Lift Up Your Hearts!

When Porter came home from a two-week business trip, he commented, "Wow, the house looks great!"  I was momentarily taken aback, because—in contrast with many of his previous out-of-town stays—I had not done anything special to prepare for his arrival. On the contrary, the house had looked that good for more than a week.^*

(victory)

Lower case, no exclamation point, sotto voce—lest the shy bird be startled and take flight, as she has so many times before.  But I told my daughters that if I lasted a month with my new organizational system, I'd write about it.

I'd like to be an original thinker, but what I'm actually proficient at is assembling, compiling, and melding other people's good ideas into something that fits my situation.  This was especially true in family life and education, where what at first glance may have appeared unique, or at least unusual, was merely my take on the best of what I found from a multitude of sources.

So, too, with my efforts at organization and homemaking.  At the heart of my new system is David Allen's Getting Things Done, but discerning readers will recognize the influence of Don Aslett, Steven Covey, FlyLady, Sandra Felton, Malcolm Gladwell, and a host of other inspirations, including family and friends.

I made my first effort to implementing GTD two years ago.  I knew then that I'd been handed an extremely powerful tool that would reform my life.   I made myself a Tickler file, I created Next Action folders, and I reaped significant benefit from them ... but the whole system never really got off the ground.  Mostly, I told myself, because "life interfered"—travel, visitors, and other disruptions shook up the system before it could become established as a habit.  Not that I would have traded any of the wonderful experiences I had, but they were, in my mind, the reason I didn't make progress.

Now I'm not so sure.  I'd be a fool to deny the detrimental effects of disruptions (especially unhappy ones) on a newborn self-improvement program, but in this case I now believe the crucial problem was that I had not had time (made time / had inspiration) to customize the program, to make it my own.

Porter's trip was the inspiration for tackling that project.  I'll spare you the nitty-gritty of the construction, except to say that most importantly it was a recursive process.  We perfectionists prefer that our projects have a long design phase.  "Measure twice, cut once" is our motto, and besides, planning is usually much more fun than implementation.  But what got this project off the ground and into a useful form was an ongoing design-implement-evaluate-revise-repeat plan.  Sometimes (often?) you just don't know what will work until you try it.

Enough talk.  So what am I actually doing?

I'm still using my Tickler file.  I love having a place to "file and forget until needed" concert tickets, driving directions for a future trip, birthday cards I've been inspired to write but which won't be mailed until later, information to bring to a doctor appointment, etc.

I'm also using Allen's Next Action, Projects, and Someday/Maybe folders, though this part still needs some revision.

Although these are anathema to GTD, my system relies on to-do lists.  I'm over trying to fit myself into what "should" work, and at leat at this point in my life, I need the inspiration of seeing the day's work laid out in front of me, with little check boxes that I can triumphantly, physically, mark off when the task is completed.  What's more, although i can do preliminary work on the lists in advance, I also need the inspiration of creating a customized list the night before, specifically for the next day, and printing it out.  I've tried putting my lists on the computer, and it just doesn't work for me.  At least not now.

The lists take two forms:

A Routine List, which sets out the basics of what I want to accomplish every day.  These are so standard that I print the list only once per week, and it has checkboxes for Monday through Saturday.  This list owes a lot to FlyLady's Morning and Evening Routines, but mine covers the whole day.  For example, the worms need their "air conditioning" refreshed once a day, and it makes no sense to give them their frozen water bottle in the morning or the evening:  they need it during the hottest part of the day.  Also, I want to work through my language exercises four times per day, spread out more or less evenly.  The lists are roughly divided into before and after mealtimes, but there's a good bit of overlap and flexibility as well. 

Daily Lists lay out, for each weekday and Saturday, what I hope to accomplish that day.  Some items are standard, such as "take out trash" on Mondays and Thursdays, and "yard work" on Tuesdays.  Others I fill in during my Weekly Review time, during which I evaluate the past week and look forward to the next.  Still others are added as I think of them during the week.  It all comes together the night before, when I check my Tickler and my Action folders, transferring items to the Daily List as appropriate, and printing the final result.  Did I say final?  Not really.  Often I'll add something by hand that comes up after the list has been printed.

