One Thing at a Time

It feels like I've made this point multiple times before on both my blogs, but here it is again:

The fastest way to get things done is one thing at a time.

Multi-tasking simply splits your concentration, making everything you do take longer. With the exception of walking and chewing gum, it's usually not a good option. In the case of caring for young children and doing anything else, or texting and driving, or similar combinations, multi-tasking can be downright dangerous.

And the comments seem to indicate that multi-tasking means you do less than your best, and don't enjoy what you're doing nearly as much because your mind isn't all there.

I'm not a layabout. In addition to my normal schedule of taking care of the house (which is cleaner than it's ever been!), myself, and a 21-year-old disabled son who can't cook for himself and is not even completely toilet trained, volunteering at the church and at a retirement residence, swimming, bowling, orchestra, art class, church and library visits, I'm also this month half of a planning team for a re-gifting day that takes place November 26th, and one-third of a planning team for a city-wide Live Nativity Scene taking place December 3rd that includes over sixty volunteers, animals, decorations, a live band, and will see over 500 visitors. I had mole removal surgery yesterday. There are two concerts scheduled this month (already had one) with two dress rehearsals, and another two coming up at the beginning of December.

I am preaching twice, taking the place of a friend who's having shoulder surgery. If she's out for more than the two weeks, I'll be doing those too. At the end of the month, I start three paper routes.

I am only a little behind on my NaNoWriMo effort this year. Certainly not as far behind as I usually am at this point. And I've written at least five hundred words every single day.

I've kept up with my blogs.

I've had time to listen to and help out a friend who's going through a rough time.

I've had time to read books, laugh, and play computer games.

I've prepared all of my own meals except for the usual Saturday supper at Bill's place, but then he's at my place twice per week, so that makes up for it.

And I did it all one thing at a time.

I have emailed some people and said that dreaded word: No. No, I am concentrating on doing the things I have on my plate well, and I don't have time for anything new, at least until the new year.

I've delegated some things to others--poster making, volunteer scheduling, and what have you.

I've been very meticulous about checking my schedule every morning--I use an on-line calendar now, and it's my home page. (Possibly more about this later--it's a great tool).

I break my time into fifteen minute blocks. Sometimes 30 minutes is too long for an activity, and sometimes I don't have 3j0 minutes, but fifteen minutes of writing (as I did this morning) is better than nothing! (And now I'm absolutely certain I'm repeating myself...)

But I don't multi-task. I don't even listen to music while I'm writing, because for me listening to music is an active experience, one that uses my brain power.

If you really don't have enough hours in the day to get things done, consider delegating or saying, "No," rather than multi-tasking. Say "NO!" to junk television, ironing (if you hang things up right away and buy only wrinkle-resistant clothes, you'll be fine), and energy-sucking "friends" and activities.

Delegate those things that can be done and should be done by others. Your husband can pitch in, and so can your kids. Even your friends or the parents of your kids' friends may be able to help with some things.

Once you've cleared out the clutter in your schedule, you're left with only the important stuff, which you tackle, one person or thing or project at a time, fifteen minutes at a time.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take fifteen minutes to declutter a closet and see what I can find for the re-gifting event.

Back Again--And Still Working At It

It's been months since I posted. I'm like that, unfortunately. I start off going great guns, but any project that requires a "slow and steady wins the race" attitude is one I'm not likely to complete.

At least, that's the way things werre until a few weeks ago. I posted on my main blog about the change that's come over me, but I didn't entirely say why I've changed.

I've changed, if you'd like to know, because I got tired of living the way I have lived. My writing wasn't happening, my music wasn't improving, and my house and finances were still a mess. I'd make an occasional effort to fix things, try to do it all at once, and end up being burnt out.

Then my friend referred me to FLYLady.net. Now Marla the FLYLady and I don't agree about everything, but there were things she was saying that resonated very deeply with me.

Like trying to do it all at once and do it perfectly was causing me to not do it at all. "Perfect" and "perfectionism" are swear words, according to her, and I couldn't agree more.

Looking back through this blog, I'm struck at how I was trying to do it all at once. FLYLady says, "Fifteen minutes at a time. You can do anything, fifteen minutes at a time."

And so I have. Over the last three or four weeks, my home has gone from a huge mess (almost as bad as the pictures from a year and a half ago), to a haven. Not a perfect haven (I still have to tackle the basement, parts of the office, and the upstairs hall closet, and I still haven't reorganized the kitchen after we changed things around for the babysitting gig), but I'm getting there.

