I
was kinda falling off my D.I.T. list for the past week or so. Not in a truly bad way, where things were spiralling out of control, but it was getting to the point where I was feeling stressed about getting everything done, which is precisely the feeling that I took on D.I.T. to avoid. So, I ran my diagnostic and tried to figure out what was wrong.
It turns out, running a business is pretty time-consuming. But, being a carpenter is also pretty time-consuming. I had set out to basically work on site three full days a week, Monday to Wednesday, then use Thursday and Friday for taking care of non-site related things. The problem is, I can't really get anything on my lists done in the morning if I have to be on site at 8 or 9, and I'm pretty cooked in the afternoon, and not really feeling digging into my big to-do lists. This meant that I was scheduling things as much as four days in advance, and they were piling up in a stressful way on my couple of days allocated to accomplishing everything that wasn't "swinging a hammer". This, it turns out, wasn't working for me.
I need to be able to chipping away at things a little bit every day; what makes D.I.T. work for me is the continuous low-level effort. I don't react well to big swings in work level; almost nothing one day, and a ton of projects the next. I have to take this into account, and figure out a schedule that keeps me fresh and motivated.
So; I don't go to my work sites in the mornings anymore. That's my rule; I'm most productive in the morning, so that's time for me to develop my business, and keep my home in order, and I'll be heading onto work sites around noon (preferably after an early lunch). I tried this today and worked beautifully; I felt extremely productive, and mostly stress-free. Thank God I have the ability to set my own schedule.