Maximizing my time

I keep track of a lot of things.  I record what I eat and exercise and it's been helping me keep me healthier.  At work, I track how many hours I spend on which tasks to help justify the need for temporary labor.  But when I get home, I just lounge about.  Part of it is deserved after a long day at work, but part of it is being lazy.  I know that I'm more sedentary in the winter, but we're approaching spring and I can't tell you the last time I did something worthwhile around the house (aside from cleaning the basement which took me 2 unnecessary weekends--it could have been completed in 2 hours).  I watch TV, but there's nothing that I can't live without and even if there was there's no show that justifies being a couch potato.

So I made a list.  I'm going to get things done.  I'm going to go out and do things, I'm going to create the things I keep pinning on Pintrest.  If you don't mind me sharing, I feel like it will help me be accountable.  Here are the things I have done so far today:

• Cleaned the bedroom closet
• Cleaned out the storage ottoman (which has been a receptacle for things I don't know where to put) 
• Tuned up my bike: filled the tires, changed the bike bell (the old one was wrecked in a wipeout last year), and took a 15 minute ride with the dog (she loves to run next to the bike).  I can tell it's been a while--my thighs felt the burn on the way up the hill (can't change the gears with the dog on one arm).
• Folded and put away laundry
• Came up with crafty Easter ideas for my mom and I to work on next week when she visits (thanks, Pintrest)

And it's not even 10 on a Saturday morning.  Also on the list for this week:

• Clean desk area.  It becomes a landing place for unwanted mail and right now there's a Star Wars ship there too.  Your guess is as good as mine.
• Clean out office closet.  It's basically a "junk" closet.  Piles of photos and unsorted papers fall out when you open the door.  This closet always gets the best of me and every time I try to clean it since we've moved in I lose ambition.
• Clean our bedroom.  Well, my side.  My dresser tends to collect things.
• Dust.  The whole house.
• Clean bathrooms.
• Straighten up the mud room area.  The contractors come with the supplies on Monday and will then start on the basement.  We said it was ok for them to use the bathroom at the top of the stairs, so I need to clean the path to said bathroom.
• Go through the books.  We have a bookcase that is overflowing (that led to a busted shelf) and some are old college text books.  I got rid of most of mine, but Rick needs to sort through his.  We need to get a new bookcase, but we need to thin the herd first.
• Print out Groupons.  Silly, but if I don't see them printed on the bulletin board, they go unused.
• Get groceries, including supplies for Rick's birthday cake.  Also make said cake on Friday.
• Get a 5x7 print of someone we know to put in the frame that hangs above our bed.  It's a collage frame and a year after I hung it there are still two people we don't know staring down at us as we sleep.  Rick asks me from time to time if we know them.
• Write letters to Jane, Wyatt, and Beth (I'm a pretty decent pen pal).  Mail Finn's toy with Jane's letter.
• Get Rick a birthday present.  I have ideas.
• Order checks.
• Call the barn and get reimbursed for November's board.  Yeah, I've been putting that one off...
• Clean the faucet heads.  I changed the aerator (or some little filter device that I found in the ottoman) on the bathroom sink and found that the bottom of all of the faucets are all disgusting with some white residue.  I see it on the shower heads from time to time and clean them with a cloth, but it's on all faucets and even though you have to get under them to see it, now that I know it's there I can't pretend it's not.

I think that's the end of my list.  It looks more exhausting here that it does on my piece of paper.  And it seemed like I had done more this morning until I wrote the "still to do list".  But now I'm off to the gym (and will read Augusten Burroughs as I elliptical) and then groceries.  Then back to the list.  I have a full week; tonight is roller derby, tomorrow is lunch and games with Grandma and John, either Monday or Tuesday I'm going to the neighbor's for supper, my mom comes on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  I'm taking Thursday off to go shopping and crafting (Mom loves a good holiday craft and Easter is just around the corner).  Friends with a new baby are stopping sometime between Friday and the following weekend, and Saturday is Rick's birthday!  It will be a busy week and I hope to cross some more things off my list before the weekend is up!