Fifteen minutes at a time.

I lost two pounds in the first two weeks of shining my sink (which is FLYLady's first baby step). I wasn't eating out. I don't even eat meals at my computer desk any more. Instead, even if I'm by myself, I eat meals at the dining room table.

I have new living room furniture -- a matching sofa and chair in excellent condition. No, I didn't win the lottery. A man from my church moved into a retirement home, and another man from my church loand the use of his truck and his back, and we got the chair and sofa home.

I gave the cat to Bill, and I won't be getting another one anytime soon. Definitely not before my house is as clean as I want it to be, and my finances can handle both the feeding and regular vet check ups. And it will be a short hair.

In the meantime, both Phil and Bill are happy, and I can still go and visit my sucky cat and pet him. All the benefits, and I'm not having to sweep up gobs of cat hair every day. Which has been very good for my breathing!

I've given up having set projects for the week. Instead, my goal is simply to do fifteen minutes or more per day of home maintenance. Doing it this way works for me -- so far, my bathroom is back to being clean and shiny (minus the toilet paper origami, which was only to bug Ally anyhow), my clothes closet has been cleared out of over 80 items that I didn't wear because they either didn't fit, were in tatters, or looked terrible on me, and my arts and craft supplies have been organized to the point where I can actually take note of what I have, and use them!

My mind has slowly been clearing of clutter, too. I've been able to develop possible strategies for dealing with my financial mess (which really isn't much of a mess any more), and I've begun writing every day again.

Which means, I hope, that there will be more regular posting on this blog in the near future!

My mind's been hacked!

I had no intentions of cleaning my desk this week. Really. I intended to get my room clean (done), get the dishes washed (done), and do a general tidy up of the living room and dining room (also done). That was quite enough, I thought.

Then I stumbled upon this post, and my mind has not been the same since.

I thought about it for a day or so. I imagined my room clean and tidy, and it was so. I imagined my kitchen clean and tidy, and it was so. I tried to ignore the desk, preferring to leave it until next week, so I could enjoy some quality time with my Sims and Neopets, but the darn video is invasive. First the garbage disappeared. Along about the time the dishes got washed, the dirty dishes disappeared. Papers started magically sorting themselves. Books moved back to the bookshelf (or the floor, since I haven't begun to tackle that area of the office in my mind yet). Pens got put in the little desktop holder I have. I now know where all my post-it notes are. And finally today, the dust disappeared and the desk was clean!

It's not really magic. I've just found a way to make my mind work for me. Now instead of imagining the work I have to do, I imagine the "Ahhhh!" feeling I'll get when the work is done.

And it works! Even the goldfish tank, which in the last couple of months had reverted to its algae-ridden glory, is now sparkling clean!

And I'm feeling quite happy--it seems to me that the scales have tipped, and that order is spreading throughout my house. This week, I'm going to ask Ally to lend me the camera so that I can post proof of my progress.

Recovering from a Backslide, and A Tale of Woe

Bonus post here! Two posts in one! You can't get a deal like that anywhere else, now can you? :p

"Autumn is a season for big decisions -- like whether or not it's too late for spring cleaning."

So I'm back, after a few months' absence, and having backslid more than a bit. It's been a busy time for me -- a friend's daughter had her babysitter quit via Facebook the week before school started, and I fast talked one of Ally's friends into being the temporary babysitter while the mother applied for subsidized care for her two kids. After a few days of sitting at the mom's house, which was much, much messier than mine, it became apparent that the arrangement wasn't going to work. The babysitter was afraid to leave the house with the kids because a) she didn't have a key, and b) the area isn't the best. The mess meant that kids and sitter were confined in one small room (the living room), and the only thing to do was watch TV.

So one weekend, sitter and Ally transformed MY house into a daycare centre. Which made me immediately aware of the fact that mess isn't just unsightly. It can, with kids around, be downright dangerous. My living room got a thorough cleaning and childproofing, and the kiddy toys were moved in. Not too many toys -- just enough to keep the kiddies occupied when it was rainy outside. A whole lot more craft materials in a nifty storage bench, some wooden blocks, and some kids' books and CDs. The DVD player and TV were already on site, with a wide selection of appropriate videos, because my autistic son still likes to watch kids movies. (So do I, but I don't have to admit it, do I?)

