My diary for this last week is full of x and o – not hugs and kisses (I don’t generally record those in such detail) but jobs done and events on.
So as you can see, it was a great week.
As with so many productivity methods, I was still on my own as far as deciding what tasks needed to be done which day, their relative priority and so forth. But it’s a great way of getting up to speed with how your day is going at a glance.
This week, I’m going from the super-modern to the Way Back When, taking a leaf from the monastic book (that must be why they kept them chained to the shelves) and trying what you might call a Rule, a Daily Round, an Order of the Day or frankly any one of a number of things.
Mine goes like this.
8am – wake up, get cup of tea, figure out what day it is, etc. Dress.
9am – time of prayer, breakfast.
9:30 – computer time
10:30 – cuppa and handwork
11am – household work
1pm – dinner, followed by hymn or poem and prayer
2pm – back to work
3pm – small snack, more prayer, more work
5pm – free hour (what the monastics called Recreation)
6pm – supper, Bible reading, evening activities
9:30 – start going to bed, end day with gratitude.
What “work” consists of varies wildly from day to day. It might involve housework, gardening, writing, errands – all sorts of things. It might even involve periods of rest if I wear myself out leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree – I mean, pruning from branch to branch of an apple tree. Leaping with loppers is even more foolish than running with scissors.