Like many I started with lists. I work well with lists. But I was finding that although it was satisfying to cross something else off the lists I was never at peace because each day I regretted the things on my list that I had not achieved. Or I got sick of doing the same thing for 6 hours. Or I was exhausted after 6 hours of gardening ...
Then it dawned on me that when I was teaching I did not expect students (or teachers) to concentrate on one thing for a whole day, we had a timetable that broke the day into manageable bites. When I retired I eventually came to the same conclusion that things needed to be worked in manageable bites.
So one day last week I sat down in a manageable bite of time and created a timetable, my daily routine. Basically we have 5 easy breaks in the day - Breakfast, Morning Tea, Lunch, Afternoon Tea and Dinner. Between each of these is a manageable time slot that allows a significant task to be achieved then a break. I needed to keep time each day for Creativity (patchwork, writing, digitising scrap books etc) and that seemed to be dropping to the bottom of my list each day. So it went in as a distinct slot. I needed to get outside each day so my first slot of the day was a Gardening activity. Ha! but what if it rains I asked? So parallel to Gardening is Cleaning. This is a slot for actual spring cleaning of one room but only until morning tea time. Then I stop and continue with that task next time I can't get out in the garden for my vitamin D and exercise. Another thing I needed to slot in was Cooking. I have a solar system so I should be using electricity during the day. In this slot I prepare meals for the freezer, preserve produce by jamming, freezing or drying - all the big cooking jobs. I also organise what will be for dinner that night so that it is not a last minute rush after a long day. Ahh I hear you ask - what if there is no food to be dealt with? I have paired Clothes with Cooking so that I can sort, mend, iron, sew clothes at some time. I now have a daily plan that looks like this...
I print it out with another column for writing my list against the appropriate time slot.
Of course I allow myself to be lazy at any time but it gives me just a bit of structure to my day. It also ensures that I won't get to the end of this lock down and regret time "wasted". There are things that I miss like family, grandchildren, and friends: kisses and cuddles and chats. But I am having a great time achieving lots of goals. (I should include guitar in my Creative slot so I have time to get back some of those skills.)
So far I've done lots of gardening, am well on my way with my patchwork and scrapbooks, and have finished spring cleaning three rooms - my bedroom, the lounge room and the study. I don't care that I have not done the whole house or the whole garden I just feel satisfied that I fulfilled my need to stay focused and organised and complete some tasks.
Following my plan I get active, less active and sedentary activities throughout the day. On top of that, by building in walking whilst on the phone, waiting for microwave, even listening to online readings and whilst patchworking I am still achieving my 10000 steps each day and 150 mins of moderate intensity exercise according to my Fitbit. I think the trick is to build in inefficiency into your workspace to encourage more movement.
And here is an article that came through on The Conversation today discussing the ability to cope with social distancing in different personality types.
Good luck to you all in your quest to stay home, stay safe and stay sane.
P.S. Just days after I posted this about planning, Marie Bostwick (a work at home author) posted about planning her work days at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment