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Jan 26 2012
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30, Girl you be killin' em!, Health and Fitness, Resolution Challenge 2012, Useful Tips

My Fitness Steez.

Keep reminding yourself!

I’m probably not the best person to give fitness advice, but I do know how it feels to struggle with weight, body image and just overall fitness routine bordom, stardom and just overall gettingoffyourbuttanddoingitdom, but this year, I told myself I’m not going to get discouraged, and I’m just going to try to get some type of fitness activity no matter what.

Before I get started, a little bit about my body (haha, that sounds so weird!). I’m not thin, I don’t think I’ve ever been thin. If there was ever someone who was big boned and could fully admit it, it’s me! (seriously, my doctor told me this!). I’m muscular, but I have a gut and someone my height should probably be thirty pounds less than what I am, but regardless the shape that my body has taken, I’m probably in the second best “shape” of my life.

I hate to say, I’ve been on a diet all my adult life, but I think it wasn’t until college did I realize that it was time to nip this whole baby fat mantra in the bud and really start getting out there and going for it. I’ve always been bigger than my friends and I grew up in a predominantly Asian community, so I NEVER felt thin… ever. There’s a reason why one of my Almost Thirty Proverbs is Beauty isn’t defined by skinny. It’s because all my life I’ve heard, “You’d be so pretty if you lost some weight.”

I’m not at my weight goal, but I am in a happier place when it comes to my fitness and weight. I think I’ve come to a realization that when it comes to fitness it’s either you do or you don’t. I can tell stories and anecdotes of when my fitness life was good and my fitness life was not so good, but from 2006 (when I decided to do something about my weight) to now, I’ve realized that I can’t be discouraged and I can’t be negative. I have to stay upbeat and keep everything in perspective.

It’s so easy to be unhappy about weight, but the biggest struggle in the last couple years is to shake being unhappy about it and just be about it! I could name all the times when I was discouraged that I wasn’t at the weight or fitness level I wanted to be at. Even as recent as a couple days ago I received my holiday bloat drivers license picture and all I could think is, “Ugh, not there yet.” BUT before I could beat myself up about holiday eating, I just said, “OK, hit it… let’s start running more.” and I just started doing it.

I got carded this weekend and the doorman was like, “Is that you?” and all I could say is, “I know, it’s a bad picture.”

For all the starts and stops and false starts I’ve had to my fitness plan, I feel that the same rules have stayed tried and true. This time, even though I’m motivated by the Resolution Challenge, I’m also just over being discouraged about it. Let’s just do it… let’s just go! So with that all said, here are some of my favorite ways to get the fitness in without any excuses. Again, I don’t claim to be an expert at fitness, but I do know how it feels to be discouraged about getting started!

Nicola’s Fitness Steez Starter/Continue Tips

  • Leave the gym bag in the car. I leave everything in the car, and lately I’ve been taking my bag up to my classroom so there’s no excuse to not change. I figured if I took the time to get the bag up to my room, I might as well use it.
  • Find quick workouts that you can do without excuses, even if you’re tired. This year, my favorite is jumping jacks and Just Dance 3. Jumping Jacks are the bidness! It gets everything going, and it’s just not cardio. Your love handles and your arms will feel it if you do it right. I’ll do 500-1000 jumping jacks when I can’t go out for a run.
  • Track your workouts. I have an iPhone, so I use Nike + to login my workouts. It’s great motivation because not only does it track average pace and miles, it also tells you how many calories you’ve burned which I love seeing. Makes me feel really proud!
  • Find an activity  you enjoy doing. I think that’s why people hate the gym, no one really loves going to the gym because it’s so boring an repetitive. I like yoga, hiking and running. These are activities I like doing and don’t mind doing.
  • But… don’t ditch your gym membership… and make sure it’s on the way home from work/school. Having the gym membership means that there’s no excuses to doing something active (especially if the gym bag is with you). It’s also super important to be able to get to your gym without any excuses about it being far. There are three gyms in a 3-5 mile radius from my work, so I totally have no excuses. I also think it’s helpful who have friends who go to the same gym. A lot of friends who I could workout with have my gym, so it’s nice to know if I want to workout with someone, I could.
  • Tell friends and family you’re trying to lose weight. I think people are usually embarrassed that they have to tell their friends they’re watching what they eat, or they’re trying to workout. I think that’s the hard part about being in this age range is that food is so social. It’s so easy to say, “Let’s go out to eat!” and just catch up over drinks or eats. You just have to tell them you can’t, or just suggest things that are more active instead of eating. Even if your friends are not responding, be persistent about it. Tell them your health is important to you, and that this goal is important to you and ask them to help you out. If your friends don’t take your seriously, each time they say, “Let’s go out to eat!” politely decline, and after the third or fourth time, they’ll get the picture. Besides… I think hiking/walking/something active is a much better way to catch up with friends. This is probably the hardest thing to do out of everything I’ve suggested.
  • Stay positive! At one point, I was halfway to my weight loss goal, but I ended up gaining it all back. I was super mad at myself for doing that, and really beat myself up for failing. Each time I didn’t do what I was supposed to, I would be so hard on myself. The last year or so, I’ve realized that the negativity is not going to work when sticking to weight loss or a fitness plan. You have to stay positive, and you have to keep going. You don’t need other people to cheer you on (because I HATE THAT) but the best cheerleader to help you out is YOU! You’re the one in the driver seat.