It is easy to let the lists get out of hand.  I keep my Routine List to one page, with the table set up so that I can't put more than 38 items on the list.  In order to fit in what I want, I sometimes cheat by grouping items, e.g. "check & clear e-mail / blogs / Facebook / moderate comments" is one item.  That works because I don't group items until they have become such a habit that they get done together and I'm happy not checking them off until all are accomplished.  When I'm establishing new habits I need the satisfaction of checking of the baby steps; once established, I am okay with the groups and can take on the challenge of making room for something new on the list.

The Daily Lists are also one page only, and I've made the table size bigger so there's only room for 18 entries.  Sometimes I fill them all, sometimes I don't.  The trick, I've found, is having enough to challenge me but not so many that I get discouraged.  Too few items and I procrastinate because I think I have lots of time; too many and I procrastinate because "I'm not going to get them all done, anyway."  Ideally I find myself stretching to get just a couple more things done so I can have the satisfaction of completing the list.  I'm still working on getting the right balance.  I don't prioritize the items, exactly, but the Daily Lists are roughly divided into "must do" and "would like to do" tasks.

Daily and weekly jobs go on the printed lists, but anything less frequent than weekly gets a card that goes into my Tickler file.  Originally I had cards for daily and weekly tasks in my Tickler (despite Allen's admonition not to), but I've found the lists work much better for me.  For biweekly, monthly, or other less frequent items, however, the Tickler is still the simpler solution.

That's the basic structure.  Simple, no?  But the devil—and the success—was in the details.  It was a grueling two weeks, mentally and physically, as I gradually put it all together.  Monday and Tuesday went swimmingly, but by Wednesday afternoon I found myself exhausted—mostly mentally, I'll admit, though the constant low-level pain of a flare-up of plantar fasciitis can't be ignored as a limiting factor.  I had been working pretty steadily from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m. for two and a half days, and had put too much on Wednesday's list, so that I moved out of the stretch zone and into the procrastinate zone.  Quadrant IV activities were looking pretty good.  It's hard to explain, but in many ways it was the structure that was the mental drain.  Although my plan included three sets per day of purposeful relaxation exercises, I hadn't left any time in the schedule for spontaneity, the lack of which my mind interpreted as a need for rest.  I scaled back for Thursday and managed to recover my energy and my momentum.

The next week I anticipated the Wednesday slump, made sure I structured the activities to be more rewarding and less taxing, and managed not to hit the wall until Friday.  By the third week, even though I was doing more, I had begun to ride the wave, and the structure became my friend rather than my enemy.  I had created a workable system, and along the way had made good progress in several far-behind areas of my life.

That, believe it or not, is the short version.  Below are some details and a few observations I've made along the way:

The first thing I need to let go of is pride.  I need to look at myself and acknowledge where I am, not where I hope to be or ought to be.

No matter how trivial or obvious it seems, I need to write down everything I want to establish as a habit.  I shouldn't have to make "morning prayer" a to-do list item, but the reality is that if it's on the list, it gets done, whereas otherwise I'll feel guilty all day and still find other things more urgent until the sun sets.  There are so many good and important jobs that I have every intention of accomplishing, but my mind is too easily distracted; the ink-and-paper reminder gently and persistently returns me to the task at hand.  I'm assuming that once a habit is well established, I'll be able to drop it from the list, but I suspect it will be weeks before I dare make the experiment.

This may not make sense to anyone else, but there are certain activities that I know are richly rewarding, and which I will find delightful once I have gotten into them, but which for reasons unaccountable I am reluctant to begin.  Specific prayer times is one; purposeful relaxation exercises is another.  I think it has something to do with the fact that both require me to step aside from what I am doing and be still.  I'm not good at that, either physically or mentally.  My new system has not resolved the root of problem, but has at least ameliorated the procrastination:  again, having something in black and white with a blank check box after it is an effective reminder, especially hard to ignore when there are multiple entries spread over the day.  I don't want to be confronted with Set 1, Set 2, and Set 3 all at nine o'clock at night.

Sometimes it helps to group tasks together, especially if I tag something I hope to make into habit onto something that is already established, such as adding "check blood pressure" to "personal care":  I don't need the reminder to get dressed, but if it's on the list and I can't check it off, until I've done the bp measurement, the latter is much more likely to occur on a regular basis.