Everything had a place -- a tote or box or shelf so that things didn't get totally disordered, and the last thing the kids did before heading home was put things back in their place. Between that single routine and a babysitter who took them to the park at least once every day, the place stayed in reasonable shape, and with a daily sweeping and mopping (and I'm now thanking God that my floors were re-done in laminate!), the living room and kitchen at least were kept livable.

The kitchen was rearranged so that dangerous stuff could be locked up, but we decided after all to block off the kitchen with a gate. The new arrangement has proven very inconvenient, so one of the things I'm going to have to do in the next few days is put everything back the way it was...

Because the kids were there daily, it did mean that the downstairs didn't get too messy, but the upstairs was another story. I'm a solitary person, and the arrival of two very outgoing little kids every day upset my routine a lot! I could hack it when I was younger, and none of my kids required the 24/7 one-on-one supervision that those two kids did (they're all introverts like me), but I'm fifty now, and entitled to a little peace once in a while, or so I believe.

Anyhow, my desk and office and hallway and bedroom are a disaster, and the bathroom is dirty again, so it's back to the old drawing room! Hopefully, though, in the next day or two I'll have at least the bathroom, bedroom and desk halfway decent again.

On a completely different note, there was a posting on one of the message boards I frequent a week or two ago that made me sad. A friend who followed her husband (who is in the navy, I think) to Japan says that when he was posted, they couldn't sell their house, and so they hired a management company and rented it out. They had just found out that the place had been trashed by their renters. The folks who replied to the posting related several similar experiences, and many of them vowed never, ever to rent out a house again.

Renters, if you're reading, please take note: This hurts us all! In the end, the only ones who are going to be willing to rent out to folks like us (the majority in North America, I believe) are large companies who a) will be extremely fussy about who they rent to, possibly leaving those of us with less than stellar credit histories or less than steady employment out in the cold (and if you have those two things, why are you renting?), and b) will extract humungous damage deposits, which they will then be very stingy about returning.

I don't get it. If I'm living in a place, I'd much rather live in a nice place than a trashed one, and that means taking good care of it, even if it's not mine.

One of the things I'm trying to demonstrate here is that you don't have to be rich or even moderately well off to have a nice place to live. I live in subsidized co-operative housing, and if I keep the place up, it will be a relaxing and wonderful place to call home. If I don't, I'll be living in a dump. How my neighbours live doesn't really affect me. How much money I have doesn't make all that much difference--a lot of the stuff I own was free or almost free, and none of it is "the best money can buy."

What matters is how well I can take care of what I have, and how well I take care of the walls (and windows and doors) that surround me.

So if you're poor, and if you're renting, don't believe that it's impossible for you to live in a nice-looking place. Don't think that it's okay to trash the house just because you don't own it, you'll be moving on soon, and it's easier and more fun to break down wall than to paint them. It's not okay, it really isn't all that fun (I get much more satisfaction out of cleaning something than I do out of breaking something!), and in the end, it hurts us all.

OMG! *burp*

I'm beginning to reap the benefits of having a clean kitchen. Now that I can actually find my kitchen counter, and now that not all the food in the fridge is ten months past the expiry date, I'm starting to actually cook some meals.

Tonight I made me some spare ribs. I didn't have any sauce left (used it up in the pulled pork last week), and I didn't have a recipe, so I improvised with what I did have. What I had turned out to be Dijon mustard, honey, and garlic salt. I slathered the first two on, and liberally sprinkled the last over top, then put them in the oven to bake. And it was heavenly! Next time, I'll used real minced garlic instead of garlic salt--I can do without the sodium, and I could hardly taste the garlic. But other than that, it was easy, fast and yummy.

I'd used up all the garlic on Friday, making turkey burgers stuffed with goat cheese, minced garlic, grated carrot, and chopped spinach and pepper. Yes, you read that right. Spinach. As in, almost as much spinach as turkey. Got six burgers from just over a pound of meat. Ate one and froze five, as I was going away for the weekend. I had one of the frozen ones when I came back yesterday and...

It was great! I'll definitely be having both of these meals again, and soon.

It's Too Damn Hot!

Despite the fact that I was born in summer, I am not a summer person. I don't really like super hot weather--I'm much happier in the fall or even the winter, when the air is cool (or even freezing cold!) and the sky is blue, blue, blue. It rained yesterday, so the air is a little cooler, but it's super humid, which kind of destroys any benefit I might have felt from the cooler temperatures.