And lastly,

  • Be patient. It’s not going to happen overnight, so stick with it like the image says.

Me circa 2006

 

me circa 2012 (current FB pic)

This is the year, I know, I’ve proclaimed this before, but this is the year that I get it right, and so far the month has been pretty good. I’m running an 11 minute mile again (give or take a minute) and I’m being more conscious of the food I’m eating. I never have a particular weight goal, but I’m going to really focus on my clothing this time around. My fat jeans have been a little looser the last couple weeks and I’m just taking it day by day. That’s all you really can do. Stay focused and go!

This isn’t my original idea. I actually got this from my bestie David, but as motivation, I always look at old pictures, and remind myself that that’s where I was and this is where I am now, and that I’ll never be where I was again as long as I keep at it! I guess that could be another suggestion as well. I’m not into those body before and afters ala P90X but I think it’s important to celebrate the success instead of dwelling in the failures. That’s a lesson in life that can be applied everywhere, not just this particular goal.

What are some of your fitness tips? Share below so we can all help each other out! ALSO, it’s not a serious suggestion, but my Fitness Steez Pinterest Board is my biggest source of motivation and workout tips. It’s my homepage when I start my web browser! It’s going to be a good year fitness wise! I can feel it!

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Jan 13 2012
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29, Adulthood Readiness, For Immediate Life Implementation, Useful Tips, You should know this by now!

Almost Thirty Proverbs.

My co-worker is an English teacher, and she does this proverb writing lesson with her seniors every year. She post these proverbs on her ceiling, and whenever we’re lesson planning together, I lie on the desk and read the various proverbs on the ceiling. Some of them are pretty good! I wish I remembered some of them in their exact form!

When I got home from work tonight, it made me think of my own “almost thirty” proverbs that I’ve learned from these almost thirty years of life so here they are in no particular order and maybe longer than what proverbs should be, but whatever, I’m almost thirty and I do what I want! =)

  • Words are important, whether you’re saying them or receiving them.
  • If you say something you better mean it because someone is relying on those words to follow through.
  • Self-Confidence (not cockyness) gets you everywhere!
  • The love that is unconditional in your life doesn’t need any titles, definitions of strength and promises to last forever, they just do all that without you asking.
  • No (wo)man is an island, no matter how much you wish you could be.
  • Hard work gets you everywhere, but working too hard gets you nowhere.
  • Emotional health is just as important as physical health.
  • Beauty isn’t defined by skinny.
  • It’s ok to ask for a timeout, no one should ever run on empty, ever.
  • The truth often hurts (especially if you’re looking for advice) but always remember that the truth givers care enough to give you that.
  • The achiever defines their own success, both in career and in personal arenas of life.
  • (Especially when it comes to energy and physical ability) Act the age that you feel, not the age that you are.
  • Patience and understanding are key to achieving patience and understanding.
  • Love all out, and leave when the love is all out.
  • Never rely on someone else to “fill” an emotion that they can’t truly fill.

I’m sure I could do this all night, but these are the ones that stand out the most. I’m not going to lie, I’m like nervous and excited about what’s to come this weekend! The big day is on the 17th, so Saturday will officially be “Three to Thirty” so my birthday post be written then.

If you were to write your own “almost _________ ” birthday/age proverb, what would you say? What would you write! Post your proverb in the comments below!