One of my favorite and most useful tasks is what I call Ten Things.  This was inspired by FlyLady's 27-fling boogie decluttering tool, though I've modified it into unrecognizability.  First of all, 27 is too high a number for me; 10 is more comfortable.  Second, I'm not finding 27 (or 10) things to throw away, or to give away, or to recycle, but simply doing 10 things.  That may mean going through a drawer and discarding 10 items, or it may mean discarding five from the drawer, putting three misplaced items where they belong, and answering one e-mail.  It doesn't matter.  Some of the ten may be easy; some may be hard.  I don't trouble myself with questions like, "Does putting away 10 paper clips count as ten things or one?"  Actually, I did at first, till I realized that the purpose of Ten Things is to get me moving; I can call it any way it works for me, and that may not be the same way every time.  It doesn't matter.  The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  If I'm stuck or spinning my wheels or uninspired on something, I call a Ten Things break.  Upon returning I'm almost always lifted out of my funk—it's amazing what a sense of accomplishment can do, even if the accomplishment is small.  What's more, I'm getting drawers cleaned out and files organized, almost without realizing it.

Speaking of the Sabbath, the new system gives me a greater appreciation for Sundays.  It's a six-day plan—though I'm more flexible on Saturdays because otherwise i don't react well to Porter's spontaneous suggestions—and Sunday is set aside as a Sabbath.  Of course there are still things that need to be done—people will insist on eating, and going a day without brushing my teeth is courting disaster—but there is no schedule.  As much as the schedule has become my friend, I need a break, a change-up.  By Sunday night I'm ready to begin again Monday, but without the Sabbath break, not only from much of what's on the schedule but from the schedule itself, I know it wouldn't last.

Sabbath break aside, I find that I really, really appreciate being more regular in my habits.  Regular meals, a consistent bedtime, routines for the morning, afternoon, and evening, and having a dependable basic pattern from day to day and week to week have had quite a positive effect on my mental and emotional health.

One of the blessings of the schedule is that once things are on paper (whether on a list, in my Tickler, or on metaphorical paper in the form of a Google calendar entry with reminders) they weigh a whole lot less on my mind.  Like a wild animal that is constantly scanning its environment for predators, my mind—consciously or subconsciously—is constantly on guard.  Is it time to renew my cell phone minutes?  Are the citrus trees due for some fertilizer?  How long has it been since I wrote my friend a letter?  The new system is like a predator-proof fence that frees my mind for more satisfying pursuits.

When reasonable, I find it helpful to schedule tasks more often than necessary.  With only two of us in the house, the bathrooms don't really need their "swish and swipe" every day.  Nor does my pantry need organizing every week.  But putting the jobs on such a schedule has several useful effects:

• the individual task generally takes less time and effort, even though the total over time may be greater
• if something comes up and I miss a scheduled time, it is of little consequence because the job will come round soon enough on the schedule again
• best of all, it's the greatest way I know to tame the perfectionist in me.  I don't need to do the job perfectly, because what I miss on one day will likely be caught on the next.

My prefered modus operandi has been to pour myself into a project and to think of little else while I'm in the midst of it.  That's what I usually do when Porter is out of town, because then no one's around to mind if I work through meals or neglect the laundry.  I still believe in the importance of "running with" a project while the inspiration is high, and my new system still allows for some of that.  There's no denying it's considerably restrained, but the assurance that the rest of my life isn't falling apart in the meantime brings more joy to the projects.  And less guilt.

I'm well aware that there are many tasks that have not made it onto my schedule yet.  But I am not worrying about them.  When something comes up ("Oh, yeah, it IS about time I mopped the kitchen floor") I do the job and then find a place for it on the schedule.

Is it the system that is helping me, or am I accomplishing more simply by working harder?  That's a good question, and I think the answer's complicated.  It reminds me of watching our little granddaughter learn to crawl this summer.  At times she would flail away with her arms and legs, working with all her might, but get nowhere because they weren't in contact with the ground.  At other times she would make some progress—forward, backward, in a circle—as her motions connected somewhat randomly with the floor.  And sometimes everything would fall into place and she would quickly cover the distance between herself and an enticing toy.  I think the answer is that I am not so much working harder as that my efforts are becoming more purposeful and coordinated.

Again, I know that much of what I've accomplished this past month has been more visible than usual.  A clean kitchen, a neatly mown lawn, and an organized cupboard are a much more obvious, visual reward for the effort than slow progress made while wrestling with a recalcitrant PowerPoint problem.  Both are work, but no matter how impressive the final outcome of my PowerPoint struggles, for effort-to-visible-result ratio it will be outshone by a lawnmower. 

