The contractor thing is real in Portland too. It has taken us 10 months to get the wiring redone up to code in this house. I can’t really complain, because the dodgy wiring was exactly why the previous bidder dropped out, so we wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for that and our willingness to take on the risk and responsibility for the project. But: two estimates/diagnostics and just three work sessions took ten months to happen. Boggles my mind.
Of course, when my water heater died, I found someone who could replace it within a week. Urgency does lead to that many more phone calls. (We still “had to” schedule a spa day just to get a hot shower that week. Lemons, meet lemonade 😄)
I’m actually fairly similar in terms of constantly making lists and then mostly ignoring them in practice. I keep on making them lists because I do look them over, most days, and it keeps me mindful of promises made. Those are at the top of my list at all times. My solution for important but postponable stuff is to have a kind of vague schedule in mind. Like, the first Friday of every month is when I catch up on my bookkeeping and do my invoicing. And if I miss that, then the second Friday. First Friday of each month is also when I deal with anything having to do with my music releases; unless of course I miss that for some reason, and then I just do it the next week as well.
Some stuff just inevitably happens in a panic at the “last minute” but I’ve figured out over the years to make sure I have my freakout two business days before the actual drop dead date, so I’ve never been actually late with an “existential” project (as you put it!) for many years, decades probably.
Habit stacking has helped me too. I try and get around to teaching-related stuff on Mondays, which is also when I pay my credit cards. Tuesday the garbage bins go out, so that’s when I clean the cat boxes. Et cetera.
But most stuff is pretty haphazard. The dishes? When I get annoyed with the mess, or it seems like my wife is annoyed with it but is also putting off dealing with it. Piano practice? Mostly daily still but in truth, whenever I feel like it and it mostly consists of sight reading, because I can’t be bothered to actually learn pieces anymore.
I love unstructured time but definitely get a lot less “done” at those times. I’m currently in the midst of a really intense 10-week course so naturally I’m super productive just because I have zero time to waste in the day, thanks to this 15-hour a week commitment on top of my normal life. I was up at 6:30 this morning after five hours of sleep to attend 3 hours of class, and then a whole full work day right up to 7:00 PM. I attended to three major projects including this coursework and then taught and then spent quality time with my wife. But on normal wide-open summer days with little or no teaching and no other structure? I’m liable to do little apart from listening to music and playing video games for an entire week, all the while ignoring important things waiting to be done and growing ever more urgent…
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Of course, when my water heater died, I found someone who could replace it within a week. Urgency does lead to that many more phone calls. (We still “had to” schedule a spa day just to get a hot shower that week. Lemons, meet lemonade 😄)
I’m actually fairly similar in terms of constantly making lists and then mostly ignoring them in practice. I keep on making them lists because I do look them over, most days, and it keeps me mindful of promises made. Those are at the top of my list at all times. My solution for important but postponable stuff is to have a kind of vague schedule in mind. Like, the first Friday of every month is when I catch up on my bookkeeping and do my invoicing. And if I miss that, then the second Friday. First Friday of each month is also when I deal with anything having to do with my music releases; unless of course I miss that for some reason, and then I just do it the next week as well.
Some stuff just inevitably happens in a panic at the “last minute” but I’ve figured out over the years to make sure I have my freakout two business days before the actual drop dead date, so I’ve never been actually late with an “existential” project (as you put it!) for many years, decades probably.
Habit stacking has helped me too. I try and get around to teaching-related stuff on Mondays, which is also when I pay my credit cards. Tuesday the garbage bins go out, so that’s when I clean the cat boxes. Et cetera.
But most stuff is pretty haphazard. The dishes? When I get annoyed with the mess, or it seems like my wife is annoyed with it but is also putting off dealing with it. Piano practice? Mostly daily still but in truth, whenever I feel like it and it mostly consists of sight reading, because I can’t be bothered to actually learn pieces anymore.
I love unstructured time but definitely get a lot less “done” at those times. I’m currently in the midst of a really intense 10-week course so naturally I’m super productive just because I have zero time to waste in the day, thanks to this 15-hour a week commitment on top of my normal life. I was up at 6:30 this morning after five hours of sleep to attend 3 hours of class, and then a whole full work day right up to 7:00 PM. I attended to three major projects including this coursework and then taught and then spent quality time with my wife. But on normal wide-open summer days with little or no teaching and no other structure? I’m liable to do little apart from listening to music and playing video games for an entire week, all the while ignoring important things waiting to be done and growing ever more urgent…