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Jan 06 2012
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29, Adjustments for Happiness, For Immediate Life Implementation, Resolution Challenge 2012, Useful Tips

Resolution Challenge 2012

Not too shabby, considering today I was just walking and talking with friends and yesterday was the first day running in maybe months! =D

This year, I told myself that I wouldn’t set New Years Resolutions. I’ve been setting them regularly for the last 10 years and usually I keep one out of the handful that I make. I know that in the last post, I just said that my only resolution was that I was going to be the best me ever, but I guess I should elaborate a little bit more on that a little bit more.

I was with my BFF Angela and her sister Donna this past weekend because Angela was in town for the holidays from D.C. and we were talking about why it was so important to set goals and resolutions at the beginning of the year. I told them that I was done setting resolutions and that I just wanted to be the best me ever, forever! Donna joked that if I became this person, would I not be the best ever after that? I know forever isn’t really possible, but what I meant by being the best me ever, forever was that I just wanted to get it right this year without any excuses and really reach all my goals.

Being the best me ever (forever) is my mantra for 2012.

It’s a promise to myself to be thirty, and not be silly and careless when it comes to taking care of myself and be focused and determined to accomplish everything that I need to work on. OF course, I need to center in on a few things, but I’m totally resolving to just slowly change all the behaviors that have been preventing me from being the best me that I can be.

I know, it sounds extremely cheesy, but sometimes I gets down like that. I think that one of the things that we forget about is that we have to be our own cheerleaders and we have to be the ones to gather up positive energy for ourselves. I’ll be the first one to tell you that I hate attention and props for the work that I do, but sometimes I do need to remind myself constantly to stop being my toughest critic and so hard on myself and start bigging myself up once in a while. Giving myself this cheesy slogan is kind of a way to say, “Hey, you’re older, you’re wiser, you know what to do, so just do it already!”

If you look up resolution in the dictionary, it says to look up resolve (lol) I seriously have Merriam Webster up right now. And the  4th definition of resolve says

to deal with successfully : clear up <resolve doubts> <resolve a dispute>

A few days ago I posted this link from Lifehacker about the difference between goals and resolutions on my Facebook. Your goal may be to lose weight, but you should resolve to eat better and make time for exercising to achieve your goal. Even though this is a big no duh I think the key to this whole idea of resolution making that the article mentions is that in order to achieve your goals, you have to make those little changes in your every day routine.

I had like a resolution epiphany. It’s the changes in your every day routine that are going to get you to your goals. I know that behaviors change in January, people frequent the gym more, people eat in more than going out and it’s pretty good for the first two weeks until MLK weekend and everyone is back to their old tricks again and it’s not until the end of the year are we reminded that we didn’t reach the goals we set at the beginning of the year.

Angela and I  try to hold each other accountable for things that we know we need to work on. It’s hard to do because she lives so far away, but I think the intent is there, but not followed through on as much as we could do. We try to be as supportive as possible, but knowing that in the past we we’re so successful in keeping tabs on each other, we were trying to think of a brand new way to help each other out and really kick those bad habits finally and just be awesome this year.

That’s when the Resolution Challenge 2012 was born.

Ladies and Gentlemen... your contestants!

Starting on Sunday the 8th, Angela and I will be challenging each other to change those little things in our everyday routine and really work to accomplish our goals. For the next seventeen weeks, we’ll be participating in this little challenge against each other to make sure we stay accountable for changing all those bad habits. Each week, we’ll be setting one personal goal and one fitness goal. To hold ourselves accountable for our goals, we’ve decided to put some money into play.

Personal goals are going to be in the areas of personal finance, time management, emotional health (this one is for me, a reminder to not stay at work forever and a day), maintaining personal relationships, eating better and other areas that are related to life. Fitness goals are just that, fitness goals. Do 20 minutes of Just Dance 3 or log in 10 miles for the week, those are the goals that we’ll be setting each week. Again, because we’re trying to reach goals, setting goals each week help us change those little habits on a daily basis that are preventing us from getting to our goals.

To hold ourselves accountable for the goals, there’s some money involved. Each set of goals is worth $20. So there’s $40 in play between the both of us each week. So if Angela and I complete our goals for the week, $40 goes into the general pot. Say, I don’t complete my goals for the week, but Angela does, Angela’s money goes into the general pot and my money goes into Angela’s Charity Pot. We’ll be doing this routine for the next seventeen weeks.

