I 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.I am reminded of an illustration in Emilie Barnes’ book More Hours in My Day, in which she talks about being goal-oriented instead of task-oriented. So, she says, if you’re task oriented, and on your list of things to do is “vacuum the living-room rug,” and you do it just before bedtime, you can check it off your list. You got it done, didn’t you? But, she says, that’s just the task. The goal was to have a clean, orderly home, of which vacuuming the rug was a part. So you did it, but all day you had a dirty living room. Or whatever. Sort of like making your bed just before you crawl back into it. Makes no sense, does it?
So, I’m going to quit writing this post and make my bed. Then I’ll go on from there. And if I let myself get distracted again I’ll give myself a stern talking-to.