The Elf Blog

Physics and Procrastination

Those of you who know me know that I am a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory. It got me thinking, what can physics teach us about procrastination?

Newton’s Laws apply. An object in motion will stay in motion. An object at rest will stay at rest. So, the greatest danger in trying to accomplish a series of tasks is breaking your momentum. If you keep rolling, you’ll be able to finish, probably very quickly. But if you sit down to rest “just for a few seconds,” it’s over. Inertia takes over. You’ll find reason after reason to put off what you know you need to do.

Gravity wins. If you leave things in piles rather than putting them away, their gravitational field will start attracting more stuff, helping the pile grow ever larger and making you delay dealing with it longer, allowing it to grow larger. You see where this is going. My personal experiments have confirmed this effect in dirty dishes. craft suplies, paperwork, and laundry.

Finally, the theory of relatively comes into play. The time spent trying to avoid doing a task is relatively longer than the time it would actually take to complete the task, but it doesn’t seem so from your perspective. I blame Einstein.

Craft Control

In the world of crafting, there’s a concept called STABLE – stash beyond life expectancy. Essentially, it means you’ve stockpiled more craft supplies than you could ever possibly use. This is a bad thing.

So, in the next month or so, gathering together all of your craft supplies and do an inventory. You may be surprised at what you find. If your stash exceeds your life expectancy (and no fair assuming you’lllive to be 163) If you have an excess of crafting supplies here are some hints for managing it:

• STOP BUYING SUPPLIES. NOW! No buying supplies until your current inventory is under control. The only exception is a limited amount of something necessary to complete a project. And don’t buy that until you reach the stopping point.

• Gather all the partially completed projects and make yourself a completion schedule.

• Organize your supplies so you know where everything is. When possible, judiciously substitute what you have for what you need. For example, you need a baby gift and you have material for a cross-stitched bib. Don’t go out and buy what you need to sew a bear.

• If there’s stuff you know you’ll never use, donate it. Places that might want it include schools, special education centers, assisted living facilities, and scouting troops.

Taking Down the Christmas Decorations

Now that the 12 Days of Christmas have passed, taking down your decorations is acceptable (though Catholic Churches in the US will celebrate through Monday). You can take steps now that will make preparations for next Christmas much easier:

• Don’t even bother storing decorations that are damaged. Either fix it now or accept that it is gone.

• If possible, store all of your decorations in one place, rather than scattered about. Next November, you don’t want to try to guess where you put the creche.

• Make sure your storage boxes and bubble wrap are in good condition. Replace any that are too worn or damaged.

• Label the boxes clearly.

• If you use a few things from a variety of boxes, consider taking the time to reorganize things as youput them away. That way you won’t have to open as many boxes next year.

Do you have any other tips for storing Christmas decorations well?

Your Year-End To-Do List!

With less than two days left in 2011, there’s still lots to do! As you might expect, I have a list for you.

• Make any year-end charitable donations that you would like to deduct on your 2011 taxes. (Don’t forget donating the old clothes, toys, and small appliances that you upgraded at Christmas. You can take a donation for those – plus, it helps de-clutter the house).

• Do a quick tidy of the house. You don’t want to start the new year feeling disordered. For bonus points, make up all the beds with nice fresh sheets!

• Schedule some time to reflect on your resolutions for 2012. As you know, I’m a big fan of new year’s resolutions. I treat them as an opportunity to do strategic planning for the year ahead. For me, they are more about goal-setting than anything else. If you do make resolutions, WRITE THEM DOWN in a place where you can refer to them often throughout the year.

• While things are still fresh in your mind, start a Christmas file or notebook. Use it to note decorations that need to be replaced, draw diagrams of where you placed various decorations, note especially successful recipes, etc. It will come in amazingly handy next year. A big part of being well-organized is to do today that which you will need next week.

• Finally, as the days of 2011 come to an end, take a few minutes and call an old friend or someone you need to apologize to or someone who may need some comfort. Do something to make contact. It will end the old year well and start the new one right!

Christmas Countdown - 6 Weeks

Six weeks from today is Christmas! (Deep breaths. It will be ok!)

From this point on, our preparations will intensify (with a bit of a break next week for Thanksgiving preparations and celebration.)

So here’s your task list for this week:

· If you are making gifts or decorations, keep working. Ideally, you will be finished by the end of November.