If everything goes well, and we don’t have any huge mishaps, at the end of the seventeen weeks our general pot will be close to $500! The general pot is a treat for us. I’m coming to visit during Spring Break and the weekend I’m there we’re going to take a quick trip to New York. If the money in the general pot is above $420, all that money saved up is going to be split between the both of us to use for our weekend in New York!

The Charity Pot is for where the money goes if the other person doesn’t make their goals. The money collected in each of these pots will go to a charity of each of our choice. We didn’t want it to be competitive and have the money go to ourselves because then the idea of a general pot and providing support for each other would be a little silly. If our Charity Pots get up to more than $120 that’s when each of us will have to have an intervention with each other and talk about why our goals aren’t being accomplished.

THE BIGGEST roadblock to all this is that we live so far away from each other. I guess even if Angela were here, I’d still have to make sure that she’s doing her stuff and vice versa. So we made a rule to send screen shots of calorie trackers. Call each other to make sure we did what we were going to do and other supportive things to help us get through the week. We want to get that money into the general pot and we want to make sure we make it each week with a check mark on what we wanted to accomplish that week!

I’m really excited for the challenge. I think that the challenge aspect is going to be very beneficial for the both of us. I really can’t tell you what’s going to happen because I don’t even know how it’s going to go. This could possibly be a complete fail at the end of two weeks, but I hope that a fantastic weekend in NYC can be a prize for the both of us to work hard for, but even if we have a couple unaccomplished weeks, I think that I’ll be happy donating to charity.

Periodically, I will be updating you guys on the progress, if she’s not being shy, Angela may guest post to update on her progress. You guys already know, I’m trying to get back into something I call #girllyoubekillinem mode for my fitness goals. And as for my personal goals? Really try to achieve that work/life balance and not go so hard at work to the point that I lose time for myself.

Wish us luck because we’re going to need it! AND good luck to you! Happy resolution making. To get you started on your own resolutions, I highly suggest you get your butt to Lifehacker and read up on on the articles they posted about making New Years Resolutions. Here are some helpful ones to get you started.

A Three-Step Approach to Ensuring Resolution Success

The Science Behind New Year’s Resolutions (and How to Use It to Achieve Yours)

Want more in-depth details about our Resolution Challenge? Want to tweak our challenge rules and set your own? Feel free to email me nicolaatthreetothirtydotcom or leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer your questions! =) Keep us posted on what you do!

***One of my goals for Three to Thirty is not just a place for me to document my success of conquering this new age decade, but open up this site for all of us to share and help each other out! It’ll be a Three to Thirty movement ya’ll! Let’s get it!

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Nov 28 2011
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29, Love, Single Ladies Say Hay!, Useful Tips

Remember Your Single Almost 30-year-old Friend.

In my twenties (gosh, that’s going to take some used to) I was in an unconventional relationship. This relationship (which I vowed to not talk about a lot here, but I’m just mentioning briefly for the sake of storytelling) was not your average relationship. Heck, he wasn’t even “officially” my boyfriend (he asked a couple times and I said no, because I didn’t feel we needed titles) but the love at most points of the relationship was strong enough to consider marrying and being with this guy until the very end.

Yeah, that serious.

We weren’t serious at all though, we were… in love. It’s a love that grew out of friendship. It’s a love that almost didn’t make it. It was a love that happened unexpectedly. I think when we both fell in love with each other, it surprised both of us because neither one of us expected this casual more than friends thing to turn into something that both of us would cry about eventually when it ended. He came along way when it came to caring about me, but that love grew out of work. Work that in ways, we both put into, at different times. Even though it’s over and I have no contact with him whatsoever anymore… I don’t regret the years spent, the money blown on trips to NorCal and the memories that I shared with someone who is definitely up there for consideration as soulmate status.

But, it’s over now.

Being twenty-nine and single is like a death sentence. People give you that worried look of concern. They wonder if they should help you though this rough patch and if they can help you in any way shape or form get out of this bad case of singledom you’ve caught, they’ll gladly be of service. Being single, shouldn’t be thought of like the plague, and even more so when you’re a woman, because I know that if I were a dude and I said I was doing my own thing, I’d be getting daps all around and questions about all the dates I’m going on. It’s different though for a female, and on a regular basis, I constantly feel ostracized. Being single isn’t a disease, being almost thirty and single isn’t a problem, at least not for me, but I feel that society wants to make it my problem, and seriously… why should it be that way?

