“If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem… break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time. “
Robert Collier
As I write this I remember the date. I spent a moment thinking about those that lost their lives during 911. Doesn’t matter whether you think it was the CIA or Al-Qaeda, people died. I remember where I was and what I was doing the moment the news was released. I talked on the phone with a man that was so close that he almost choked on the dust, and that was inside his shop downwind from the towers.
I also remember other events in history when JFK was murdered, I remember when Neil spoke his words from the moon as I watched that from a TV in the classroom.
My post today has nothing to do with any of that. My topic is getting things done. I used to be a great organizer, worked hard, worked till the jobs got done. I know it drove my kids crazy cause I rarely took a break until the jobs were finished.
Back then I was less crippled, had more energy, less pain. Now I live alone and I have a million things to do and not enough cycles to get things completed. It can be very frustrating.
So now I am taking a look at what I do, looking for better ways to accomplish things. I will start by paying attention to my basic maintenance to keep track of time. I keep adding to my day, leaving less time to accomplish things. Some times out of necessity. It is the biggest reason there are so many days that are blank in this blog.
I ask people how to get things done as I see them. I asked an acquaintance of mine
She answered. “I write lists”.
“Cool and then cross out the items when you get them done.” I said.
She laughed and said ” Nope I throw them into a drawer and never look at them again.”
I think she was serious.
I needed a better way. Say I just heard something on a movie I needed a list to keep track of my lists.
Maintenance:
- My mornings I get up, make coffee some days that is a big adventure see below
- Maybe have some breakfast. Some days that is possible, unless I used some of my food money to purchase a needed item .This month was a wind generator and mast. The price dropped low enough for me to buy one. I have needed one for years. I am off-grid. I really need three or four of them, but I have one now and need to get it mounted and functional before the snow gets here. It is already falling at a slightly higher altitude than me, not much higher.
- I check the water levels in my homemade clean water filtration unit, and always I need to go out to the rainwater tank and bring more in. It is important I filter as much as I can now because when it starts to freeze I have to empty the tank and wait for snow to melt. Or buy some water made by a Nestle company, they own most of the water companies in the world. I Really don’t want to support them. One day I will be able to afford an indoor water tank, and a transfer pump. Won’t that be exciting?
- I need to feed and water the cats. Twice a day that needs doing.
- Check litter boxes to see if they need emptying. Thank God it’s getting colder. I use wood pellets for cat litter and have started burning them in the woodstove again. Summer has left me with an outdoor pile of pellets that I will soon cover with a small tarp and wait until the snow is deep enough. I will burn those too, Outdoors.
- Water the plants. Soon I have to move them up to what used to be where I slept, that was my loft. I had the bright idea of putting my girl cats up there once. They destroyed that room made it not usable. I am reclaiming that now, but it will take days to clean it. Enough hair to weave a circus tent and much worse. I am not even sure I can save the bed up there.
- Sit and decide what needs doing the most. I have a huge list and some stuff is pressing, again because winter is coming.
- I need to get on the treadmill, which means getting gas for the generator, filling it checking the oil, hauling it outside starting it. Then spend a few minutes at a fast walk to help clean clogged arteries. Unless the cleaning shakes plaque loose and gives me a stroke.
- Then more time deciding what is important to get done. While I rest from the treadmill and maybe have that second coffee. Time elapsed so far at least a couple of hours.
- Wintertime: Everyday it is time to chop wood. That means cutting logs into blocks with the chainsaw, then hauling those blocks over to the chopping block and manually splitting them into firewood. Filling a wheelbarrow way over capacity and hauling that, usually through deep snow to get it inside to keep warm. That on a good day takes an hour. If I don’t need to do chainsaw maintenance or it isn’t -52 as it was through most of the last winter.
- Loading the fire I spend about an hour loading the fire over a 24 hour period.
- Stopping cat fights I spend a huge amount of time doing that. Usually when I am trying to write.
- Writing, adding a post, with correcting editing, finding a quote and music takes two hours some days.
