Ye-ah, that worked well

The first day of my "job" plan, and I woke up sick. And not just a little under the weather; puking, falling asleep on the couch sick. I sort of slept until noon and then got up and did as little as possible the rest of the day.

But today is a new day. It was raining so I drove the girls to school, which then required (heh) a stop at Sonic, so I didn't get back until about 10 after 8. No worries, I ate breakfast and started dishes and got everyone else breakfast and all those usual morning things, and sat down to start "work" by 9:00. So far, so good. I'll continue work (with a short lunch break) until 2:00, and then clean (and do the homework thing when the girls come home) until about 5:00, make dinner, and pretty much watch tv the rest of the night because it's Thursday and I have lots to watch tonight. Sounds like a plan to me.

So, what kind of schedule, if any, do you have for when you clean or chill or do other things? 25 points for answering in comments.

Changing the status quo

There are a lot of things on my daily to-do list, for one reason or another, that involve sitting at the computer. They are all, in some way, productive, though some are productive only for a relatively insignificant "job" that I have assigned myself. Would the world end if I quit moderating my local Freecycle group, for instance? Of course not, but I'd feel as if I were shirking responsibility. Even though many of the members piss me off royally at some time or another, I just can't seem to let it go. I know it would fall to pieces, and for some reason I give a damn. :)

There are tasks related to saving money or "earning" it, albeit in miniscule amounts, tasks related to the kids, tasks related to running the household, tasks related to my website and other Yahoo groups, just a lot of things. A lot of days I get bogged down in or excited about one or more of these things and before I know it hours have gone by and the house is falling apart around me and the kids are hungry...

So. This is my new plan. I'm going to pretend I have an office job. For a set period of time each day I will devote my attention to whichever of these tasks I can fit into the time allowed based on urgency and whatever. After that it becomes cleaning time, and then when dinner's done I'll call it a day. Obviously kid needs and other urgencies will come up throughout and those don't count. But I really think that treating it like a *job* will be key to limiting the time spent. Which in a way seems kind of backwards, but that's generally how I think. :)

Have any of you ever tried to apply business tactics to your home efforts?