I’m a grown ass woman who can run a 5K in less than 45 minutes. I help raise and nurture 180 kids every school year, I’m a BAUS when it comes to my career. I provide for my Mom, and I support my inner circle always. I’m stubborn, I’m considerate, I’m hard to get to know, but when you get in there, it’s all love. I’m a whole lot of things, but the one thing that stands out the most to everyone else is that… I’m boyfriendless.

Sometimes, just for the sake of time and saving face in most situations, I bring up the ex. I feel that it allows me some breathing room so that people to leave me alone, and even doing that makes me feel bad because it shouldn’t be the case. I’m over telling people I’m taking a break because of my ex. I want to tell people that, “I’m doing my own thing, thanks for meddling and turning my choice into a concern of yours.” It’s not that I don’t want to meet anyone (because people are on the radar, trust) it’s just that I don’t want it to be the main focus of my life.

This post came about because of the outing I went on on Friday. There I was sitting in this room, the only single person there, and as expected when you’re the only single person around, I felt so uncomfortable. I can probably count on my hand, all the couples that I don’t mind being around (only one of those couples being present that night (my best friend and her fiance),the others couples I’m ok being around are my married friends and maybe one or two others couples I know) if no other single people are around. I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the desire for (most) couples is to do other things with other couples. I think especially for boyfriends the single girlfriend is either an annoyance or a threat, because you where there before he was there and you may be a bad influence to the girlfriend.

That night, one of my friends boyfriend said, “We’re looking for other couples to go with us,” (to a general outing a single person could go to) and I replied “Thanks, I see how it is!” It was really a full circle moment for me. Especially when my friend’s boyfriend said that. I’m sure he meant no harm in it, but I felt a little offended. I helped him meet my friend because I was a considerate single friend helping another single friend, and now that they’re in a couple, it’s “couples only” activities? Joke or no joke, that was kind of sucky. It made me regret staying that night, and when my other single friend who was supposed to hang out suggested I leave the couples to themselves, I think I kind of should have. I should probably remember to not be in these type of situations ever again.

I realized that single people get a lot of hate, whether the couples intentionally do it or not. It’s not that I can’t handle the PDA or the constantly touching, it’s nothing like that, it’s just that for the friends involved in the relationships, if you truly don’t want to make your single friends uncomfortable, then don’t. You don’t have to be overly sensitive, or under sensitive to the situation. Just remember, you were once single too before you were in this relationship so channel some of those old feelings and be a considerate friend. If the friend means a lot to you, you’ll make the effort, and if the effort isn’t made, well… then the effort isn’t made. Your friends shouldn’t feel bad about being around just because you decided to couple up, and you shouldn’t feel bad either. There’s a happy balance between everyone involved that I honestly feel that only a few of my friends have truly mastered.

When you’re three to thirty, being single is one of the things everyone wants to constantly bring to your attention, but dammit, I’m going to be above the influence. I’m waiting… I’m not quite sure what I’m waiting for… but I’m waiting for the right moment to dive in to this whole crazy circus we call dating. The water temperature isn’t quite right so I’m going to post a bit and wait to see what happens. I want it to happen randomly, I don’t want to go on the Internet (not that there’s a problem with that because it’s definitely something I’m open to) and well, I think it’s ok to be almost 30, single and a hopeless romantic. I want the za za zoo… not worried gut feeling that people would look at me funny for still being single.

And if I want that… I think that should be ok, just how I feel that if you don’t want that, that should be ok too. In a perfect world I think we can all master this together…

Hopefully.

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Nov 06 2011
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29, Adjustments for Happiness, For Immediate Life Implementation, Useful Tips, Work Grind

My Version of GTD.

Helpfulness!!!

Helpfulness!!!

I never quite jumped on the GTD phenomenon, but I did buy the book. I tried to implement the email part of it, but in reality I couldn’t really follow a suggestion of someone that doesn’t know how crazy my work schedule is.

Here’s my typical day at work.

I get in, and I’m tired. Depending on how much sleep I got, and my willingness to drink a cup of coffee, I’m either excited or not so excited about the start of the day. Around 7:00am I start to teach, and I teach until 11:00am. Depending on how I feel, My conference period is productive, or not so productive.