On the other hand, I believe I am also working harder, in that having a list and a schedule and a plan makes me more diligent about not wasting the odd minutes.  I'm more likely to clean out a drawer than work on a puzzle, to push myself to give the kitchen floor a sweep instead of going straight to bed, and to think in terms of "what job can I fit into this span of time" rather than leaving the time to randomness because it's so small.  Plus, at the end of the day, I'm really tired!  That must mean something, right?

So the jury's still out on what has been gained by the system making me more efficient, and what has been gained by the system inspiring me to work harder.  I think it doesn't matter much.

I'm all too aware of the enormity of the project.  I've made great progress in the past month, but I could easily get discouraged by focussing on what remains.  I've been working my tail off the better part of 16 hours a day for four weeks, and there's not yet any room in the system for restarting my exercise routine, which takes an hour or two from every day in itself.  And, far from my resolve this summer to spend a couple of months working at least 20 hours a week on genealogy data entry, I haven't touched that project since returning from vacation.  Dozens of other large projects beg for attention as well.  My book reading rate has plummetted.  Then there's the nagging, naysaying voice that reminds me that I have passed the 60 year mark and asks if it's worth trying to make radical changes.  But I can't listen to fears and negativity.  The small changes I have made have already had a positive impact on my life, and that's what I hang onto.

I confess to some trepidation as time goes on and my system is tested by circumstances.  Most systems, like most governments and most insurance companies, work well enough when times are good; it's the stressful occasions that prove their true worth.  Innumerable times my resolutions, intentions, and plans have been derailed by disruptions good and bad, large and small:  from vacations to illness, from a major move to a single unkind remark. I know that a system that falls apart under stress is no good, but newborn babies are vulnerable, and birthing a new system at age sixty feels more like critical care in the NICU.  Round-the-clock, prayerful attention is essential.

The first stress came with Porter's return home.  There's nothing to challenge a system like having to make it fit with someone else's, especially when that someone brings with him a meeting schedule so full and so irregular as to make regular mealtimes impossible.  But we weathered that one with just a few glitches.  Next came a day where two unexpected demands on my time took three hours from the schedule, and I overcame that, too.  Olympic distractions were pretty easy to handle, except that I haven't met my 10 p.m. bedtime in two weeks....  Right now I'm in the middle of dealing with the disruption caused by a washing machine that failed on Saturday and a repairman who can't come till Wednesday.  I will be so grateful if he can fix the problem and I don't have to tackle my bête noire, decision making, i.e. buying a new washer.  Thank God for neighbors who are generous with their laundry facilities!

So what has the system enabled me to accomplish in the last month?  Well, for starters,

• The house is always "company ready."
• I'm making my own bread again (though making my own yoghurt hasn't been added back yet).
• The laundry is regularly washed, dried, and put away (which made the weekend's washer problem merely annoying instead of disastrous).
• I'm caught up with the ironing, and have a plan to stay that way.  (You modern folks who don't do any ironing can stop grinning now.)
• There's always water and cold tea in the refrigerator (important during Florida summers).
• I tend not to eat between meals, because "brush teeth" is on the list after every meal, and I hate to waste it....
• I am frequently and consistently working on my language exercises, both high German and Swiss German.
• I devised and now follow a plan that has turned Sporcle games from a Quadrant IV release to a learning aid that reaps significant benefits for a small investment of time.
• My e-mail is under control.
• I've resumed writing regular letters to our grandchildren.
• I'm writing letters to other people again, too.  Just not as frequently.
• Dozens of small jobs that have been ignored for years have been done, mostly because I was looking for Ten Things targets.
• I accomplished a major cleanup and reorganization of the bathroom cupboard.  This was not part of the plan, but the result of an effort to banish a nasty, musty smell.  Still, I worked it into the plan with some success.
• I am slowly but regularly taming the jungle that is our backyard.
• I made significant progress on a large project I'm working on for the grandkids.
• I have the beginnings of a meal plan established.
• And in and among it all, I accomplished many other, important tasks as they came up.

Is there still a long, long way to go?  Absolutely.  Have I ever, in the past month, managed to check everything off my list?  Far from it.  ("Computer off by 9:00" has happened exactly once.)  Do I fret that there's a limit to what can be gained by increased organization and efficiency, that there are still only 24 hours in a day, and that I may be gaining a cleaner house at the expense of more important work?  You bet.  Do I fear that merely talking about my victories will disturb the fragile balance of my organizational ecosystem?  Sadly, yes.  But as I admitted above, the first thing that must go is pride.  After that, learning can come in the door.

And I know I'm on my way.