The Pause I Keep Forgetting

There are some days where you just need to stop.

And breathe.

Just one breath and then another. No matter what is going on, there is always a moment to just stop, and breathe.

I forget this. Often. I get carried away in my head and my thoughts and forget that I can stop it all and just breathe. That little pause is sometimes all that I need to regroup. Refocus. Come back to me.

I wish I could remember it more often. And more quickly. It's just one little breath and yet it can make all the difference.

I suppose it is just a matter of practice. The more I stop and breathe... the more I will remember to do it. But my system is really much better at tearing off trying to fix this, solve this, complete this, do this... Stopping to breathe seems rather counterproductive. Nothing gets done if one is doing nothing!! And breathing, to my mind, is most definitely "nothing". I mean, yes... breathing keeps us all alive but... other than that... nothing really gets accomplished when you breathe. Errands don't get done. Emails don't get written. Stuff just doesn't get done!

And yet, what am I slowly being remind of is this... sometimes you need to stop in order to get things done. When I am swept up in an efficiency, productivity tear... I can be like one of those hamsters in their little wheel. I get going faster and faster and faster and then a tiny mis-step and "fling"... the spinning wheel spins me off into the dust. Kind of an abrupt reminder that I need to slow-down, stop... and breathe.

But even when I do stop, and retire to Starbucks to "regroup". I often sit here and just scroll mindlessly on Facebook, or the news, or my emails, or Facebook, or the news, or... and on it goes. I get my to-do list organized. I answer emails. But I don't actually stop and... breathe.

For me, writing a blog like this is a way to stop... and breathe. Journaling can be the same. A walk. Sitting on a bench. Looking out a window.

Maybe that is all I am doing here. Not solving anything. Not fixing anything. Not checking something off a list.

Just stopping.

And breathing.

The Time Trap: Unraveling Parkinson's Law for Better Time Management

I'd never heard of Parkinson's Law before, but it is soooo apt! It was coined by a C. Northcote Parkinson, a naval historian who, in 1955, wrote this little bit of satirical wisdom:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

Oh yeah, that is a truism if there ever was one! I bump up against this all the time. Here's an example of how this works in my life...

Blogging Time Evaporates

I go to Starbucks at 5:30. I know that I have 2.5 hours at Starbucks, plenty of time to write at least 1, and more likely, 2 blogs! Plenty of time. Oodles of time!

So, what do I do? Do I start writing a blog as soon as I land at Starbucks? No, I do not. I do some journaling. I then take a look at my To-Do list which as blog ideas. But I can't decide on a blog topic so I decide to think about it for a bit. I mean, I have oodles of time, right?

In the meantime, I organize my To-Do list and rearrange a few things, add a few things, postpone a few things. I handle some small tasks that have been niggling at me and that keep falling through the cracks. I reconsult my to-do list and rearrange my blog topic ideas. I handle a few more tiny tasks.

Until, I look at the clock and... shoot... it's already 6:45 am! I've only got 1.25 hours left! Now I'll be lucky if I get 1 blog done! What the heck? Where'd the time go?

The thing is... writing blogs requires way more effort than fiddling with my to-do list or handling small tasks. Fiddling with my To-Do list is "fun" and doesn't require a lot of effort. If I know that I have 2.5 hours... and I really, really want to get two blogs written... then I'd have to actually focus and get to work!

Adding Bells & Whistles

This is what Parkinson's Law can also look like... we know that we have a report that is due in 2 weeks. Do we work on it immediately? No, we do not. At least I don't. There's plenty of time. Oodles of time. We might chip away at the report with lackluster enthusiasm, until the final day when we shift into Super Gear and blast through it to the exclusion of everything else.

Or... we might decide, with 10 days to go, that we need to do a bunch of research on the topic. Maybe create pretty PowerPoints and colourful spreadsheets. We might delve deeper than we need to into the finer details of the data that we are presenting. Do we need colourful spreadsheets and pretty PowerPoints? No, we do not. Do we need the extra research? No we do not. But we have 2 weeks, don't we! Let's spruce it up. And those things are "fun"! When really... that report, plain and simple, could take 4 hours. Maybe it won't be perfect, but it will be done.

Drifting with no Deadlines

Where I also bump up against Parkinson's Law is when there is NO deadline. OMG... things just languish on my To-Do list and keep getting pushed down the list, down, down, down. But in the meantime, they take up mental energy... gotta work on that, gotta think about that, gotta research that, gotta, gotta, gotta... until all of a sudden, it becomes critical and then I shift into Super Gear and get it done.

For example, we are thinking about getting a new TV for the Airbnb because the current one is 30" which is tiny. There is no set deadline for this, so I can spend a lot of time researching TVs and comparing features and checking out stores. What's in Costco? What's in BestBuy? I don't know which is better... Samsung? LG? Panasonic? Dither, dither. Months get spent on this "project".

But imagine... the TV in the suite breaks! How fast do you think I can decide on a TV if that were to happen? Super fast! Because the deadline is "NOW"!

Or... how about this one... something that is a simple, small, neat, compact task... gets postponed and postponed until... it blows up in your face and all of a sudden, a 30 minute task has turned into a 4 hour damage control project. Think... taking the car in for an oil change... or not.

But there is hope... there are ways to get around Parkinson's Law and it's aftereffects.

Identify the Value

How important is this project or task? Why is it even on my list? Surely, it has some value. A TV for the suite definitely has value but while we have a functioning one, the value of buying a new one is pretty low. No one has complained about the size of it. If the functioning one were to go on the fritz, then the value of getting a new one skyrockets.

Identify the Scope

If we give ourselves too much time, there is a tendency to add bells and whistles to a project. We have the time so why not add colourful spreadsheets and other frills to a task. But we really don't need to do that.

We want to replace the sink in the suite... but if we're doing that, then maybe it's time to replace the counter. And if we're doing that, we might as well add a backsplash. And heck... it's probably a good idea to paint the cabinets.

All of a sudden, a 30 minute sink replacement has ballooned into a full kitchen remodel. Stick with the original scope and resist the urge to expand things.

Identify Tradeoffs

There's a tradeoff between scope, time and cost. A give and take. If the TV goes on the fritz NOW... I can't wait for a Boxing Day sale. I need to forgo waiting for a cheaper price and just buy the TV now!

Break Things Up

Obviously, this is a huge one. I have had "write book" on my to-do list for a long time. It's a specific book, I've done a lot of research but... "write book" is just too big and unwieldy. The deadline for "write book" is also nebulous. And with no deadline and no plan... it'll be on my list forever.

The trick is to break up the project "write book" into a multitude of smaller projects and tasks, each with their own realistic deadline. Small and short will get things done. Big and long will be on my To-Do list forever.

Set the Timeline

Yes, this is important. I can't tell you how many projects on my list have no deadlines. They languish there for months. I'll do it "someday" and someday never comes because there is no timeline. So it's to set up a timeline, but a realistic one.

I know that I can generally get a blog written in 45-60 minutes. So on a Starbucks morning, it's to work backwards from my departure time of 8 am. I need to start writing the second blog by 7 am and so the first one needs to be started at 6 am. That gives me 30 minutes at the start for journaling and smaller tasks. And if the blogging goes quicker than planned... well, then there's always time at the end for smaller tasks as well!

Working with Parkinson's Law instead of Against It

It's helpful to me to know that this is what happens, all too frequently. I can then begin to work with it instead of bumping up against it all the time. I have a tendency to add buffer time to things because well... I like buffer time. I don't want to be bumping up against frantic deadlines all the time. So I tend to schedule deadlines farther into the future than is required.

A flip side to Parkinson's is this... I saw I need 60 minutes to write a blog. But I could actually write a blog in 30 minutes. It won't be perfect, it might not have a great image to go with it. I might not have time for a lot of background research. But I could do it. In a pinch. It would take more effort, more focus, more intensity, more energy. But it could be done. Maybe not today though... I only have 21 minutes before I have to leave and this blog has taken exactly 60 minutes!

Embracing Procrastination: Why It's Not Always a Bad Thing

Zen Garden (Image by 18121281 from Pixabay

"Hello, my name's Gigi and I'm a Procrasinator".

Seriously... if there was a PA group (Procrastinator's Anonymous), I'd be a card-carrying member for life. I have always held procrastination as a bad thing... or BAD thing.

So much to do, so little time... and I'm scrolling the news on my phone avoiding my to-do list. WTH??? Why am I procrastinating again?? I should have this handled by now?

