blog about it

Yesterday was the last day of the first five weeks of training. It’s the end of terminology, the first phase of the training program. It was somewhat of a help. The next part is an introduction to Windows (no choice there). Thankfully it’s only a week long. Then comes the actual hardware training.

I’ll be spending all my time in the A+ book, taking notes to learn and retain all I can. I’ll be missing the third class day of the A+ training to move. And filling in any spare time I carve out to write or do website work for money, as it comes up.

moving in the middle

This week I will have my packing done so that I don’t have anything to do but study and write, for the first two days of the A+ training. If all goes well, on June 23, I will move first thing in the morning. I will have a quiet celebration with me and my mom, and offer a not-so-quiet prayer of thanks.

Lately, I’m so overwhelmed by looking at everything on my plate, that I get stifled. I’ve taken more than a few deep breaths trying to return to my center. That’s the best place to operate from. To help with this centering, I return to my staples, blogging, journaling, and meditating. And I continue.

keeping my focus on class work

Unpacking and anything else that comes up, will be secondary to completing the training. Dealing with that will be a breeze, since the biggest part will be over. Really, getting ready to move is the biggest hurdle to jump—even if you don’t have much, like me.

Throughout the preparation and moving, working and writing, I’ve got to keep my studies at the forefront. So, I review my notes and take more notes, and research things I have questions about. Writing helps a lot when I’m trying to internalize new information.

Beginning with the next session, on Tuesday, we’ll be in a new location. I have to find it on my own since I didn’t go with the class, yesterday. I’ll Google the address over the weekend and ask any questions I have on Monday. By the time I am moved, I will be able to relax on two fronts: no thoughts of moving for a long while, and no new class locations.

For a minute, that should make all the balls I’m juggling seem pretty easy. I’ll take that.

Recently, I had the opportunity to review my ability to persevere. I came through fairly unshaken, though not perfect. And fortunately for me, I’m not overly concerned about perfection more than doing my best.

I have to move and I’m not ready to move. It’s been thrust upon me to make this happen even though I’m not ready, financially or otherwise.

Having just started my certification training, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to focus. But that wasn’t really the problem. I love the training so I will find the focus. I thought about the money, but that’s only part of the problem, and one that I’m working on daily.

The biggest problem I had was fretting and not being able to sleep. An unrested mind is bereft of good ideas, to say nothing of optimal daily functioning. So today, I slept for many hours. It wasn’t so much an effort to catch up as it was an attempt to relieve my stress headache. It had been around for the past week and today it was making my eyes close because the pressure was so bad.

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It is  a lot exciting and a little intimidating to be back in a classroom setting–as a student. I’m thrilled about my first formal training toward computer certification. And it’s intimidating, ever so slightly, to be accountable to others for learning material within a given time. It probably has to do with learning things on my own for many years now.

permission denied

It’s a pleasure to learn new things that interest me. I guess that’s why I keep picking up on new things here and there. But I have to say that I am not one to finish everything that I start. Even useful things that are fun for me must sometimes be abandoned for things that are more pressing. And getting back to abandoned projects is not the easiest thing to do. You may not know anything about this, but I can tell you it’s difficult.

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Tomorrow is my first day at school. And I’m so excited I have no words. But I do have some ideas of things that need to be expedited. This was definitely a Twitter weekend. I needed to step up my tweeting activities. I’d fallen off for a while but I know it’s important to get back into it—for work as well as play.

social media preparations

TweetDeck
I’ve been working on finding writing jobs and everything I read lets me know I’m practically writing in a vacuum if I don’t promote my writing. So I decided that I needed to step up my tweeting game by insuring that I get the most out of my Twitter client—clients, now.

First I signed on for a TweetDeck account. Usually, I just dismiss the offer to sign up but I was curious. Research on the subject yielded none of the information that I was looking for. So, I decided to try it out for myself, and wow!

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Remember, last post I mentioned I secured training for A+ certification? Well, I do have a spot. The 14 week training program begins MONDAY. That’s less than a week away and I’m so excited! At the same time, I’m focused—trying to be focused about the things that I want to accomplish before I get started.

5, 6, and 7

I was reviewing my list that I shared last time and I can honestly click of three things right now, with a fourth coming later today. Numbers 5, 6, and 7 are well in hand.

Number 7 details: In fact, for #7, the posts for my dormant work blog, I actually wrote several and scheduled them for release throughout this week.

And I like it so much for that one, I’ll likely continue doing it by writing much on Thursday through Sunday. (Did I mention that I only have class Monday through Thursday?) That will give me more than enough time to generate the number of posts I’m aiming for which is 4 weekly. My class time will be over before I know it and I will have a tolerable routine in place that I can continue beyond that time.

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Update 5.20.2010: I just struck out the last item, learning new website tips. I recently found a new thumbnail creation site that I like. And I’ve been actively using Headspace2 and Keyword Statistics plugins for my work blog.

Update 5.15.2010: I just struck out the business cards from the list below. Actually I finished them last weekend. And these are the cards for my writing.

Why Organizing topped my Prep List

Next month, my certification training begins, and I’m all set—except, I need to improve my organization to increase my productivity. Organizing my workspace. It’s the most important part. And with that almost completed, I will be able to coast through the next few weeks.

It matters so much because knowing where things are is critical for me. Two reasons are: I’m forgetful, and easily distracted between multiple tasks. Organization adds a strong measure of sanity to the mania of busy-ness.

Things get really out of hand here, since I choose to divide my attentions between what I’m doing and what’s asked of me, by my family and others. Usually, it doesn’t get me off task by too much—usually.

Still, pulling different files, books and such, for different projects, often means things don’t get put away immediately. And the piles, eventually looking like my prison, must be dismantled. Besides, searching for things that could be right at hand really slows me down.

Getting Things Done

I’m off to a good start with tearing down the stacks of books and papers, returning them to their places, or better organized positions. And there were a few background things that needed doing before training. These are things that come to mind and get dismissed for other more urgent things.

Recently, I decided to start knocking them out as they recurred to me. As you can see several are already completed. The rest are well underway. Being organized will make it easier to finish as I make ready for big fun beginning next month.

1. Clean up my Gmail account for contacts
2. Design new business/networking cards
3. Post about Read Write Poem’s closing
4. Add link to my Amazon aStore, The Blog About It Store, I’ve been sitting on this for quite a while now and time was a-wasting
5. Add a page for The Blog About It Store
6. Finish my last 9 poems in 9 days for NaPoWriMo on Telling Stories
7. Write posts for my very quiet work blog
8. Update account information on different sites; it’s nice to have money going to the right places
9. Learn some new and needed website tips

This week has been about updating and knocking things out that are due or long over due. Operating from an organized workspace is a great way to move through things efficiently and quickly. What’s on your plate right now? How does organization improve your productivity? What else do you do to boost your productivity?