Thursday, May 3, 2018

Numbering the things

1. Yesterday, I finished both the shampoo and the conditioner at the same time (well, not actually at the same time, but during the same hair-washing-and-conditioning session).  I feel like I deserve some kind of award, because when does that ever happen?

2.  Yesterday the little chickens made it into the hen house on their own when it got dark.  What a difference a few days make!  This development is so encouraging to me, as in, there is hope for integration some day, although I have to say, a bit grudgingly, that the experts are right.  One should wait until one's chickens are the same size before introducing them to each other.  Only (about) 8 more weeks to go.

3.  Yesterday for probably the first time ever, I had "pick up worms" on my to-do list.  I mean, I've picked up worms before, and, in fact, putting worms on fish hooks was part of my job one summer, but it's never been on my to do list before.  Oh, the things we do for our childre I mean chickens.  They're dry mealworms, and they're a birthday present for the big girls, who will be a year old next week.

Speaking of to-do lists, I wanted to give y'all a little update on mine.  You might remember that one of my goals for 2018 was to obtain and begin using a to-do notebook.  I really appreciate having one perpetual list of all of my to-dos.  Whenever I think of something I want or need to do, I know where to write it down so I won't forget it.  It's sorta life changing.

I was having a problem, though.  The problem was the to-do list items are all things that need to be done at some time in the future.  And when things don't have a specific time to be done, they're easy to put off, indefinitely.  Last week especially I was having a hard time doing anything from my list, because I kept telling myself those things could wait until tomorrow.

This week, I told myself I should pick at least three things from my list to do every day.  Three things, because years ago I discovered through extensive research that three items was the optimal size for a to do list.

Then I realized, based on the size of my list, and the fact that I no longer have kids at home during the day, that three was too few, so I should pick five.

And then I realized that it was kind of difficult to keep track of how many items I had done, because I don't necessarily do them in order.

So the current iteration is this: I'm numbering the things.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Not necessarily in order of importance or in order of completion--just five things that for sure I need to do that day.

Yesterday (of course), I only did three (of the numbered things--I actually did more than 5 of the listed things).  Picking up the worms, for instance, was not one of my numbered items.

Anyway, that's how I'm getting things done around here these days.

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