· On your master calendar for the season, schedule your major preparation tasks: parties, decorating, baking, wrapping, etc. Also, take the opportunity now to block out a few days to just relax at home with your loved ones, drinking cocoa and watching movies.

· Plan what you will do to decorate. If you need to purchase anything, you should do it now.

· If you haven’t already done so, start working on your cards. By the end of this month, you’ll want your cards to be purchased (duh) and addressed.

· Begin shopping. Any gift that needs to be shipped should be purchased by the end of the week. You do not want to pay shipping fees greater in value than the gift.

· Finalize any plans for entertaining during the holiday season – through New Year’s. If you are hosting, decide what the event will be, when it will be, who you will invite, and what you’ll need to prepare. If you want to go somewhere on New Year’s Eve, make reservations now.

· Decide what varieties of cookies you will bake. Make sure you have the proper pans, utensils, and ingredients, as well as an appropriate stock of parchment paper and storage containers.

· Check your stock of stamps, shipping materials, address labels, and wrapping supplies. Purchase anything you need. You do not want to be standing in line at the Post Office and have to go to the back of the line because your package doesn’t have the right tape.

I know this seems like a lot, bit much of it is just thinking through planning or taking little steps to accomplish tasks. Believe me, when you are not going insane the week of December 17^th, you’ll thank me.

Thanksgiving is 4 Weeks Away!

Thanksgiving is four weeks from today!  That means planning goes into overdrive.

• Continue clearing space in your freezer and refrigerator.  You're going to need it.
• Keep de-cluttering your house.  Just 10 minutes every day between now and Thanksgiving is nearly 6 hours of cleaning time!
• Purchase any serving ware or table linens you might need.  Shopping now may mean you won't get the best sales, but you'll get the best selection.  Remember, try to avoid holiday themed serving ware that will take up lots of space and have limited use.
• Look at your calendar and block out substantial periods of time for major tasks: the "big" clean, grocery shopping, table-setting and decor, cooking.
• Finalize your Thanksgiving dinner menu.
• Decide which serving bowls or platters will hold which foods.  The last thing you want is to be putting Thanskgiving dinner on the table and only then realize that you have no place to put the stuffing.
• Decide if you will have table decorations and, if so, what they will be.
• If you have guests staying for the holiday weekend, plan your menus for the whole stay.  That means breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks.  Planning ahead will let you do some advance prep work and will help you use up leftovers. For example, leftover pumpkin can go into pumpkin pancakes.  Turkey noodle soup makes a lovely lunch with a salad or a sandwich.  Just make sure it's not all turkey all the time.

Time spent planning is time well spent!

Christmas Countdown: Two Months

Christmas is two months from today.  It's amazing how fast that time will fly by!  Spacing your preparation out over the two months will make the whole experience far more pleasant:

• Take stock of your cooking and baking supplies.  Do you have enough cookie sheets?  Storage tins?  What cooking and baking basics do you have on hand:  broth, flour, nuts, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, spices, baking powder, colored sugars, etc.?
• Take stock of your Christmas cards.  If you bought them in the after-Christmas sales last year, find them.  Make sure you have enough. Also, check your stock of address labels.  Holiday stamps are available at the post office, so you can pick them up at your convenience. Make sure you get Forever stamps since postage costs will increase early in the new year.
• Take stock of your wrapping supplies: paper, boxes, tissue, tape, ribbons, bows, and gift tags.
• Take stock of your decorations so you'll know if anything needs to be repaired or replaced.
• Begin placing online orders for gifts.  If there's a back order, you want there to be plenty of time.
• Make your gift list (and check it twice!). If you've already bought presents, make sure that you note it.  If you have them hidden, make sure you remember where!

The Clutter Quandary

I realize that this blog post title sounds like an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” but it’s a serious issue.  People, we have a lot of stuff.  Our stuff is taking over the world.  Finding novels ways and places to store all our stuff is a growth industry.

With the holidays coming, now is a great time to start de-cluttering.  It is far easier to decorate and entertain if you have space.

