Choices
Hello Busy Subscribers!
I’ve been reflecting on time management this week. You know that satisfaction of hopping on the B train just as the doors close on your backside? “YES!” You made it. Just in time. In fact, it’s a timing coup: no missed train, yet no time wasted on the platform either. This is how I live my life lately, jumping to appointments like hopping subway cars. I’m always optimizing time, intolerant of unproductive moments—impatient to the point of a diagnosable disorder no doubt. Okay, you’re probably more chill than me, but I assume your days are still much like mine, packed with obligation, enrichment and recreation. So I want to start off this week with a huge THANK YOU for:
- subscribing to my blog,
- not yet unsubscribing,
- opening my posts and (more or less) making it through them.
This makes Post #17 in the new year. That’s a lot for you and me... and a lot has been falling by the wayside because of it. I’ve been making different choices lately:
Choice A OR Choice B
- write my blog OR change out the boys’ winter wardrobe for summer shorts
- write my blog OR rout out size 6 underwear from the 10-year-old’s skivvies drawer
- read someone else’s blog OR make homemade applesauce
- write my blog OR clean out the china cabinet
- peruse Pinterest boards OR clean out the kitchen drawer
- follow friends on Twitter OR scrub the shower curtain liner
- plant bulbs in public spaces OR sew buttons on shirts
- write my blog OR give myself a sloppy pedicure
- try a radical recipe for ground turkey OR wash out the garbage cans
- write my blog OR clean the microwave
- write my blog OR fold laundry
- read someone else’s newsletter OR match mittens and socks
- join a book club OR clean out the car
- do a set of push-ups OR dust the blinds
- write my blog OR sleep
- I’ve been favoring A over B these days…. overlooking the gummy corners of the kids’ mouths and the kitchen floor. Slacking on changing sheets. The pots and the poodle go unwashed.
The daily must-dos are enough for me these days. It’s enough to slide supper on the table, correct homework, sign school trip permission slips, enforce piano practice.
When the kids finally nod off, column B beckons, but I’ve been plugging the ear buds into the MacBook, raising the volume on my iTunes The Cure radio station, and going for A…
I LOVE choosing A and I’m managing the consequences…
What are your housekeeping shortcuts?
Here are 3 of mine:
1. Clorox wipes by every toilet.
2. Dressing from the clean laundry basket.
3. Dim lighting.
One area I don’t take nearly enough shortcuts: the stovetop. But that’s my choice too. I still love to cook. When a 5lb bag of last October’s Macintosh apples scans at $2.99 in April, it’s time to make applesauce, and screw the blog. Homemade applesauce is worth the effort.
What’s worth your effort these days?