The pressing task get done during my conference period. Anything time sensitive to someone else gets done first, and then my pressing matters get done next. Sometimes, I take the occasional nap or two, but I haven’t done that in a while. If I feel like it, I grade or lesson plan, but it’s never the same each day.

I have lunch and teach my last class the next two hours and 2:00pm my Senior Council Kids roll in. I love talking with them, but I know they’re a big distraction. I don’t mind them hanging out in my room, but I know that if I didn’t interact with them, I’d be sad too. It’s like my way of winding down. I usually talk or chitchat for an hour and then get back to work again around 3:00pm. By then this is when the ultimate motivation is necessary. When I’m absolutely not in the mood, I’m slow to work, and when I’m slow to work, I’m the last car out of the parking lot.

The last couple weeks have been chaotic, and the only person I can really blame is myself. I haven’t structured and organized my day in a way that makes an efficient use of my time. I’m constantly either super ahead or really behind. My Monday’s are when I’m most productive because I do all my lesson planning on that day, but on other days it’s very hit or miss.

Because of my last post, I realized my days are going to need a lot more structure if I’m going to stay productive and keep my workout schedule in tact. In addition to that, I want to leave work before everyone else! I shouldn’t spend so much time there if it isn’t going to be productive time. I need more ME TIME if I’m going to have healthy work/life balance.

I decided to try to construct my own simple version of GTD. First off, I’m employing one of the most awesome tools I’ve ever used, Evernote. I know people are kind of a huge fan or not a huge fan of Evernote, but I’ve really grown to love this little place to keep notes. It’s really gotten my work life in order as far as ideas for new lessons and just keeping track of things I’ve seen and ideas I have for plans that are work and personal related. Although I know it has the potential for being a virtual dumping ground for notes and ideas, but this weekend I really tried to figure out a way to make it work for me without it being ineffective.

First off, I have six major notebook categories for the things that I brainstorm and need to plan out. For example for my life, I have the following categories:

Work Related Brainstorming
This is where all the brainstorming for work goes. I really try to expand and research ideas and techniques that will help me with my curriculum. Also, this is where I put my current event ideas. Because I teach social science, I try to implement as much current events as possible, but with teenagers, a lot of times, they need more than just a news clip and an article (like Occupy Wall Street) which I’m forever trying to figure out how to explain to them.

Academy Related Work Ideas
Same as above, but this notebook is shared with the teachers in my cohort who teach these business and technology themed classes with me.

Lesson Planning Notes
This is the place where my actual lessons for the week are planned and edited.

Clubs and Organizations
I’m involved in A LOT of things on campus, so this is where I try to organize all the task and planning I have to do for these clubs and organizations. The big one being my Senior Council!

Creative Planning Notebook
My friend Mike and I have a creative project in the works, so we share notes here.

Three to Thirty Brainstorming
Post and plans for Three to Thirty go here!

These are the major things in my life that need virtual attention. I used to think of ideas and just think about them and not put them in any place. For my little burst of creativity and idea giving, I think that I wanted to make sure that I have a place to catch them. It’s been really great being able to be on the go on my phone or be at work or at home and be able to see all the ideas that I have written down. I can go back to them and edit them and work on them more.

I know that having them in notebooks doesn’t ensure that they’ll actually be done, but I definitely think that an idea is way different then a well thought out idea. I’m really happy that my ideas for work and personal projects are becoming well thought out instead of lost in a conversation or just forgotten.

The last notebook that’s getting a test run this week is my To-Do List Notebook. I felt that this was absolutely necessary to have because my work day is such a hurricane. I’m all over the place, starting things, not finishing them, forgetting to do stuff and remembering last minute.

Example of To-Do List


I decided to keep it really simple. Within the To-Do List notebook, I made notes for all the task that need to be done during my typical work day. I put the date that I’m writing the list, and I put the check boxes by each task. I made each urgent/to be done today task in red. Having the other task dated, makes me aware of things I needed to do and haven’t got to so if I put something new to do on Tuesday, I should finish Monday’s task first

It sounds confusing, but I think that this is really going to get me a little more streamlined. I like the check boxes because on the iPhone app and on Evernote they can be checked off. That gives the sense of accomplishment feeling!

I HOPE this will get me back on track. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. I hate to have my life run by a little program, but if it gets me organized and out off my classroom before 4pm, I’ll be happy to use it!

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