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.

Back to School: Scheduling

One of the most important things you can do to prepare for going back to school is to organize your schedule on both the macro and micro levels.

On the micro level, as much as possible, each school day should have a routine, from wakeup through bedtime.  Of course, there will be some variation based on after school events or homework levels, but having a basic pattern to the days gives structure and prevents dithering about what to do next: homework or chores.

On the macro level, it's helpful to have a large calendar in a central place.  It can be electronic or paper, as you wish, but everyone's personal calendar should synch from this central one.  As kids begin school, you'll get notices about dates and events.  Putting them on the calendar immediately helps to ensure that you don't forget to find child care on that teacher in-service day in March and that you try to avoid a work trip the day of parent-teacher conferences.

Keeping the tasks in order makes for well-ordered days and a smoother transition to the school year.

Working in Transit

I am doing some work-related travel this week, involving planes and trains.  I got a lot of work accomplished on today's train ride, but it got me to thinking about how I use travel time.

Is it better to use my time in transit on planes and trains to do work or to do pleasurable things.  Since the distractions are limited in transit -- no office phone, no tv, no internet -- you can be very productive.You can also get some rest or read an entire book without interruption (depending on how long your trip takes).

As a rule, if I'm traveling for business on a work day, I try to be productive with my time (unless I'm en route to a meeting that will keep me busy all weekend).  But if I'm on vacation or traveling on a weekend, it's time tobreak out the novel and enjoy!

How Do You Use Your Commute?

For many of us, our commute reprsents a substantial portion of our day.  For me, it's about an hour and a half.

How do you use that time? I ride the subway for about 40 minutes each day (the rest of the time is spent walking). While I'm on the subway, I try to read my newspaper or a magazine.  If you drive, do you catch up on the news on the radio?  Listen to an audiobook? Drive safely?

How do you plan your route?  Do you try to plan errands along the way so you only have to make one trip?

Well, I'm off.  I have to commute home -- stopping twice to run errands.

Finding Time

I'm not a morning person.  I never have been.  In my perfect world, I'd get to wake up around 10, have a leisurely brunch, and start my day.  If you haven't noticed, the world isn't perfect.  To make things worse, I'm in a very busy time right now with lots on my plate.  So finding time to do even the essentials is gettingto be a challenge.

This morning, I had to get out of bed right on time -- no hitting snooze.  Today was the day Candlelight Processional Packages went on sale at Disney World and I needed to make my reservation.  While I tried to dial in and then sat on hold, I re-discovered just how much I can accomplish in the morning.  In addition to my usual getting ready for work, eating breakfast, and walking the dog, I was able to clean up a spill, take out something to defrost for dinner, gather the recycling, sort the mail, do the dishes, and clear the kitchen table.  (Oh, and I got an awesome reservation.)

Just think, if I banished the snooze button on weekdays, how many chores I could accomplish each day, leaving my evenings free for bigger projects.

The Wrong Kind of Saving

You know that I'm all about saving time, money, and effort.  But there is one type of saving to which I am strongly opposed.

So many of us, when we buy or receive special gifts or little luxuries, decide to save them "for a special occasion."  We don't use the nice towels or the good china or the lovely scented candle or the luxurious bath oil.  What are we waiting for?  Seriously.  In so many cases, something is lost or spoiled before we every get around to using it.

I really try to live by the Disney motto: Celebrate Today!  Give yourself permission to make an ordinary weekday the "special occasion" you've been waiting for!

So Much to Do

Sometimes life just gets a little crazy.  Your task list requires a second volume and your calendar is so full you'll need to learn bilocation.  In the meantime, you still need to go to work, keep the house in some order, walk the dog, cook dinner, and get exercise.  A little sleep is always nice too.

That's kind of where I am right now.  I have several major projects hitting at once while I'm trying to keep everything else in balance (and maybe even entertain once or twice).

Today, I had to accept that I can't do everything all at once.  It's simply not possible. However, it is possible to attack even the largest work backlog if you do it bit by bit.  Breaking the task into smaller sections and tackling each section in turn makes it more manageable and keeps you from being overwhelmed.

So that's what I'll be doing the next few weeks, trying to attack my to do list, piece by piece, over the next two weeks.

Time for Kindness

I often wonder how many acts of kindness go undone because we are too bust to take the time they require.

Of course, some kindnesses take substantial amounts of time that require planning and scheduling.  These would include things like regular volunteering at an organization or offering to coordinate an event for a school or church or community organization. 

But most kindnesses take very little time.  Where could you find time in your schedule to:

• Make soup for a sick friend?
• Shovel an elderly neighbor's walk?
• Send a card or drop a note to someone who might be lonely?
• Offer to run someone's errand while you are out?
• Say a kind word?
• Let someone go ahead of you in line?

These are little thngs, but like the old song says, "Little things mean a lot."

Wasting Time

As you might imagine, I'm not a huge fan of wasting time.  The problem is, people are a little confused about what wasting time actually is.

It's not a waste of time to read for pleasure or to play with you kids or to watch a loved movie or to have a long bubble bath.

Doing things you love is the REASON you save time. If you were saving money to buy a house, it isn't wasting the money to make a down payment!

What is wasting time:  sitting in a waiting room paging through year old magazines you don't care about; flipping randomly through websites not looking for anything in particular; channel surfing without wtching anything because there isn't anything you care about; doing unnecessary make-work just to be doing something, etc.

You get the idea?  Wasting time is not using your time on something that matters.

So don't waste time!

Using Technology Wisely

My love of lists is almost legendary!  Nothing makes me happier than making a list and checking it twice -- likely a result of spending my formative years at the Pole.

I have discovered a handy new way to use technology to help me make lists and stay organized.  My cell phone has a keyboard and a notepad.  Each note in the notepad can have up to 1000 characters.  That's enough for a decent-sized list.  I've been using mine to keep lists of errands I need to run, shopping lists, new yaer's resolutions, writing ideas, and books I want to read. 

Since I almost always have my phone at hand, I don't need to search for pen and paper.  And I don't have to remember where I put the list.  I just click a few buttons and there it is.  When I pick up an item at the store or complete a task, I just delete it from the list with a few clicks.

I find that I'm keeping better track of what I need to buy and what I need to do.  If I find myself with a few minutes near a store, I know what I need without wracking my brain.

If your phone offers a similar function, I encourage you to use it.