But I procrastinate. All the time.

And then it came to me... procrastination is NOT a bad thing. It is necessary. We can' escape it. We need to embrace it. We need to make friends with procrastination and see it as a valuable tool in our Life Toolbox.

Ready? Ok... here we go. Let me lay it out.

Time is a Limited Resource

We only have 24 hours in a day. Every single one of us. And out of that, we need to sleep 8 hours (give or take). Which leaves 16 hours to do everything that we need to do in life. That is not a lot of time. So we need to make choices on what we are going to do in any given day. We can't make more time. The only thing we have control over is what we try to squeeze in a day.

We Can't Do it ALL

We can't. Given that time is limited, and energy as well, we can't do it all. It is Impossible. It is physically impossible to go to work for 8 hrs, walk the dog for 2 hrs, watch the kids in the school play for 2 hrs, cook meals for 2 hrs, work on taxes for 2 hrs, clean the Airbnb for 3 hrs, run errands for 2 hrs and work in the garden for 2 hrs... all in the same day. Do the math. It's not possible. Oh sure, you can burn the sleep candle at both ends but for how long?

On some days, my Amazing Marvin to-do system tells me I have 25 hours of tasks scheduled for that day. Um. Let's talk about overwhelm!

Work Faster, Longer, Better is Not a Solution

I think that if I could just work faster, work longer, or work better, more efficiently, that I can get everything done on my to-do list. Society is speeding up, everything is getting faster and faster. There is always more to do. How come everybody else seems able to do more with the same amount of time? What are their secrets? I need to find out! Surely there is a key somewhere that if I just new what it was and where it fit... my life would magically clear up and all would be ease and flow.

More is not always Better. Sometimes Less is More

We can have too much of a good thing. We can volunteer too much. We can take on too much. We can think that we can do more, and more and more but... always we run up against time and energy constraints and the Rule of Life... We can't do it All. Sometimes doing less is... more. 

Procrastination is the Solution

As I said... I have always seen procrastination as a bad thing. But like all things in life, it has a good side and a bad side. Procrastination is not necessarily good or bad, rather it is how we use it. An ax is not good or bad... it's how we use it. Procrastination is just a tool...

And if I use it carelessly, without thought or focus or attention, then I just drift through life, scrolling the news sites and avoiding the problems in my life that just seem too overwhelming. Not today. Tomorrow. I can't deal with this right now. I need chocolate. I need a movie.

But procrastination used mindfully, strategically, can be a very good thing. I only have 8 hours to get stuff done today. What are my priorities. What tasks am I going to focus on. What do I need to defer? Oooohhh... see... good procrastination has a new name... Defer. Or maybe Postpone. A rose by any other name...

I can't get everything I want to get done.... done in one day. I have to defer things, postpone, procrastinate. I have to choose what I am going to work on and say... these things are a "yes" and these things are a "no". For now. For today.

Rather than fighting procrastination, what if I embraced it and used it wisely? Might change things... dramatically.

Confessions of a Productivity Junkie: My Latest Obsession with the 1-3-5 Method!

It's been a while since I wrote a productivity post. Lest you think that I have given up on my productivity junkie ways... nope. That was just the last 4 months of pre-posted blogs! But now... under the gun from having frittered away my 4 month blog buffer... productivity is front and centre again. Which means, of course, that I am re-evaluating my time/energy usage and looking for something that can keep me focused and efficient. Enter... the 1-3-5 Rule!

What the Heck is the 1-3-5 Rule?

A very good question. At it's essence, it's really very simple... in any given day, I should be able to accomplish:

• 1 Big Task
• 3 Medium Tasks
• 5 Small Tasks

Simple, no? But... what does big, medium and small really mean?

1 Big Task

This is the most important and impactful task I need to complete. It could be a major project, an important meeting or something else that requires a good 1.5 to 3 hours to complete. Lately... Tax Preparation has been my Big Task on some days. On other days it's "Clean the Airbnb". 

3 Medium Tasks

These are tasks of moderate importance that still need to get done. They are essential for keeping things moving forward and keeping me on track. They aren't as big as the Big Task. I sort of ballpark them as 30 min to 90 min. Things like writing a blog post, running a daisy chain of errands, posting to our Airbnb's social media stream, mowing the hay field... errrr... back and front lawns.

5 Small Tasks

These are the little things that need to get done but often get overlooked. For me, they take between 5 and 15 min. Things like phone calls, sending emails, cleaning the heat pump filter. Writing or responding to guest reviews.

The thing with the 1-3-5 Rule is... there is only space for 9 (NINE!) things on my daily to-do list. Saayyyyy WHAT? Exactly. Before... I could have dozens of things on my daily to-do list. Talk about overwhelming. And I'd end up snacking on junk food tasks (the little ones) and never getting around to the bigger ones. BTW... updating my to-do list can seem uber important and urgent when there are dozens of things on my to-do list! And that can suck up hours of prime energy time. Sigh.

Anyhow... the 1-3-5 Rule puts an end to an Over-Ambitious To-Do List... there's only space for 9 things... and that's why it works so well...

The Beauty of the 1-3-5 Rule

The 1-3-5 Rule is simple and it's effective. It forces me to have:

Focus

I have to review my tasks and figure out... what's the big thing I need to get done today. Not "want" to get done... but "need" to... like spending a couple of hours on tax prep. Or cleaning the Airbnb because a guest checked out. I can only choose 1 (one!) Big Task so the 1-3-5 Rule forces me to look at my day and go... "OK... what's Priority #1 today).

Clarity

Oh, I get really clear on my priorities very quickly. In the past, I would think I could do 2 hours of tax prep and 3 hours of Airbnb cleaning and write 3 blogs... all in one day. Yeah. No. That doesn't work. I get really clear on what my big task is and I can let go of the other big tasks... for today.

Balance

My day is more balanced... there's room for a Big Task and a bunch of medium tasks and then the smaller stuff too. In the past, I might spend 8 hours of my day beavering away on some big research blog and... neglect everything else. That's a pretty quick road to exhaustion and overwhelm. I might "want" to do more but... there are only so many hours (and energy bursts) in a day so this helps me balance my day.

Achievement

There's nothing better than looking at my 1-3-5 list and going... Done and done and done and done!!! Looking at a list with several dozen items and seeing that I've only marked off 1 or 2... meh. Not very inspiring. While I might not get all of the Smaller Tasks done (they are easier to boot into tomorrow)... the Big Task generally does get Done!

But What About the 1-3-5-7 Rule?

But... true to form... there's a part of me that wants to add "more" to the 1-3-5 Rule. What about adding 7 Tiny Tasks? Things that take less than 5 minutes? Huh? What about that? What if I have a couple of calls to make or a few emails to write and they won't take 5 minutes each? What then?

Sigh. Rather than adding 7 Tiny Tasks to the 1-3-5 Rule... I've started bundling things. So one of my Small Tasks might be "Process Emails" and another might be "Call X and Call Y". But I do spend a moment on assessing if the Calls, for example, are going to be quick and short or if they might need to bounce up to a Medium Task.

Conclusion

So far, after a couple of weeks of this, I'm really liking the 1-3-5 Rule. My online to-do list program (Amazing Marvin) has a 1-3-5 integration. It automatically assigns things to the Big, Medium and Small lists based on the time duration I have assigned to tasks.

I tend to look at my 1-3-5 list for the next day on the previous evening. I assess my upcoming day and go "OK... no cleaning of the suite... tax prep is front and centre... and then writing a blog and then...". The next day, when I look at my list, it's all laid out. I might not "want" to do tax prep but... the list reminds me that this is important... it might not be as exciting as blog writing... but it's more important right now. And I focus and get down to it.

And it works. And that gives me a boost to do more!

Drive Smarter, Not Farther: The Benefits of Strategic Trip-Chaining

I read this hilarious article the other day. Did you know that [some] men do not get the concept of an errand. Even more foreign to them is idea of "running errands". I'm pretty sure that every female reader in the bunch knows exactly what "running errands" means!

The other interesting tidbit is this... when a man is working on a project and needs something. He will run out to the hardware store to get whatever he needs. The next day, perhaps he is painting the fence and needs a can of paint. So he will run out to the paint store to get the paint. The look on his face, if his wife asks him to tack on a couple of "errands" on either of those trips, is a study in confusion.

