Last night I worked a little later than usual to finish this week’s payroll. I did it so that I could do something today that I’ve been putting off for too long. The company check record requires a lot of straight-ahead data entry into a spreadsheet I designed years ago that, once it’s done (if ever), will yield job-by-job cost reports. It’s intricate, it’s time-consuming, and it’s not much fun. That’s basically why it hasn’t been done for awhile.

Well, that was really stupid, and I should have known better. I could no more spend the whole day doing high-intensity data input than I could fly the Eldorado to the moon. I had to take frequent time-outs and significantly lower my expectations (which I’m really good at, having had plenty of practice). I got about halfway through May, and I think I can get halfway through the rest of May tomorrow, which will leave me little enough to do later on in the week. I have high hopes of reconciling the May bank statement some time before July. For a change.

It’s a lesson I keep relearning, and eventually it will soak in. I can’t stay at one task, especially one that taxes sore muscles, nerves or other connective body parts, long enough to get it done without suffering the consequences. And there’s enough to do that I can do a little of this and a little of that throughout the day and end up getting all of it done. Eventually. Probably.

For mostly the same reason, I’m varying my workouts through the week, and the results are that (a) it’s easier to motivate myself to do something different from the day before, and (2) I’m getting a more balanced benefit. Now I’m using the treadmill Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and I’m doing fitness videos Tuesday and Friday. I’m either taking Wednesday and Sunday off completely, or using them as pick-up days for days I might have missed. For some reason my brain accepts things better when there’s a schedule.

I love lists, and I love schedules. I even have a day-by-day list of XM radio channels that I listen to. I know you didn’t ask, but on Monday I listen to Seventies on Seven; Tuesday it’s X Country, XM12; Wednesday and Thursday I listen to XM2 (Bob Dylan’s “Theme Time Radio Hour” on Wednesday, Tom Petty’s “Buried Treasure” show on Thursday); Friday I listen to Sixties on Six; Saturday it’s The Village XM15 (folk music); and Sunday, if I listen at all, it’s XM50 The Loft.

So there you go. Variety, based on a strict schedule. Somehow I draw comfort from that. It feels as if I’m doing something right, even if it’s only right for me.