have no doubt I will be able to focus on other productive things, like making it to the gym and getting out a bit more.

** Breathing deeply.

It really helps to make a list. One thing at a time, one thing at a time.