Productive Day
Today was a relatively productive day for a nice change! I'm a little more optimistic that I can finish this fireplace project before the end of the weekend. That will leave us a day or two to decorate for Christmas and wrap presents... hmmm... presents... I might need to buy some of those soon...
The new aspen and maple paneling in the living room is now stained and I have applied three coats of a satin polyurethane. Ideally, it could really use another two or three coats of poly but the wood grain is filled in enough and sealed enough to make it through the next month or so. Besides, I just might add a coat or two while I am applying poly to the fireplace and shelving unit. That would finish the walls completely. In the meantime, it is looking great tonight! The house is a mess with construction materials all over the place but those new walls look nice!
Tomorrow I plan to start cutting the latest batch of finish lumber for the fireplace, mantle and shelving unit. In between cutting different groups of pieces, I can start assembling too.
Tonight I took some additional measurements... measured multiple times to avoid stupid mistakes (which happens far too often lately with all my cognitive difficulties)... and double checked all my math on my sketches (something else which suffers due to my cognitive difficulties). I am confident that I am ready for a productive day tomorrow.
In order to have had this productive day today with the hope of having a productive week, I needed to eliminate a few things from my normal daily routine in order to conserve energy. I only have so much energy each day so I must carefully plan each day. When I have a busy week, I really must spend time carefully planning the use of energy.
Coming up with an effective energy management plan can be difficult but if I start with the required parts of the plan and then eliminate parts of my daily routine, I can then add in things like working on this fireplace project.
In this case, I have eliminated running errands. No traveling to the grocery store unless absolutely necessary. No shoveling snow. No digging the car out. No shopping of any kind. Minimal cooking. Minimal house cleaning. Minimal laundry, if any. Minimal dish washing. No Christmas tree shopping. No decorating the house for Christmas. My focus must be on carpentry, medications, finish work, medications, napping, assembling, more medications, and sleeping well at night. Basically, I needed to eliminate as much as possible from my daily routine so I could add in different tasks of this project.
What I could not eliminate was napping for two to four hours every afternoon. I could not eliminate a good night's sleep. I could not eliminate medications... actually... I needed to add in extra medications. This adapted daily energy management plan would allow me to work a few hours each morning and then a couple of hours in the evening while Sheila prepares dinner. I normally cook but that won't be happening until this project is completed. Since even something as mundane as showering requires energy, I am also minimizing showering (perhaps too much information, but necessary if you are to understand how carefully I must manage my use of energy each and every day).
This type of adapted energy management plan only works temporarily for relatively short bursts and there is a steep price to pay. I will still wear myself down and as a result will require rest and recovery for a long period afterward. And, of course, this is assuming I even make it through my planned adapted week! Recovery could take a month. If I'm lucky, it may only take a week to recover. What is certain is I will definitely need a recovery period.
Now I have a plan... I'm making progress... and I'm looking forward to seeing the fireplace take shape.
More to follow...
The new aspen and maple paneling in the living room is now stained and I have applied three coats of a satin polyurethane. Ideally, it could really use another two or three coats of poly but the wood grain is filled in enough and sealed enough to make it through the next month or so. Besides, I just might add a coat or two while I am applying poly to the fireplace and shelving unit. That would finish the walls completely. In the meantime, it is looking great tonight! The house is a mess with construction materials all over the place but those new walls look nice!
Tomorrow I plan to start cutting the latest batch of finish lumber for the fireplace, mantle and shelving unit. In between cutting different groups of pieces, I can start assembling too.
Tonight I took some additional measurements... measured multiple times to avoid stupid mistakes (which happens far too often lately with all my cognitive difficulties)... and double checked all my math on my sketches (something else which suffers due to my cognitive difficulties). I am confident that I am ready for a productive day tomorrow.
In order to have had this productive day today with the hope of having a productive week, I needed to eliminate a few things from my normal daily routine in order to conserve energy. I only have so much energy each day so I must carefully plan each day. When I have a busy week, I really must spend time carefully planning the use of energy.
Coming up with an effective energy management plan can be difficult but if I start with the required parts of the plan and then eliminate parts of my daily routine, I can then add in things like working on this fireplace project.
In this case, I have eliminated running errands. No traveling to the grocery store unless absolutely necessary. No shoveling snow. No digging the car out. No shopping of any kind. Minimal cooking. Minimal house cleaning. Minimal laundry, if any. Minimal dish washing. No Christmas tree shopping. No decorating the house for Christmas. My focus must be on carpentry, medications, finish work, medications, napping, assembling, more medications, and sleeping well at night. Basically, I needed to eliminate as much as possible from my daily routine so I could add in different tasks of this project.
What I could not eliminate was napping for two to four hours every afternoon. I could not eliminate a good night's sleep. I could not eliminate medications... actually... I needed to add in extra medications. This adapted daily energy management plan would allow me to work a few hours each morning and then a couple of hours in the evening while Sheila prepares dinner. I normally cook but that won't be happening until this project is completed. Since even something as mundane as showering requires energy, I am also minimizing showering (perhaps too much information, but necessary if you are to understand how carefully I must manage my use of energy each and every day).
This type of adapted energy management plan only works temporarily for relatively short bursts and there is a steep price to pay. I will still wear myself down and as a result will require rest and recovery for a long period afterward. And, of course, this is assuming I even make it through my planned adapted week! Recovery could take a month. If I'm lucky, it may only take a week to recover. What is certain is I will definitely need a recovery period.
Now I have a plan... I'm making progress... and I'm looking forward to seeing the fireplace take shape.
More to follow...
The walls are beautiful! It gives the room a warm feeling. I cannot wait to see the fireplace start to take shape. We are really going to want to get those new floors in now!
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