And this is a problem, because today's the day we finally rented a truck to get rid of some stuff. I got my new sofa delivered (cost of sofa=$12.50, cost of delivery=$19.95+mileage+gas), and we put the old sofa and chair on the truck and they're gone, gone, gone!

While the guys (ex and eldest son) delivered said old sofa and chair to the dump, I took the time to sweep and wash walls and set things in order, and now I have a living room that I'm actually willing to allow my friends to see! I may even invite someone over for a movie night, although the friend I want to invite has a better sofa and a big screen HDTV. So maybe we'll do the movie night at her house... :p

Anyhow, I've been trying and not succeeding to fall behind this past week. The kitchen's a disaster, because it's been too hot to do anything but hide in my office. The bedroom is fine, because I have a big fan in there and it's keeping it cool enough so that I at least can make my bed and throw the laundry in the basket. Bathroom's fine except the garbage, but it's "that time of month" again. I'm fifty now--when oh when will it ever end?

The office isn't much better than it was, but at least it's not worse. I cleaned off my desk (a weekly maintenance thing I'm going to have to do), and I've put my Sims games in order on the shelf. So little by little, things are improving.

Once the guys are back from the dump, I'm going to take the big blue bag of pop cans and a couple of boxes of paper to the church for recycling, which will make things just a wee bit cleaner. One step at a time...

Transitioning into maintenance mode

I'm definitely not done the major cleaning yet, but bit by bit I'm getting there. This week, the living room got cleaned, and much to Ally's delight, I took down the Harry Potter standee that I'd stapled to the wall. It now adorns the wall of her brother's bedroom, which is where it was intended to go in the first place. I covered the ratty furniture with a clean blanket (sofa) and a clean sheet (chair), no no one need be afraid to sit there anymore. And of course, I swept up a cat's worth of hair, in addition to the cat hair taken directly from the cat via combing.

I still need to mop in there (the floor is laminate, so I can do that). Ally and I were out earlier this week, and she waxed eloquent about the virtues of a Swiffer Wet-Jet. Since she usually has a horror of using disposable tools, I had to take seriously the fact that this mop was something I needed to try. So I bought one.

Of course, I didn't realize until I got it home that it needed batteries (which were, of course, not included), so it was only today that I got it put together and running.

It's easy to use, and if you don't like housework, easy is the golden word. I've done about half the dining room floor, plus my itty bitty front entrance floor (which was formerly adorned with cat puke). I still have rust stains on the floor from rusting furniture, but all the dirt on the floor where I mopped is gone, and it only took me a couple of minutes. I'll be doing the rest of the dining room and kitchen tomorrow, you can be sure. Then I'll have a go at those rust stains with a wash of vinegar, and maybe try the pumice stone, and that will be that.

The thing I like about this mop is that it's as easy to use as a broom, which means I can envision myself using it right away when I spill something. I don't have to drag out a bucket, fill it with water and soap, wet the mop, mop the floor, squeeze the mop dry, rinse the mop, empty and rinse the bucket, and put it all away. I just pull out the mop, attach a new pad if needed, and mop away. Then I put the mop back afterwards. I'll be getting rid of my old mop and bucket next week. :)

I continued on with my office cleaning as well. Now that things are mostly set, I'm into the extremely boring part--emptying the boxes and sorting what's within. Phil likes to spice things up by lying on the papers I'm sorting and getting more cat fur everywhere, and clawing at me when I'm not paying enough attention to him.

My biggest problem at this point is not the paper, but the box of "stuff" I have that I want to keep, but that doesn't have a place yet. I'm planning on sorting through all the boxes first, which will leave me with probably two or three boxes of "stuff", and once I have some clear space, I'll start finding a place for everything I want to keep. And who knows--maybe by the time I get all this done, I won't want as much of it as I think I do.

For now, the papers are getting filed or thrown out. I'm going to change to e-billing, I really am. Not only will I not have to file seven years' worth of utility bills, I won't be getting two envelopes (an outer and a reply, which I don't use because I pay online or by direct withdrawl), and a whole lot of advertising pamphlets that I generally don't read. Recycling is great, but reducing saves trees, space, and stress.

And I'm getting better at filing as stuff comes in (or at least once a week), rather than piling it up on the dining room table, putting it in a box when I can't eat off the table any more, and bringing it upstairs when I feel like it, there to moulder for years and years and years.

I truly am learning new habits that I hope will continue once the house is organized and once again fit for living in.