Now this may be a bit of an exaggeration but... studies have shown that women are more likely to practice trip-chaining than men, who tend to prefer  a star-burst pattern of "errands".

Trip-chaining, as the name suggests, is the concept of planning your errands in such a way that you can get them all done without doubling back on yourself. Basically running them in the most efficient way possible - least time, least amount of fuel, least amount of kilometres. Maybe if we held it out as a game, it would be more appealing to some folks?

A star-burst pattern of errands is... you're at home, and you drive to the swimming pool to get the kids and come home to drop them off. And then you head to the hardware store to get something and then come home. And then you head to... you get the point. Each trip has one purpose and starts and stops at home base. Very inefficient in so many ways... fuel, time, kilometres, energy, etc.

Even fuel companies know this!!

"Combining errands into one trip saves you time and money. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer multipurpose trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm. Trip planning ensures that travelling is done when the engine is warmed-up and efficient."

A University of Michigan study found that cutting shopping frequency in half reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 44%, while trip chaining cut emissions by about 50% (compared with the base case). What's not to love about trip-chaining!! Ultimately takes less time, less energy, less gasoline, less carbon emissions. Although... it does require waaaayyyyy MORE planning!

Planning Required

Trip chaining requires absolutely exquisite planning. You also need to be able to practice your delayed-gratification muscle. Maybe you've run out of milk and it's a Thursday and grocery day is tomorrow. Can you get by just this one day without running to the store for milk on Thursday? Of course you can! Maybe. If you can, that's way better for everyone involved!

I know I'm making this sound like some sort of epic battle campaign but... what if we did treat it as some sort of gamified competition... maybe more people would actually enjoy running errands? Or at least not dread it?

1. Brainstorm or Track your Upcoming Errands

First step is to keep track of what errands you need to run. Whether it's a paper list or an app, write it all down. You don't want to forget these things. Because there's nothing worse than realizing after a successful Trip-Chain Adventure... that you've forgotten something crucial.

Sometimes, I'll have Costco on my list, for one thing, but it's not urgent, so I'll bump it into the following week. Trip-chaining can work in-store as well. If I don't have to go to Costco for that ONE thing... but can wait until I have several things on the Costco list, that's ideal.

2. Plan Your Meals

We also sit down on Thursday evening and plan our meals for the next week. What do we have in the fridge and freezer that needs to go? What do we feel like eating in the coming days, based on our schedules. Some days we have time to cook a large meal, other days are more suited to left-overs or pulling a ready-made meal out of the freezer.

We can then look at the list of meals and figure out if we need to buy anything. There's nothing worse than trying to cook a meal and finding we are out of something critical. When that happens... we sometimes end up going with Skip the Dishes and that is $$$~

The other thing we tend to do is write items on the list during the course of the week, as we realize that we need them. "Oh, only 2 onions left... better put those on the list". "Oh, opened the back-up mustard jar... better get a new one".

This way... I am not standing there early on Friday morning, looking at a blank list. Planning and preparation are key!

3. Roughly Map Your Route

Our city is a long strung-out string-bean of a municipality. Going to the north-end is VERY different from going to the south-end. But if I do go to the north-end, I can usually weave in a few central tasks as I make my way back to base camp.

So in mapping my route, I look at the tasks and group them - north-end, central, south-end. Then see if any need to be shimmied around. I normally do north-end and central. Recently though, with our cat having some kidney issues, I am making more trips to the south-end where the vet is located. There is a grocery store down there, and a big-box reno store, a recycle depot, as well as a LifeLabs. Sooo... can I move some of my errands to the south-end so that I'm not doing a single-task vet run?

Most of this mapping is in my head as I look at all of the stops on my list... but in the next step, we get concrete.

4. Check Opening Times

This is key. Because you don't want to show up at one of your carefully planned stops and find... it's 9:05 and they open at 10 am. Baaahhhhhhh!!!!! That's sure to generate a muttered OFFS (Oh for F*@k's Sake!).

So I double-check opening times of stores. PetSmart is irksome because it opens at 9 am, when I think it should really open at 8 am! Superstore opens at 7 am, as does Home Depot. Costco opens at 9 am, unless they are ready inside, and then sometimes it opens at 8:45 am. One day, I was in and out of Costco before 9 am!!! The library opens at 10 am but their book drop is open all the time. Vet opens at 8:30 am. Pomme opens at 8:30 am. Canadian Tire opens at 8 am.

I usually write those times next to the locations on my list, just to make it concrete for me. And then... I make a final mapped route on a new piece of paper. I write all of the stops down in chronological & numerical order. And I'll write the opening time next to it, just so I know...

1. Leave Home (you'll see why I have this)
2. Starbucks (6 am)
3. Library (book drop open always)
4. Home Depot (7 am)
5. Superstore (7 am)
6. Pomme (8:30 am)
7. Costco (9:00 am)
8. PetSmart (9:00 am)
9. Staples (9:00 am)
10. Recycle Depot (8:30 am)
11. Thrift Store (9:30 am)

Now, the starting point of the entire trip is not necessarily the time listed next to the store. The trick is to hit the place during opening hours. Sometimes Superstore goes faster than expected and I'm standing at Pomme at 8:00 am. Not a good scene.

So rather than hitting Home Depot at 7 am... I will now examine my list and try and time it so that I am standing in front of Costco at 8:45 am. Costco is the pivot point because I really don't want to show up here any later than 9 am (it's a zoo). It is a firm anchor in the schedule, around which everything else revolves. Superstore is a secondary anchor. I don't want to do it any later than 9 am either, otherwise it too is a zoo. 

The recycle depot and thrift store are enroute to base camp from the north-end so they are not as critical. Unless I am bringing in cans and bottles... in which case I am there at the crack of 8:25 am... any later and... it's a zoo! I generally try to avoid zoos if at all possible.

5. Gather & Stage Your Supplies

You've got it on the list, you've mapped it in your head, you've checked opening times. Now it's time to gather everything that you need for each of those errands.

I generally do this in my head and just scan my list and then make sure I have what I need. Although sometimes, I find it more helpful to write it down, or place the items needed down by the front door, ready to head out.

1. Leave Home... Prepared!
• Wallet - obvious. And yet I can't tell you how many times I've shown up at a grocery store with no wallet in my pocket. I now have Google Wallet set up on my phone, just as a back-up.
• Phone - also obvious. If I leave home without wallet or phone, I am in serious trouble. I also have ebooks on my phone, so if I'm waiting in line, I can read!
• Breakfast To-Go (yogurt/berries/nuts) - otherwise I get hangry and cave in to a Starbucks chocolate brownie or a Timmies bagel... (my backpack has a plastic cutlery set so I am' ready to eat my yogurt wherever)
• The List! - Don't leave home without it. Otherwise, the whole thing falls apart. And you're phoning your partner at 6:30 am, waking them up, and asking them to take a pic of your list and send it to you...
2. Starbucks
• my backpack with laptop, so I can blog, and my notebook, so I can journal if I have to wait in the car for a store to open (or I can read my ebook on my phone)
3. Library
• books I need to drop off
4. Home Depot (7 am)
• receipt and item that I need to return
• measurements for picking up something else
• can of paint to get shook up by their shaker thingie
5. Superstore
6. Pomme
7. Costco
8. PetSmart
9. Staples
• dead pens & ink cartridge to recycle
• ink cartridge number so I know which one to buy
10. Recycle Depot
• big pieces of cardboard
• bags of shredding
• various bags of recyclables
• glass jars
• styrofoam trays
• flexible plastics
• metals
• batteries
11. Thrift Store
• box of stuff to donate

When a place is on the list, I generally think... "what else could I do there?". For example, with Staples, I need printer cartridges but I also think... "what else is there"? Ah, I can drop off the stash of dead pens so that they can be recycled. Oh, and I can drop off the dead printer cartridge too. And, while I'm there, I might as well get a ream of printer paper.

By the time this is all done... the car is pretty much crammed with stuff! But... I am ready!!

6. Begin the Adventure

The trick, always, is to be flexy-bendable with the errands. Because sometimes... Superstore has run out of something and I need to pivot and add in a quick trip to Save-on-Foods. There are two that I could hit on my route (Item 8.5 or 9.5), so it's just a matter of adding them to the list (don't forget!).

Or I might remember... "shoot... we need canning labels...", so I'll stitch in Canadian Tire (9.3) or Home Hardware (10.5) into the list. And, darn, we need gas (4.5)! Whew... 

