Adrenaline Days (Part 1): It Takes Planning

Now that you've read the storyboard for my based-on-a-true-story real-time series, "27," let's get to the reason I wrote it. No, I'm not out to become rich and famous. For all I know, "27" isn't something that anyone would want to watch. Too stressful, no explosions, no fun.

My mini-diary is completely uncharacteristic with respect to this blog, but it's an illustration of hurdles that busy women face every day. The busier we are, the harder it is to save money. Since it takes time to do things such as cooking, sometimes we're forced to pay someone else to do it. If we're not careful, costs can add up real quickly. I should know--it's happened to me in these last couple of months. I was really surprised by the amount of money I spent on eating out and buying coffee. However, as soon as I realized the problem, I tried to mitigate the damage.

I have great admiration for one of my closest friends. During the semi-annual busy season, which officially ends today (congrats, girl!), she had to work 6-7 days a week, 12 hours or more a day, functioning on 4-5 hours of sleep each day over a 2-month period. Here I am whining about not getting enough sleep and having too much to do when she has it so much tougher. Through it all, she manages keep her life in order. Her apartment is neat as a pin, while mine was utter chaos. That's because she's a master planner. Long before her day off, she figures out what she'll do with it. Even when she wasn't in busy season, she had a very demanding schedule and had little time to cook. She would plan out what to cook and how much so that she can pack and freeze enough healthy meals to last x number of days...definitely saves time and money because she wouldn't have to eat out.

For most of us, there are normal work days, then there are busier-than-usual days that are already marked on the calendar. Sadly, knowing when those days are, we also need to prepare for our days off. Yes, I know that days off are meant to be relaxing, and having a structured day off is an oxymoron, but it's gotta be done if you don't want your busy days to get even busier. I get in trouble a lot because I leave my off days for an open-ended amount of R&R, and not enough time for chores (kinda like this weekend). With an unstructured day like that, I end up getting stressed out when I suddenly realize toward the end of the weekend that I should have taken care of something (why else am I still awake at 2 in the morning?). I'm not saying that we need to stick to a schedule, but at least have a good idea of what needs to be done (such as cooking), and just get it over with. Whenever I do that, I feel so much better. Besides, this "structured weekend" thing is usually temporary.

Earlier I mentioned how big problem on busy days is food. Eating out is expensive, but it's not like we have time for full-on meals. Sure, we can cook ahead, but sometimes we get sick of eating the same thing over and over. The food problem will be the topic next time.