Here’s a strategy for addressing your clutter:

• Don’t attempt to do it all in a day or a weekend.  Address one area/room a week.  You don’t want it to become so overwhelming that you quit when you are halfway finished. 
• When you declutter, start by taking everything out to sort it.  Only put things back after you’ve decided you ABSOLUTELY want to keep it.
• Sort the things you take out into four piles: Keep where it is, keep but store, sell/donate/give away, and trash.
• You can donate anything you’d like, provided it’s usable.  Please don’t donate trash to a charity.  They have to use precious funds to haul away your junk.
• If something is not usable and not repairable, throw it away.
• If you decide to repair something and you have not done so within 3 months, throw it away.  You aren’t going to repair it and you probably don’t need it even if it does work.
• You should only keep at hand those items you use regularly.
• You should keep in storage only those things that are used seasonally and things of sentimental value.  Be reasonable about what has sentimental value.  Your photo albums and your wedding dress have sentimental value.  Your first microwave and mismatched Tupperware don’t.
• Please don’t save stuff you “might” use someday.  If you haven’t used it in a year, you aren’t going to use it.

So get started!

Christmas Countdown -- Three Months

Christmas is three months from today!  It’s time to kick the Christmas countdown into high gear. 

Within the next month, you need to complete the following tasks:

• Make your holiday travel plans, purchasing tickets if necessary.
• If you are throwing a party, let folks know to save the date.  Time for socializing fills up quickly in December, so stake your claim now.
• Update your Christmas card address list.
• Write down your Christmas gift list.  You don't have to start shopping yet (though it’s not a bad idea), but you should at least decide who you'll be shopping for.
• If you plan to make gifts or decorations, purchase all craft supplies and start work.
• Pull out your holiday recipe file and start narrowing down the ones you want to try.
• Make room in the cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer for the holiday surplus.  Every time you make a meal, think about what staples you can incorporate.  Don’t buy in bulk unless you REALLY need it.  Toss out stuff that’s old or has gone bad or developed freezer burn.  Donate those 8 extra cans of tuna you bought on sale that you know you aren’t going to use.
• Finalize your holiday budget and make sure you know where the money is coming from.  If you don't have enough saved, you need to reduce the budget.  It’s easier to do that now than on December 10^th.
• Stop buying things you don't absolutely need.  Put them on your Christmas list instead.
• Start saving the address labels that come in the mail.

Remember, the goal of this countdown is to help you do a little at a time so that you are never overstressed and you can enjoy the season.  Who wants to skip a great party because you have to finish cleaning before the houseguests arrive?  Why pass up a walk to look at the lights followed by cocoa because those gifts HAVE to be shipped tomorrow. 

Follow these pointers and by the time the holidays roll around, you’ll be well-prepared and filled with Christmas spirit.

Creating a Routine

So, let's assume that you've decided to create a routine. How do you do it? First, it's very important to write it down somewhere that you are likely to see it. If you can't see it, you aren't going to follow it. Second, list all the chores and how often they need to be done. That will vary from household to household. If you don't have cats, cleaning the litter box realy isn't necessary. If you have 3 kids under the age of 6, you'll be doing laundry more than once a week. A typical household rouine should cover four weeks. Start by assigning the daily chores. Then add in the semi-weekly and weekly ones. Put the monthly chores in last. Any chore that doesn't need to be done at least once a month isn't part of a routine. Don't assign too much to any given day. If you are scheduling 3 hours of routine a day and you work outside the home, you either need to let stuff go or to find help. Speaking of help, that's the last step: assigning chores. The more regular chores (cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, vacuuming) can change weekly if you'd like. On the other hand, if you like vacuuming and another person who lives in the house likes ironing (some people do!), why switch? Do what you like. Younger people should start getting chores shortly after they develop sufficient motor skills to walk about the room and turn the TV on. Even a toddler can put her own clothes in the hamper and his toys in the toy box. School age kids can dust and set the table and do dishes. The older a child gets, the more his or her chores should expand beyond the realm of self and into the realm of family. A teen incapable of doing the family laundry or putting a simple dinner (spaghetti and salad) on the table clearly isn't mature enough to have a learner's permit. Driving requires much better motor skills and judgment. Give your routine a month or two and make notes about what works and what doesn't. Feel free to tweak it to make the routine more usable, remembering that the goal is to have something stable. Finally, don't be a slave to your routine. If a friend offers you tickets to a Yankees playoff game, you don't say "Sorry, no. Tonight's my laundry night." Instead, you call Elf and ask her how fast she can get to the Bronx. Any questions?