By the end of it... I usually feel like I deserve that brownie that I didn't get because I was responsible and brought yogurt! Sigh. But it's better for me without the brownie.

And now... the errands for the week are done. My goal is to avoid the "oops... forgot to get... [fill-in-the-blank]".

Although, if I am out and about for an appointment on another day of the week, I will add in one or two stops that may have popped up.

Caveats

Some caveats are in order! All of this depends on your own circumstances. Maybe you live in an urban centre and can walk to most places. Maybe you can't carry everything in one trip. Or maybe you don't have the stamina to do a 4-5 hour Errand Extravaganza. Maybe you go to church every morning and you hit a stop after church each day. It all depends.

For us... and our strung-out city, it makes sense for me to combine as many errands in one area as possible. I don't want to have a 20 minute round trip several times a week (plus shopping time).

Or maybe you live in a large urban centre like Vancouver and trip-chaining makes perfect sense. If you're going to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Superstore or Home Depot or Costco or IKEA, you are going to make darn sure that you have everything you need on a list! And you are going to make sure that you combine as many stops as you can.

Conclusion

Usually... by the end of one my Errand Extravaganza's, I am pooped. Satisfied... but pooped. And hoping that I haven't forgotten anything urgent. I much prefer this system though to the star-burst pattern. Trip-chaining saves me time, which is limited. It also saves on gasoline and reduces carbon emissions. For the rest of the week, I can focus on other things, rather than being forced to "run an errand" because we need something urgently.

I love it when a series of errands goes smoothly, without a hitch. When it's been planned well and executed well. It makes my little heart sing and the Inner Organizer in me does a little happy dance! I know... I'm weird... but it's these small steps that make a big difference.

More Reading

Baltimore Sun - Men don't get the concept of an errand

Stats Canada - 2013 Report on Trip Chaining

Twitter 2015 - Trip Chaining diagram

University of Michigan - 2022 - Trip Chaining and Carbon Emissions

Beyond the Clock: My Evolution from 4-Hour Dependency

When I first started this blog, I knew that I wanted it to focus on small steps - for healthy living, for the environment, for anything really. And several years into this, I am reminded daily that no great thing gets done without these small steps. Everything is made up of small steps.

The thing is... we don't see some of those small steps. We see a singer blaze into stardom and forget that this singer spent hours, days, months, years, practicing their craft, one small step at a time. We see new buildings pop up in our neighbourhood. We don't see the myriad small steps that go into constructing the building. We hear of a friend of a friend retiring at age 40 with millions in the bank. We are jealous and wonder what they did to hit the jackpot? Win the lottery? Sell a start-up? We don't believe it can be done one frugal penny-pinching step at a time.

And we know this... deep down, we know this... but still... we think that we there might be a shortcut to fame or fortune.

How Much Time is "Enough" Time?

A friend of my is producing two books a year (more or less). These are not fiction books, but heavily researched non-fiction espionage books. I don't know how he does it! He must have oodles and oodles of time! Like, open vistas of whole days that are just devoted to writing. Right? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps he just has a different view of time.

I still think that I need several blissfully empty hours in front of me before I can work on the next book, or start a new project. I don't believe that I can write a book one small step at a time. I think 30 minutes is too short. I think the smallest step I need is 2 hours. Maybe more. Like 4 hours!

Perhaps that is the key. I have an image in my mind of the size/length/duration of the "smallest step". For writing... realistically... I think I need 2 hours... and ideally 4 hours. I mean, I "need" that time to get back into it... to pick up where I left off... to gather my research notes and recall where I was in the project. And maybe I do need an hour to do that... but if I were to work on the project every day... I wouldn't need so much time to "get back in the groove".

When it comes to yard maintenance... it's the same... I think I need a good hour to get anything useful done. I mean, there is soooo much to do out there... I believe that I need at least an hour to make a meaningful dent in things. Or do I? My partner and I went out there this past spring, on a sunny afternoon, and decided to spend 15 minutes decluttering the shed. We made a sizable dent in the chaos in the shed. Just 15 minutes.

Same with house cleaning... my default seems to be an hour. Even though I know, from experience, that I can get a tonne of cleaning done in 15 minutes. My brain seems to have a default setting of one hour.

So if there is less than an hour of time in my day... I fill it with smaller, less important tasks that I know I can complete, rather than working on a larger project which I know will not be complete... even though it is moved further along to completion.

I know that completing a task gives a dopamine hit... so maybe I'm just a dopamine addict... wanting the hit after completing a task. If I know that a task can't be completed in 15 minutes or an hour... there is no dopamine carrot dangling ahead of me. And so I default to easier, simpler, shorter tasks.

The question then becomes... can I alter that 1 hour default? I did use the Pomodoro technique successfully a few times for projects that were seriously stuck. Work for just 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. It seems awfully rigid though. Or could I create an artificial dopamine carrot for working on something for 15-30 minutes?  And what would that look like?

Peak Alertness

Or... perhaps my sense that an hour is required in order for me to do productive project work isn't actually that far off. Studies have shown that our ultradian rhythm (cycles repeated multiple times in a 24 hour period) might have a role to play. Based on studies of our natural energy and alertness cycle... we can maintain peak alertness for 90 to 120 minutes before we need a break. On top of that... studies have also shown that it takes about 23 minutes to get into a deep work zone.

Sooo... if I really want to do some deep work... then the Pomodoro technique isn't going to work. I legitimately need about 30 minutes to get into a work zone. And I can maintain that for up to 2 hours. So the sweet spot for working on a complex project (like writing a blog or working on another book) is going to be somewhere in the 60-120 minute zone.

This actually makes me feel a bit better. I'm not mucked up! My sense that I can't get anything useful done on a blog or a book in less than an hour is probably not that far off. I need to be able to work on it for at least 30 minutes to get into a flow zone... but can only maintain that for another hour or so.

30 Minutes is Enough?

But here's where I can marry these two bits of information. All I really need is a 30 minute chunk of time. That's a small enough segment that it doesn't feel impossible or overwhelming. I also know that once I've been working on something for 30 minutes... odds are I will continue for a bit longer. And yes, ideally I would have a one hour chunk to devote to my writing.

On the other hand... for other things... like decluttering the garden shed, or updating our finances... I can drop that down to 15 minutes. I can get a lot of decluttering done in 15 minutes.

Now... the trick is... to actually follow through on this. An hour seems like a fairly large step to me... although 30 minutes is a bit more doable... cuts that hour in half. But even those 30 minutes are broken up into countless small steps... the first one being... to just start! Getting started seems to be 80% of the battle. If I can just get started, I know that everything else falls into place.

Next Small Step

So much of my to-do list is made up of things like "write blog about ____". That isn't, actually, a small step. That's like saying "land a man on the moon". Well... let's just give up right now because that is a huge mountain of a task! It's no wonder I get stuck and just skip over that item in my to-do list... it's much more doable to "screw fire extinguisher to the wall"... a very concrete, small step task. And it gives me a quick dopamine hit. Whereas "write blog" is so amorphous and nebulous that my dopamine addict looks at it and goes... "nope... too hard... I need a quick fix". And so I spend my time completing small tasks rather than focusing my precious time on larger, complex tasks.

Sigh... I'm back to looking at my productivity system! Surely there is something out there... something better than what I am doing. Something that will actually help me focus and get things done?

Productivity Systems

What about the Getting Things Done (GTD) system... where you identify the next actionable step? "Write blog" is not an actionable step. Even "research blog" is not an actionable step. Maybe "open blogger web app"... "open current blog post"... "review material written to-date"... "identify next steps"... Those are small steps. But do I really want to spend time adding them to my to-do list? Not really. I think I should be able to identify these when I see "write blog post"... but clearly that is NOT working!

There's also time-blocking... where you look at the week ahead and map things out ahead of time. What appointments do I have? What are the self-care things that need to go in there - walk, eating, etc. What work time do I need to factor into the schedule. Then... look at the remaining time and figure out... what can I do in that block of time... write a blog? answer emails and make phone calls? research Airbnb tips and tricks? The idea with time-blocking is that you group things together. So I am not answering emails and making phone calls throughout the day, when I should really be working on a blog or something else. I have tried it in the past and found it far too rigid... but perhaps I wasn't using it correctly because it is supposed to flex and flow with the unexpected.

