Time Off, Time Out and Time to Get Stuff Done

I’ve requested some time off as annual leave.  Flame-Grilled suggested I do so (only if I wanted to, of course) before our busy summer period really kicks in at the beginning of July.  Things calm down slightly towards the end of summer, but then before we know it, it is start of session and busy again, as a new academic year has begun.  It means that there are a few months where taking any leave is pretty much out of the question.  I am hoping that I will have the house to myself during the day for my time off.  I absolutely have to sort things out at home and get my room back to being a haven rather than a hovel.  It will be perhaps more of a summer rather than spring clean, but that’s better than no clean at all.

I know I shouldn’t make big plans to sort my life out in this way.  I tend to do this when I feel motivated or vaguely positive, then when the time rolls around, laziness prevails or other appointments come up and I end up not completing (or even starting) half of what I had planned.  Then I feel bad at not achieving anything and feel even more demotivated.  I should probably set lower goals, or at least divide my goals into smaller ones of more reasonable size, which would be more realistic to achieve.  I set my hopes high, perhaps unattainably so, and then feel a failure when I can’t reach them.

The debt management plan I have been setting up is not fully in place yet and I can’t wait till they have all the paperwork and can get the process started.  I am so anxious to get things paid off so that I can start living with the kind of freedom I’ve been missing for some time.  You feel like a slave to your bills when you are struggling to pay them and for too long my money has been managing me and what I can do with my life, instead of me managing my money in order to live life the way I would like.  When everything is paid off, I will finally have a realistic chance to save up and move out, even though that would mean spending a lot more money on rent than I currently am.  I am desperate for my own place, but know it will be a big step for me in terms of responsibility and courage.  I seem to stay within my comfort zone, even when it is not so comfortable anymore.  The Mrs was saying something similar about this in terms of relationships – in that we stay in unhappy situations because the familiarity is easier to deal with than the potentially painful unknown.  It’s a case of better the devil you know than the one you don’t.

Anyway, I guess the revised plan for my time off work should be to hole up in my room, get some rest, do some things I enjoy, try to improve what I can in my room bit by bit and get through the last week before the June payday without spending much (if any) money.  Hopefully that is the sort of plan I can stick to.