A Research Project Of Sorts

I had a professor in college who once said, "Sometimes you have to do homework in order to do your homework." This was in reference to an assignment in that class that was set up in which answering certain questions required more research than the format and instructions suggested. I have not been in school since December 2008. However, even in "real" life I have found truth in that statement.

Take for instance my volunteer position at a thrift store in my hometown. For a while, our manager wanted to be the only one to price clothing. However, it became necessary for her to authorize someone else to do it. When things at the store became such that said person could not take care of the pricing either, the manager delegated the task to me.

One of the factors I have been taught to take into account when pricing something is brand. For instance, a blouse of a brand that could be found at JCPenny would be worth more than one of a brand found at Wal-Mart. It's easy to price an item with the brand in mind when I have seen/heard of the brand but not so easy when I haven't. (Being the kind of business that we are, there's no telling what will come in on any given day, so there's always the chance of coming across an item of a brand that neither I nor the manager has ever heard of. In a case like that, I'll go by other factors, such as condition of the item, design, and/or what comparable items that have been priced are going for.)

The way it is at this point, I'll generally price one or two items at a time and then put them out. While stuff is at least getting out, I feel bad that it's not getting out as quickly as it normally does when I'm merely putting stuff out that someone else has priced. So, in an attempt to be more efficient, I have decided to look up some brands to see which ones are expensive and which ones aren't so expensive. (So far, I've done most of my research on the respective sites of JCPenney and Wal-Mart. I might look up comparable stores as well.) I've made lists of both. I may study them a bit so that I won't have to look at them a lot and I can get stuff priced faster.

I never thought I would ever need to do research for a position like this. But if that is what is in the best interest of the business, so be it, especially if it pertains to a responsibility that I have in it.  Hopefully, my "aim" for the right price will get better as I go along.

Turning Down Time Into "Do" Time At Home

First off, I'm sorry I haven't been in here lately. I don't know if it's that I haven't had much to say here or what.

Second, I have a confession to make. You've heard the saying, "Idle hands are the Devil's workshop" or something along those lines, right? Basically it means that if you don't have something to do, you'll cause trouble or something. In my case, if I'm not engaged in something and I'm bored, I'll do something dumb, like pace around my room or (if no one is home) the house. I don't know where I get that habit from. All I know is that it's a wasteful habit and not to mention annoying to those around me if I get caught. This is not a habit I want to pass down to my future children. It's also a behavior that would not fly at any job,including my volunteer work at a local thrift store; then again, there's almost always something for me to take care of there, even if it's simply wiping something down or reorganizing a display to make it more presentable. (And I can't speak for everybody, but in my case, if there's nothing to do whatsoever, and I'm not the one running the register, I could always just leave.)

 Anyway, I've made a post-New Year's resolution to have something planned for when I'm going to be home to help lessen the temptation for aimless roaming. For instance, last night, I determined that, when I got home from church, I would spend this afternoon reading a book of which I had gotten through the prologue so far. I would spend however much time I needed to get the book finished (barring any calls I needed to take or any requests to help with something of course). That ended up knocking roughly four to five hours out of my day, I believe. Even if my mind started to wander (and my body did once or twice), I made sure to get right back to the reading.

Tomorrow night, I think I'll plan on reading two books still on my reading list  (The Little Book of Stress and The Little Book of Crap).  After that, I'll grab one of my sudoku books (which has white rings) and finish the puzzles in that. If I finish that book before the evening's up, I'll grab the other book and finish the puzzles in that. If I finish that book, I'll do more of the puzzles in one of the calendar sets. (I have a black one and a red one. They're the "tear the page off" type of calendars.) If I have time after that, I'll take surveys that have been emailed to me and clean out my inbox.

I don't expect myself to get all of these done tomorrow night per se. However, maybe if I know I have an agenda for the evening, I won't feel so bored, and I won't be as tempted to move about needlessly. I think I'll try to do this every night and on the weekends (unless of course I do end up with a night or a weekend day where I need to be somewhere). I'll let you know how that turns out.