I've also come across another idea... about working on one thing... without distraction. So the question to ask is... "Did I do what I said I'm going to do for as long as I said I would, without distraction?". Even if I didn't finish it... I can still get a dopamine hit because I did what I said I would do... without getting distracted. That's a win!

I'm going to have to let all of these percolate for a while... and see what I can come up with that might actually work for me

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

The Mason Jar of Life and Tasks

You've like heard of the Jar of Life metaphor.

The idea is that the jar represents our life, limited and finite. There are only 24 hours in a day. There are only so many days/weeks/months in our life. We can only do so many things with that limited time.

The rocks, pebbles and sand, represent various features of our life, depending on how you look at it. So the big rocks can be Family, Health, Friends, Hobbies, etc. These are the Important things in life. The pebbles represent things like House, Car, Job, etc. And the sand is everything else, the small stuff.

If we fill up the jar with sand first (the unimportant stuff), there is no room for the rocks (important stuff). The trick is to place the important things in the jar firsts, then add the pebbles, then the sand... and then the beer (as some theories go - there is always room for beer with friends!).

Now, that's the fairly simple, basic version. This metaphor has been taken and used in all sorts of different contexts. And it's not quite as simple as putting big rocks in first, then pebbles, then sand. Unless the pebbles are really small, you'll probably find that the pebbles jam up against the rocks and the side of the jar and you're left with a bunch of empty holes in the bottom. Which could house pebbles, but which the pebbles can't reach. Technically, you should put some big rocks in, then some pebbles, then some more big rocks, then more pebbles, then the sand... and shake it all around!

As I was thinking about this metaphor, it struck me that it can easily be applied to my To-Do List and my Eating Plan.

Eating Plan Jar

Here's the thing... my tummy is a mason jar (a small one). I get up and I have a good breakfast (rock) and a good lunch (another rock)... but if I start snacking in the afternoon... and eating a bit of junk food or popcorn or whatever... there is no room in my tummy for dinner (another rock). And it's not like I can eat all three main meals in one go... my tummy is only so big. The meals are spread out over the day. So, it's up to me to make sure that, throughout the day, I am tending to my big rock meals first... and then... maybe add some snacks. Or maybe not.

To-Do List Jar

As for my To-Do list... my energy ration for the day is the mason jar. Or the number of hours in the day. or both.

There are days where I am so busy doing all the small things on my list. Because they are easy and they have been hanging around forever. So I am tossing pebbles and sand into that jar like nobody's business. Feeling so productive and so excited that I am getting things done!

But then... by 3 pm, I am pooped. No more energy. I've blown it all on sand and pebbles. And I look over my to-do list and see the rocks (projects) that I didn't tackle that day. I feel defeated and angry. Yes, I got a gazillion things done... but not the things that I really want to get done. I was seduced by pebbles and sand.

I know why I didn't tackle the big things... because rocks are darn heavy! And these rocks don't mean that the project is done. There is this huge boulder that is the project. Each rock is just a small part of it. Ugh. I work for a few hours, chipping away at the boulder, and I've got one lousy rock to show for it.

And not just that one project. There are other projects too! So maybe, at the end of the day, I've got 3 rocks to put in the jar. Then I can add a few pebbles - but not a lot because there is only so much time and energy in the day. Sand follows... the minutiae of life that has to happen regardless.

But... I feel like I've made a difference. I have moved three projects ahead. I haven't completed them. But I have moved them forward. Just a bit. Which makes a difference. I feel productive and satisfied.

My To-Do List is a mish-mash of rocks, pebbles and sand. If I don't plan out my day ahead of time... I can wake up and get sucked into the ease of pebbles and sand. I drift from this pebble to this pile of sand, avoiding the rocks until I have "more time" or "more energy" or "more of something... I don't know what... but something".

I often feel like I need a good 4 hour chunk of time to work away on a project, to produce a rock that is worthy! I think that I can maybe get that whole boulder broken down and cram it into today's jar. Hmmm... probably not.

I often look at my To-Do list and defer things to random days in the future. On that day, I wake up and find 40 things on my to-do list. Overwhelmed by the enormity of it, I look for something doable - usually a pebble or a pile of sand. I do that, just to gain some momentum.. Maybe just one more pebble. Oh heck, the morning's almost gone... more pebbles!!

It's like pebbles and sand are the junk food of tasks for me. They are easy. They satisfy me, at least for a while. But ultimately... the high doesn't last long. 

This all make sense to me. I see my patterns. I do tend to avoid the rocks - they are too hard, take too long, too much energy, need more work, etc. I gravitate towards the pebbles and sand - easy and quick. 

Will it change anything though? This awareness of how I hold tasks and my finite life? Well... time will tell, but I have started sitting down on Sundays and planning my week. I have started using time blocking to map out the day. By the time I've filled in appointments and health (exercise, healthy meals, journaling), I find that I usually have four reasonable chunks of time (a couple of hours or so): early morning (6-8 am), mid-morning (9-11 am), afternoon (1:30-4:30 pm) and evening (6-8 pm). That's about 9 hours total time. Broken up into chunks... but still a significant amount of time.

Time blocking from ToDoist

I spend the early morning creating... writing this blog and a couple of my other blogs. This is my time, to do what I love... to write. Mid-morning is usually work time - the contract work that I do. Afternoon is time for projects - right now, developing a direct booking system for our Airbnb which involves a number of different facets. I've been dragging my heels on this for months... so this is the biggest difference for me. Actually blocking these hours off to get this boulder tackled! The evening time is not my best time so I tend to use that for down time - listening to podcasts while I do puzzles, maybe mowing the lawn or putz-ing in the yard.

Sometimes the day goes sideways and I have to adjust my expectations. Maybe there's another rock (like a vet appointment for the cat) that nudges its way into the day. Or there is something urgent that drops into my day. Either way... I can adjust (re-calculating) and go with the flow. 

Just knowing that I have reserved time for the rocks in my life makes a huge difference. I don't feel like such a junk-food tasker! Binging on the simple/easy carb tasks of life!

Always, I am reminded that life is full of small steps. I can't cram that boulder/project into today's jar. Not a hope in heck. I can only tackle it in small steps, one rock at a time.

There are only 24 Hours in a Day

So much to do... so little time
(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

I know, I know... this is so obvious, why am I even blogging about this?? Wait and see...

So, there are 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. That seems like an awful lot of time. The other obvious thing is that we all have the same amount of hours. No one has invented a time machine yet that can allow us to extend the day and create more hours. We always have the option of getting more space, more money, more stuff. But... more time? Nope, that's impossible.

Oh sure, you can hire someone to do the house-cleaning and yard-work and car maintenance. You can trade in some of your money to claw back a bit of time. But you still run up against that 168 hours a week. There isn't an infinite supply of hours.

Even that 168 is obviously not all that there is to it... Here's where I spend some of my hours in a week. I'm going to split weekdays from weekends because they look very different.

Weekdays - 5 days x 24 hrs = 120 hours available

Let's start with the non-negotiable basics... sleep, eat, a walk...

• 45 hours - 8 hrs of sleep/day and 30 min either side of that for wind-down and getting up
• 5 hours - breakfast - that includes cooking my oatmeal, eating it and washing up
• 5 hours - daily walk with my partner
• 7.5 hours - prep and eat the main meal - sometimes that might go quicker
• 2.5 hours - evening meal - usually more like a snack

Soooo... let me see... that's 65 hours which leaves me with 120-65 = 55 hours. 

Then we have other relatively essential things of daily living...

• 2.5 hours - journaling for about 30 min/day
• 10 hours - contract work
• 2.5 hours - grocery shopping and errands
• 2.5 hours - appointments of various types

And that leaves me with... 37.5 hours or, 7.5 hours/day of "available" hours on a weekday. And of those, 2.5 of those hours are from 6 pm to 8:30 pm which I consider to be generally "not computer time", otherwise I get too much blue light and can't sleep! So, really... I am left with 5 hours during the course of the day, give or take. So, that's 25 hours over the weekday...

Now, let's look at the weekends

Weekends - 2 days x 24 hours = 48 hours available

Again, let's start with the non-negotiable basics... sleep, eat, a walk...

• 18 hours - 8 hrs of sleep/day and 30 min either side of that for wind-down and getting up
• 2 hours - breakfast - that includes cooking my oatmeal, eating it and washing up
• 2 hours - daily walk with my partner
• 3 hours - prep and eat the main meal - sometimes that might go quicker
• 1 hour - evening meal - usually more like a snack

Soooo... let me see... that's 26 hours which leaves me with 48-26 = 22 hours. 