After all that I get to spend time doing other things like cleaning the house. Emptying the composting toilet. And cooking food. No wonder I eat out of cans a lot no time left. No time needed for dishes 😀
Then comes the other things: Not in any order
- Work on my old truck Right now it is just scattered part distributed around the workshop, some still in the donor vehicles. Before you think I am independently wealthy, know that I traded for the old truck.
- Finish the Renos in the shop before the snow gets too deep. I removed the wall and replaced it with a beam but the supports are not screwed in yet.
- Paint the mast and get my wind generator up and functioning, still waiting on some parts, needs doing before the snow. Winter days are short and not enough sunlight to charge the solar batteries.
- Clean and organize my woodwork shop.
- Clean and organize my truck workshop without that done there will be no working in there in the winter cant get to the woodstove.
- Remove the donor truck from the shop. Waiting for tools to come in.
- Pull my van inside replace the rear brakes fix doors maybe do a little bodywork.
- Get my tiny house trailer inside so welding can be done. Move the cab and box of the 55 and move them on top of the trailer for blasting. And blast the trailer.
- Check and repair welder that got rained on I developed a new roof leak right over the welder.
- Sandblast the cab and other sheet metal on the 1955 chevy pickup.
- spray paint the cab and trailer and body parts to inhibit rust get the cab back on the truck frame.
- Get the box and cab back on the truck frame. Did I mention they weigh three hundred pounds apiece and I live alone and am disabled? Will I find a way to do that? Maybe with ramps, levers and pulleys, maybe. They built pyramids like that.
- Finish the router table project in the woodworking shop. Someday I will finish routing the cedar strips for a cedar strip canoe I had planned to build. Hopefully, before I die of old age. I hear it is hard to use hand tools when you are a ghost. hahahaha.
The bio mechanical facts, I broke my neck and back 5 years ago, both knees are shot, my right ankle too. My right wrist is shot. New for this year breathing has become difficult, bone spurs have developed on both elbows and heel.Probably means osteoarthritis, that will make wood chopping fun.
Here is the big kicker I can’t stand for more than 10 minutes before the pain is overwhelming. If I work longer than that I will have to spend more than double what I ever time I work laying down to get rid of the back pain.
My memory. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be. Pretty sure I already have a post about the same topic. Some days I feel like a detective I have to figure out why it is I am in the room I am in, and have to figure out the steps to make coffee. The filter, then coffee, and cup, then hot water. Don’t laugh it will happen to you. Don’t forget my fav memory joke.
” I bought pills to improve my memory, but I forget to take them”
Muscle weakness, 80 pounds now feels like a 150 pounds. Hauling a 5-gallon bucket of water inside has become a huge chore.
The last thing I do before I throw my hands up in disbelief and panic about the things I didn’t put on this list. I go on the internet and read all that I can about getting things done.
I didn’t find anything that resonated with me. I go back to the same system I used to use with my kids.
The reward system I get something done, I get some fun. For me, that might be a video game, nothing more fun than killing bad aliens, drug dealers or militant cult members (in the game) or I get to have a nap, which I seem to need more and more as I get older
Is the answer out there? I don’t know but I will keep procrastinating until I find one. Kidding. I have to go finish my coffee and figure out what it is I will do today. Be safe out there
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- What I got done today:
- Wrote this post
- Emptied the cat litters into the wood stove three boxes at about 40 pounds apiece
- Grabbed another 40 pound bag of wood pellets from the van
- Emptied that bag into plastic containers
- Refilled the cat boxes
- grabbed the mast for the wind generator carried it upstairs got it ready for paint 80 pounds
- Painted the mast first coat it will need three or four done before I haul it up on the roof and try to mount it
- Did my half mile on the treadmill
- Wrote more in here. 29 revisions later I realize my keyboard is shot. Doing this on my phone now.
- Painted a second coat on my wind generator mast
- killed militant religious cultists. What they shot first. Farcry 5
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