On Productivity and New Jersey

As you may know about me, I am the queen of multitasking. I don't even like watching movies without doing something else, and its not strange for me to have five or six tabs open on my Internet at the same time. Normally I don't even try to focus on only one thing at a time and sometimes I think this is to my benefit.
However this summer I am trying something new: doing one thing at a time. I decided to do this after a frustrating day productivity wise on Tuesday. This summer I have arranged my schedule so that on Tuesdays I'm working early in the morning, but I'll be done at 10am. I had visions of all the free time this would provide me to read, get some work done on the classes I'm taking this summer, blogging, cooking and doing whatever it is I want. Well Tuesday did not go this way at all and I ended up spending most of the day trying to figure out my online classes, preparing for today's tutoring and in general being mad at how little reading I've done this summer when I'm supposed to have free time on my hands. Boo.
One thing I noticed about my day on Tuesday was that I kept trying to do 10 things at a time. At one point I was cooking lunch for the week, writing flash cards for a tutoring game and trying to watch a video clip for my online class all at once. It got to the end of the 20 minute video, I was supposed to write a reflection and I had no idea what I had even watched. Did I mention I still had not read a single page of the book I actually wanted to be reading? Ah!
And so was born my new goal for the summer. Stay focused on one thing at a time so I can get it all done and then have time for all the things I want to be able to do. I started it out today. By 10 am I had already tutored two kids and gone to the gym and the bank. By 12 I had put two solid hours into tutoring planning and had everything totally done for my afternoon kids and tomorrow morning's kids. By 2 I had showered, eaten lunch, created a whole itinerary for our trip on my iPad, booked our rental car and ferry and cleaned my email inbox. By 2:45 I had conquered my assignments for my online classes. Then, I headed back out to tutor two more kids, and when I got home at 6, I could actually read, eat dinner, go back out for some fro yo and now I'm blogging guilt free. Now this is what I was hoping for when I had the summer "off."
My other favorite thing about summer? Trips! Last weekend Eric and I spent three days at the New Jersey Shore. We went first to Sandy Hook, which is basically an island at the top of NJ right below New York City. On a nice day we should have been able to see the New York skyline, but sadly it was so hot that it was too hazy to see. Here are some photos of Sandy Hook:
Harbor area-

View from the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at in Highlands, NJ

Over on the island of Sandy Hook-

After one night in northern NJ, we headed down to Asbury Park where the wedding was. The beaches were beautiful down there too, but we spent most of our time hanging out with friends and enjoying the wedding related festivities. It also cost $25 to even step on the beach down there, so I took these pictures at 8 am on Sunday morning before they started charging. I swear it pays to be a morning person!




I need some good vacation summer reading, so please send book recommendations my way. Also I have a feeling my pictures are going to be super small because I'm posting from my iPad so I'm sorry :)