Then we have other relatively essential things of daily living...

• 1 hour - journaling for about 30 min/day
• 6 hours - yard maintenance
• 3 hours - a hike
• 2 hours - house maintenance
• 2 hours - manage household finances
• 1 hour - genealogical research

That leaves me with... 7 hours over 2 days or 3.5 hours a day. Although... right now, for example, there is a LOT of canning taking place, so that sucks up any excess time. Soooo... let's get back to the weekdays, because that's where the struggle is happening right now.

Everything I Want to Do

Right then... so 25 hours seems like a fair bit of time. But it's amazing how it just slips through my fingers without any warning at all. Here are some of the things I want to do in those 25 flex hours in any given week...

• 7.5 hours - write my various blogs - I currently have 3 of them on the go
• 10 hours - write and research my 4th blog (historical research)
• 12.5 hours - work on a book about one of the MI5 guys
• 10 hours - set up direct booking systems for our Airbnb (rental contract, email journey series, auto-payment processor, etc)
• 2.5 hours - manage our Airbnb and the one I co-host - includes tweaking daily and writing weekly IG & FB posts
• 2.5 hours - handle calls and emails

Let's see... I can already see a problem. But let's do the math - that adds up to... 45 hours. Stuffed into 25 hours. Hmmm... me thinks I have a problem with a 20 hour short-fall. I obviously can't do this. There just aren't enough hours in the week.

***taps fingers on table while frowning seriously***

I am eyeing those 2.5 hours every evening - between 6 pm and 8:30 pm... that's 7.5 hours right there. But all of my weekday activities require a computer. Yes, I could probably steal some hours there, but I would pay a big sleep price sooo... alas... that is not going to work. And besides... those are my puzzling hours when I listen to podcasts! Can't cut into the puzzle time... nooooo...

Now, the Airbnb direct booking system won't go on forever. My goal is to have it done within a couple of weeks, so that would free up 10 hours a week... but that still leaves me with a 10 hour shortfall.

The Blogs

Yes, I do have a lot of blogs... I have this one, my DNA blog and my playful bear blog. That's a lot of blogs. Plus... I set myself some fairly hard and fast schedules.

• Small Steps - I had it 3 times a week and have cut it to 2 times a week - I do have a one to two month buffer of pre-posted blogs but... if the buffer runs out, I am up against a wall and it is impossible to keep that pace up week after week, especially since I started the... DNA blog.
• DNA blog - right now, that's once a week... but who says it needs to be that often? Maybe I could go down to once every two weeks?
• Bear blog - I was trying to do that 3 times a week too, and it slipped to twice a week and now it's maybe once a week... if I can squeeze in the time. It's the one that slips off the conveyor belt most often now.
• Historical blog - I had slipped off of this one for over a year and recently started posting weekly again - but perhaps that could be pushed out to every two weeks...

These publishing schedules are all my creation. If I went to once a week with Small Steps... I'd be pre-posted into January, which would create a LOT of breathing room. Maybe I could do the DNA blog every two weeks?

Ultimately, it comes down to this. I need to choose where to spend my time. I can't do it all. It's impossible. And I hate impossible boundaries but... in this case... I really do have to get real and make a choice. I really do want to do this other book and I need to carve out time for that.

Revised - Everything I Want to Do

Alright... 25 hours is the goal... go!

• 1.5 hours - write blogs (DNA blog right now written once a week but pre-posted every 2 weeks to build up a buffer) (reduced from 7.5 hours)
• 2.5 hours - write and research my 4th blog (historical research) - published every 2nd, 3rd or (gasp) 4th week (reduced from 10 hours)
• 5 hours - work on the book about one of the MI5 guys (reduced from 10 hours)
• 10 hours - set up direct booking systems for our Airbnb (rental contract, email journey series, auto-payment processor, etc)
• 2.5 hours - manage our Airbnb and the one I co-host - includes tweaking daily and writing weekly IG & FB posts
• 2.5 hours - handle calls and emails

Ah, this is killing me!! This is 24 hours so I have a flex hour to allocate somewhere. But it is hard to make these choices! I know that once the Airbnb direct booking system is set-up, that will free up some hours but... still...

Could I steal hours from the weekends? Those 7 hours? Maybe... maybe not. I really try to keep things separate and there is already a lot of stuff that gets shoved into the weekends. Plus, I do want to spend some time doing "fun" things... maybe go to a movie with my partner, visit friends, read a book, etc.

Sometimes, there are random bits of time that show up. Maybe meeting didn't go as long as planned, or there weren't any emails or calls to make... and the trick now would be to seize those little 30 minute chunks and turn them into something useful. Through this process, I at least now know where I want to spend them!

Choices are Hard

I am also reminded that small steps are what make the difference. Five hours a week on the new book doesn't seem like a lot but it does add up over the course of a year. Especially if I focus and don't get distracted by other things. I've done a tonne of research for this book, so now it's just pulling things together. I can do this.

For now... this Small Steps blog is going to go to a once a week posting schedule. I am pre-posted well into January, more or less. And hope to keep that schedule going into the future.

So... "for now" this is what I will focus on. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't forever. This is a temporary deferment and all can be reviewed in 3 months to see where I get to!

Staying in Place and Living Simpler Lives

We really desire a simpler life, a life with less stress, less responsibility and more fun. We think that would happen if we sold the house with all of its garden and house maintenance. Which would also mean no Airbnb and all of the headaches that go with that. No house & no Airbnb = Simple/Stressfree living! But does it?

A few weeks back, I shared a post that I had written in March 2023, when we were convinced that selling the house and moving into a condo would solve all of our problems. Well... we haven't sold the house! We quickly learned that condos are expensive and not always without headaches. So many of the ones we looked at, in our price range, were being raced with special assessments for things like building envelope repairs. Not so simple... not so dreamy.

So we backtracked and recalculated... if moving out of the house was not the solution and not an option... Could we live simpler but stay at the house?

Because, while I might blame the house, there is a deeper truth. I do contract work and essentially trade my time doing that for money. And I save us money by doing the yard work and home maintenance. Maybe it is time to actually take some of that contract work money and spend it on things like house cleaning and yard maintenance? To save me the time of doing that... and have more time to walk and hike and travel?

So, we sat down and brainstormed things that would make our life "simpler" and/or "easier". And then we played it out over the summer to see how it went...

1. Airbnb Summer - Ease up on the Airbnb - instead of allowing 1 night stays... make it 3 night minimum stays from May-Aug and don't fill the intervening nights, unless we want to. We don't need to go full-bore and earn the max $$$. Not if it almost kills us!
   Results: We did that over the summer and other than one spate of five back-to-back 1-night stays... we did OK. We even accepted a month-long booking from mid-July to mid-August to give ourselves a break. and it was nice.
   
   
2. Airbnb Winter - Only accept bookings longer than 14 days for Sept-April - less turnover, less cleaning.
   Results: We are doing OK with this! A one month stay from late Aug to late Sept and then a 48 day booking from Oct 1 to mid-November. Yes, we aren't earning as much as we would if we did shorter bookings but... it's not all about money. We are still making our minimum average for those months and that is pure gold.
   
   
3. Airbnb Cleaning - hire cleaners - less headache or more headache?
   Results: Well, we hired a cleaner for upstairs, for our space and... so far, the cleaner is not hitting the quality of cleanliness we would need for the Airbnb. Maybe in the future...
   
   
4. Airbnb Blocking - block it and take the time/days that we want
   Results: We did this too over the summer. If we wanted a break... we just blocked the nights. Less $$ but less stress and more life balance. If we needed an extra day for cleaning, we often blocked a night after a reservation.
   
   
5. Go Off-Platform - advertise on Kijiji or FB Marketplace and get an off-platform rental instead of giving Airbnb $$$ in service fees
   Results: We haven't tried this yet...
   
   
6. Convert to LTR - Turn the suite into a full-on long-term rental with a tenant - less money but less work?
   Results: We haven't tried this either. It would certainly take a big load of work off of us (Airbnb is NOT passive income) but... we are doing OK right now with the Airbnb.
   
   
7. Scale back my contract work hours - There were some weeks where I was doing a half-time job instead of a very part-time job! And that, combined with cleaning the Airbnb was leaving me exhausted.
   Results: So I talked to my contract guy and we have scaled it back to what I had initially committed to... and it's been working so far!
   
