Does It Matter When You Do Tasks?

HourglassI am so, so sorry for the hackneyed image.  I could have used a clock or the old rocks-in-a-jar, but I figured that an hourglass was the clearest illustration of what I was trying to say.  So, to answer the question:  Yes, it does matter.  I like to think that, as long as I get everything on the list done for that day then I can do the tasks in any order and it doesn’t make any difference, but it does.  For me to look at the difference between yesterday (when I worked through the day roughly according to schedule) and today (when I allowed myself, chose to allow myself, to get distracted by watching a “Frontline” episode online during breakfast and then started working my schedule around it) is a perfect illustration of the principle.  So here I sit, writing this post at 3:00 in the afternoon instead of 9:00 in the morning. The sand for this day has run out big time.  I can still get lots done and plan to do so, but how much better it would have been if I had gotten going this morning.  Yes, I did the rest of the ironing and got on my exercise bike while watching, but then I got interested in some other stories, including one about Lee Harvey Oswald and another about some convicted arsonist, both of which I had already watched, ​and totally lost my momentum.

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Seeking Happiness for the Wrong Reasons

Poverty, Inc. PosterI haven’t written about a book or movie for awhile, which doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading or watching anything.  I’ve been wending my way through a hefty history of Rome which will show up at some point, and we’ve recently watched nine of the 10 episodes of ‘Making a Murderer” on Netflix.  I don’t think I’ll be recommending that one–what a downer!

Anyway, this past Sunday evening, at the very time when the Broncos were wrapping up their VICTORY over the Patriots, I tore myself away from the screen and raced to the Sie Theater in east Denver to see this film, which was being sponsored by the nonprofit Christian organization CrossPurpose.  As far as I’m concerned, every person on the planet should see it.

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My Personal Checklist Manifesto

Cleaning tasklist by day of week Daily task list

I said in the previous post that I would show pictures of my attempt at some kind of personal checklist, an idea I’ve been thinking about for awhile.  It comes from two sources:  The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, a book I mention in my own book, and Marla Cilley, the Flylady.  Surely you’ve heard of her.  I think her original book, Sink Reflections, shows up in my bibliography.  (Just so you know:  I signed up for her e-mails and lasted about a week, as I couldn’t stand the deluge, the avalanche of chirpy messages I got daily.  Yikes!  And I do not, not, not go around breathing in and thinking ‘I love” and then breathing out and thinking ‘myself.’  Double yikes.  Or yuck.)  Anyway, Cilley recommends that you keep a regular-size three-ring notebook with every conceivable task laid out, put in sheet protectors, and mark off the day’s/week’s/month’s lists with a washable marker. When you’re ready to start again, rub off the checkmarks.  But this just wasn’t something I was ever going to do.  Where would I keep the notebook?  I thought about putting up laminated lists in various places, but that didn’t seem workable either.

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Don’t Go Off Half-Cocked!

mechanism of antique gunHonestly!  You’d think I’d learn.  Two days in a row this week I’ve assumed I knew where to go somewhere and didn’t bother with the GPS.  On both occasions I wasted time wandering around until I finally figured out where I was going.

And these experiences made me think about how often I do this sort of thing.  They also made me wonder about the phrase “going off half-cocked.”  I knew it had something to do with old guns, but it was interesting to find out how the phrase actually originated.  If you look at the picture you’ll see a lever or pin sticking up there on the left.  That’s the “cock.”  When it’s back as far as it will go and you pull the trigger, it will fall forward

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The Triumph of Hope Over Experience

3 sets of seed packets fanned outThe title of this post is from either Samuel Johnson or Oscar Wilde, talking about second marriages.  But–in my life this quotation applies much more clearly to the pursuit of gardening, in particular vegetable gardening.  Today I got my seed order from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, and here are all the hopeful little packets spread out on the kitchen table.  I had said that I wasn’t going to order any seeds from catalogs this year as I tend to over-order.  I was just going to buy seeds at the garden center.  In order to keep this resolution I had to immediately throw all seed catalogs in the trash, without allowing myself so much as a peek.

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Are You Shouldering Too Many Burdens?

Harried looking chef peering between vegetablesI was so pleased last night to see that Season 3’s first episode of “A Chef’s Life” was airing on our local PBS station. (The actual season started back in August; not sure why Denver’s so behind, or maybe I just missed the premier.)  I had written about Vivian Howard back in June, pointing out that fame and success are always a two-edged sword, hardly an original insight.  So how are things going for Vivian in the new season?  Not so hot.  Which is to say, she’s hotter than ever, and she’s also burning out.  (Sorry.)

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Will Buying a Broncos Hoodie Make Me Happy?

Beautiful teal dutch ovenI am avid reader of two blogs that deal with money and lifestyles:  Mr. Money Mustache and Happy Simple Living:  The Art of Less.  (The authors of both blogs live in Colorado.  A coincidence?  I think not.)  Eliza Cross, the author of HSL, hosts a January Money Diet series every . . . January.  The idea is for readers to commit to spending only for essentials during this month.  She issues periodic challenges, of which there have been three so far:  make an extra $25, give away 31 things during the month, and figure out your net worth.  MMM, on the other hand, would say, “And why should you spend money only on essentials just during January?  That’s how you should spend your money all the time.”  I must say that my perspective on money has been radically changed by reading these two bloggers, especially MMM, whom I wrote about previously in this July 2015 post and in which I recommended especially “You Can’t Cure Obesity With Bigger Pants.”

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What’s Your Why?

Road sign saying, "Find Your Purpose"I am shamelessly borrowing from an excellent sermon preached on the first Sunday of this year by my pastor, Josh Waltz.  (I’ve done this borrowing before and will certainly do so again.)  He started out by referencing Stephen Covey’s classic ​The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:  “Begin with the end in mind.”  Covey asks his readers to ponder what they’d want to have said about them at their own funerals, listing four groups who might give eulogies:  family members, friends, co-workers, and fellow volunteers in some organization.  Each group would have a different perspective. 

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How to Get Two Problems for the Price of One

Woman yelling at sniffling boy Back on the first Friday in September Gideon had a followup visit at his oncologist’s office after his PET scan.  We got there well in time for his 11:45 appointment, only to be told that we had come too early.  His appointment was at 3:45.  There was really nothing we wanted to do for four hours, so we turned around and went home.  A total waste of around two hours.

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An Abstainer’s Holiday

Smiling woman with her hand held up in a stop gestureI said in this post that I was going to report on how my no-sweets rule worked over the holidays, and now it’s January 4, so it’s time.  And I have to say that it worked really well.  I did participate in the chocolate tasting led by my sister-in-law, but all of the samples were dark chocolate except for one, and fine dark chocolate is not candy.  I licked off one fingerful of the batter for the white chocolate cheesecakes I made for said SIL’s birthday party but that was pretty much it.  I made sure that the snack I brought to the Christmas brunch at my brother’s house was something savory:  smoked salmon spirals.  I’ll include a description and recipe for that item later on this week.  And I passed up on dessert at Christmas dinner.  For the rest of the dinners we hosted over the holidays I relied on the Wagon Wheel Cookies that Jim and Gideon had made earlier this month and stockpiled in the freezer.  I didn’t have any of those, either.  I guess I should post that recipe, too.  People go absolutely cuh-razy over them.  And I drank not one drop of pink eggnog.  The thing of it is, I know how it tastes.  So why do I need to drink any?  It’s just fun to watch everyone else drink it and come back for more.  (I guess I’m in the same situation as a vegetarian who cooks a prime rib roast and enjoys seeing everyone else dig in.)

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