   
8. Yard - get someone to help with projects and lawn mowing - costs money but less work
   Results: We did this! And it was nice notto have to do the heavy lifting on some of these! Not sure about regular lawn maintenance though...
   
   
9. Our Cleaning - given all of our Airbnb cleaning... I am too pooped at the end of the day to clean our own place, so... get a cleaner, for us.
   Results: We did this! And it does make a difference. Now, the quality isn't up to my standards but... I am learning to be OK with "clean enough".
   
   
10. Interior Painting - get someone to paint bedrooms rather than me
    Results: We did this!! And it was soooo nice not to have to paint!
    
    
11. Garden Irrigation - my partner spends a LOT of time watering our veggie beds in the summer... a drip irrigation system would make a big difference. It costs $$$$ but... haven't we earned it?
    Results: We did this!! And it makes a huge difference!
    
    
12. Downsizing - could we downsize at home? Could we simplify our life, our hobbies, our commitments? Could we take back our spare room? Could we use the Airbnb as guest accommodation? In order to give us back our space?
    Results: We did get rid of the bed in the spare room! And then put in a murphy bed with storage on either side. Win-win! We get space back and we get storage. Still working on decluttering!

There's a rule of thumb for an overwhelming to-do list...

1. Automate
2. Eliminate
3. Delegate
4. Postpone

We experimented this summer with all of those. We automated the watering of the veggie beds. Everything is on a timer and it works amazing! We eliminated (more or less) one-night bookings as they caused us a lot of stress and exhausted us. We delegated several tasks like cleaning our space and some yard work and painting. We also postponed some projects and tasks.

I realize that it has been a struggle for me to (a) acknowledge that I can't do everything, (b) be open to the idea of spending money and (c) be open to the idea of getting help. I've been a Saver my whole life and it takes a bit to turn into a Spender. But burning myself out trying to do it all myself is not a solution either! So trading our money for some sanity and breathing space seems like a fair trade at this point!

When My Day Turns into a Chronic Hiccuper

 There are just some days where everything goes sideways. Wake up early, Starbucks not open, Wifi not working, Bluetooth mouse not connecting, brain not working properly, can't log-in to a website, co-worker complaining about something... ugh!

It seems like the whole day is "recalculating... recalculating... recalculating...". I try to go with the flow and pivot and adapt and reformulate and regroup and refocus and readjust and... eventually it's just a bit too much. I just want something to go right!!!

Sooo... deep breathing. Pause. Slow down. Maybe it's time to stop. Just stop. Another deep breath. Given what is happening to this day... what are my priorities. Not what I hoped to get done. What do I actually NEED to get done. I have all sorts of plans and ideas and tasks for the day but... maybe it's time to let them go and reassess my day. Which is a hard thing for me. I just want everything to go smoothly! Why can't it just go smoothly every single day!

Which is really a useless, pointless question. There's always little hiccups that happen in a day and on this particular day, it seems like the hiccups are endless. So, given that it's a Day of Hiccups... how can I adjust my perception, my attitude about this day. Rather than getting frustrated... it's to recognize that this day is just not off to a great start. Really, anything that I get done today is a bonus.

And... rather than struggling upstream, frantically trying to make things happen in the face of a slew of hiccups... just go with the flow. Maybe today is not the day to write a blog. Maybe today is not the day to figure out why the Service Canada website is rejecting my login (it is a Saturday after all). Maybe today is not the day to work on anything at all. Maybe it's a day to rest. The workshop I've been helping with had its last session this morning. There is nothing urgent on my plate. I can actually stop.

My temptation though is to get a whole bunch of other things done today, stuff that has been snow-ploughed all week, as the workshop work took up my time and energy. I figured that once the session was done today, I could dive in and get a whole host of things checked off on my to-do list. Maybe not.

So perhaps it's time to stop... maybe even back-up and reassess this day. What do I NEED to get done today. Maybe I NEED to rest and relax for a while. That is a hard thing for me to admit. But that's what this is all about... reflecting on what is happening and seeing what is required. It's a small step on the road to self-care.. but at least it's a step!

Is My To-Do List a Task List or a Wishful Thinking List?

 

I love lists. I make lists at the drop of a hat.

What's our meal plan for the week? Let's make a list.
What errands do I need to run on Friday? It's on a list.
What garden projects are still waiting for me? Check the list.

But... I am starting to realize that I am not the greatest to-do list maker. I always seem to have more things on my to-do list for the day than I can ever hope to accomplish. A lot of these things don't have a firm, fixed deadline. Nor are they overly urgent. They just need to get done within the next month or so. At least, I think they do.

What I tend to do is look at my overwhelming daily to-do list with all of these extra tasks, and I will re-schedule some tasks and kick them down the road to next week, or next month or 3 months from now. And when next week arrives, I find myself doubly overwhelmed because of these kicked tasks that now drop into my day with a thud.

You see... I don't actually know that I have a "To-Do" list. Such a list has tasks with concrete deadlines and actionable tasks that I can sink my teeth into. My lists, on the other hand, tend to be "Wishful Thinking" lists. Or Hopeful lists. Or Possibility lists. Or Maybe-This-Week lists.

I think that I can get these tasks done next week. So I just kick them into next week and hope that next week looks better than this week and I'll actually get around to them. Or some of the tasks/projects have been hanging around for a few months and I think... "I really need to get to that... my not this week, I'll boot it to next week and maybe it will get done'.

Yeah. Exciting, eh? Not.

When these Maybe/Hopefully/Possibly-Today tasks show up on a specific day, I generally look at them and think... "Nope, not today... maybe tomorrow" and punt them into the future. "I don't feel like it"... "I don't have the energy for this"... "Other things are more important"... Ad nauseum...

I know how to make lists. I even know how to make to-do lists. (Or at least I think I do). I have a great to-do list app that manages all my tasks. But when this overwhelm happens and I see the same pattern of behaviour (shoveling tasks into the future)... I think I need a new system. I need a new app!!! I've gone through a lot of to-do list apps and I know that is not the answer. The one I have right now is perfectly fine. Although... maybe it needs an AI integration to help me manage things? That would be cool!! (New shiny object distracting me from actually getting things done). But I don't think it's there yet... at least not this month.

In the meantime, I need to comb through my to-do list and get real. I know that I have gotten a bit sloppy with some of my tasks and that they are too broad (more like a project than a task). So it is to drill down and identify the next actionable task for these things that I keep booting into the future.

How do you Bookend Your Day?

I'm in the middle of a disheveled week. There's a workshop sucking up 4 hours of my morning which is basically the whole morning - from 7 am to 11 am. The afternoon sucks up more time related to the workshop... with the end result that I'm spending 6-7 hours of my day working on this contract. Normally... I do maybe 1-2 hours a day. Hence the dishevelment of this week!

Given all that is going on, I am handling it remarkably well. And that's not must me thinking that... that's my partner commenting on it as well! Despite the fact that my usual morning routine is a bit out the window... I'm not blogging, journaling is hit or miss, and let's not even talk about my morning walk... However, I am managing to keep some of the key pieces in place - like meditation, cat cuddling (very important) and a healthy breakfast.

And in the evenings, I am still doing my journaling and reading a book. Still finishing eating by 6:00 (ish) and limiting my time on the computer screens... even though I still have to do a final sweep of workshop related stuff at 8 pm. 

All in all... not doing too badly. As we were talking, it came to me that... as long as my morning and evening routines are remaining fairly intact, the rest of the day flows not too badly. Yes, there are ups and downs and disruptions but... I'm handling it better than I have in the past. It's like my morning and evening routines are bookends to my days.

Some days... I probably wouldn't miss a bookend, or even both of them... because the day is like a bunch of hardcovers... they can stand up on their own for a while. Day after day... likely not. But for just this day... I can manage without a bookend.

Other days however... I'm trying to corral a bunch of floppy softcovers and... geez... without both bookends, the day just ends up falling apart. Pull those bookends away and it's a right-old mess!

The thing is... I really don't know what the day is going to look like, so it's important for me to tend my bookends. I need to pay attention to my morning routine... and if I can't go for a walk, at least I could puzzle for a bit instead. I can make these little adjustments and still find time for me, even in a hectic morning. What I'm realizing is that I can seize those small moments and actually get a fair bit done. This morning... I didn't journal or blog... but I did work on another personal writing project, and that felt really good.

I also can't neglect my evening routines. Even though the day is done... the evening routine gives me a chance to decompress... to journal a bit and debrief. To play a game with my partner (and lose!). To read a book, even just a few pages. All of this calms me and prepares me for the next day. It allows me to clear the space so that I'm not carrying unresolved stuff into the next day.

What I'm also realizing is that my morning bookend has a bunch of moving parts. Depending on the day of the week, I might do weights... or I might go for a walk. Or I might work on one of these blogs. Or maybe I'll work on my other writing project. Perhaps I'll go for a walk... or save that for later. It's much easier on me when I have a set routine... first do this, then do this, then do this. That's part of what makes habit stacking so effective. I'm finding it harder with all of these mobile options. It's very easy for me to forget some key parts, especially if I start off the day doing something different... like working on a puzzle first thing. I really need to focus to connect with... what to do next.

A flexible routine is an oxymoron to me... routine is something set and solid. It's not flexible. And for something to be flexible... that implies that there is a lot of room for variability... totally not routine! So I am having to wrap my head around the idea of marrying these two contrary concepts into a united whole. Is there such an offspring?? I guess I might need to alter my vision of routine... perhaps it is not "rigid" or "structured"?

Or perhaps... rather than seeing my morning routine as a solid block... I need to see it as series of smaller pieces, that can be combined into different shapes. Kind of like Lego blocks. Some pieces are non-negotiable... like stretching and meditating... and journaling... but other than that, I can grab different pieces and combine as I choose... in the timeline that I choose.

Maybe... I will have to mull this over a bit more. In the meantime... I will work on hanging onto my daily bookends! They are small steps... but without them, my days would be a bit of a mess!

Planning and Preparation is 90% of the Battle

I'm heading over to Vancouver today on the ferry. It'll be about 1 hour and 40 minutes and I try to use that time wisely because... there is NO wifi on the ferries!!

Now, in the past, that has really mucked with my plans for working at one of the business stations on the ferry. They have the electrical outlet. They have the desk space. They just can't get reliable wifi out on the open water. Which sucks.

Although it does give me an opportunity to do some planning and preparation. I make sure that I have some Word documents all synchronized in Dropbox, so I can open them on the laptop and work away on them. I know that they will resynchronize the next time I connect on a wifi network. Or I'll bring a book (real or e-book) to read. Or I'll bring some actual paperwork (real paper) to work through, maybe a chapter that I'm reading and editing.

Planning for a Wifi Dead Zone

Today, I had the bright idea of bringing the DVD on the Camino that I picked up from the local library a few days ago. My older laptop does have a DVD reader, so I could sit and watch the DVD while sailing the open seas. Excellent idea! I'm also bringing a real book just to cover all eventualities. And, of course, I have e-books that are available via my smartphone.

Planned and Prepped!!! It's half the battle! Or is it? Perhaps it's actually 90% of the battle? Because if I have planned and prepped... then I've parked myself downhill on a very steep slope and it's really super easy to get started. And I know what happens when I don't plan and prep... I spin my wheels on the ferry and waste a lot of time and kick myself for not thinking ahead! Soo... I am well-prepped for my NO wifi voyage...

Mobile Hotspot!

And then... it struck me... as I was writing this... that I could actually use my phone as a mobile hotspot! That would allow me to actually stay connected to the internet and get a bunch of other stuff done. Although I think the cell reception might get a bit dodgy about halfway through the crossing... but it's worth trying.

I just checked my mobile hotspot usage from the last billing period... 1.28 GB, which isn't bad considering I probably used it four times for several hours each time. I just ticked over into a new billing period so I have a fresh mobile data meadow to romp in!

Planning for Healthy Eating

The other thing I always chew on... but have yet to figure out is... what to eat on the ferry. I could go to the White Spot cafeteria onboard and order all sorts of things, but it's not cheap. I have wondered for a while if there is a microwave somewhere on board where I could heat some leftovers... I have a sneaking suspicion there is one... but I have not really gone on a hunt for one. I think it might be in the smaller cafe on board... next to the sugar station? I can almost picture it in my minds eye... but don't quote me on this!! So that will be my mission on this journey... do they have a microwave on board! Which still leaves me wondering about food... Maybe just a PB and J (peanut butter and jam) sandwich on gluten-free bread... Will have to give it some consideration... or just cave and order butter chicken on the ferry!

How it Actually Panned out

Well... it actually went really well!! I decided to buy some sandwich meat while I did my grocery shop before the ferry trip. So I made a sandwich, peeled an orange and cut up an apple. I was well set for food on board! (And yes... I have gotten a bit lax in my plant-based eating plan - but salami was just an easy choice and better & cheaper than the onboard options).

And my work session also went well. I was glad that I had some tasks lined up because I can get easily distracted and lose my focus but... that didn't happen this time. And I got some good work completed. I did use my phone as a mobile hotspot and it was pretty solid throughout the whole voyage, so that is something good to know!

I also had a poke around the ferry and... voila... they DO have a microwave onboard!! Very good to know as it give me the option of bringing some leftovers that I can reheat onboard the ferry.

End each Day by Parking Downhill

We live on a hill, one of the steepest (if not the steepest) hill in our city. It's got a 27% gradient which is very steep!

Now, we live near the bottom of the hill, and not on the steepest part, which is better in the winter, when people can't even drive up the hill... but living near the bottom is not so good for my morning walk.

Walk Uphill or Downhill?

When I walk out the door... I am faced with two choices... go uphill or go downhill. Going straight, and level, is not an option. Many days, I face a mental block on my morning walk. I really, really don't want to have to grunt uphill right off the bat. I can do the slog to the top in 8 minutes but... those 8 minutes are a grueling, wheezing realization that I have turned into a winter slug!

So, sometimes what I do is... I'll just head downhill... it's easier, it gets the juices flowing and my muscles get limbered up. I may then circle around the block and start slogging up the road one street over (longer but with a gentler gradient). But first... a bit of downhill is much appreciated and makes the morning walk less of a chore... and more likely to actually happen.

Parking Downhill in the Woods

When I worked in the bush, we'd drive down these long logging roads into the wilderness. At the end, where we parked, we would always, always, always, get the truck turned around so it was parked facing in the direction of home.

Maybe it's a bear chasing you... or a forest fire... or a wounded companion... or it snows while you're out in the bush. The last thing you want to struggle with is a 5 point turn as you go back and forth, back and forth, trying to get turned around in the right direction.

Plus... if you go a bit too far and get stuck in the ditch... at the start of the day, you have waaayyy more time to get that figured out than at the end of the day when you're tired and it's getting dark. Oh... and if the battery died while you were out in the bush... it's a lot easier to push the truck forwards down the hill to get it started than to push it backwards down the hill (does that even work?).

Just another example of... park downhill... make it easy on yourself!

Parking Downhill for Productivity

I came across a productivity hack (which you know I love) the other day. The idea is to "park downhill" every evening. Not just the car either.. this works with projects or your desk or... whatever.

We aren't always at our most alert in the morning... so gathering up everything that we need the night before is just smart. The documents... the office bag... make a lunch... make sure your keys are on the key rack... get your exercise gear together. A little preparation the night before means that in the morning... you'll be parked downhill and everything will go much more smoothly.

With projects... it's a good idea to end the day in a "fun" spot. With something that you will find engaging and interesting and... dare I say it... easy.

I've been struggling with proofing a document that was translated from Polish to English using Google Translate... It's a bit of a slog but I can park downhill by telling myself the night before that I'll just start with the headings... and then the photo captions. That is easy. I can do that no problem. And once I've done that... then I'm already on a roll (having parked downhill) and can tackle the actual text.

Another idea... for those of us who work from home... is to have the document that we are going to be working on the next morning, open on the desktop. And nothing else. It's so easy to get distracted by all of the open tabs... so eliminate the distraction and make it easy.

Part of why parking downhill makes everything so much easier is that it eliminates decision points which are often energy draining. Decision fatigue is real... even in the morning... there is nothing worse than waking up in the morning and not being clear on what project is going to be tackled next. At least... there's nothing worse for me. I usually end up frittering the day away... so parking downhill just makes sense.

Even with this blog... if I can have a topic picked out in my own head the night before, then I am set for sitting down in the morning and writing. I'm parked downhill.

If... on the other hand, I don't have a topic picked out... it is a struggle in the morning because "I don't know what to write".... and it's pure gruelling uphill grunt work. No fun.

These might all seem like small things... but it's the small steps that make things easier.