Grand Productivity Experiment: Phase Seven… Well Annotated

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.

The Suburbia Affair Man From UNCLE 1966
Slay me if you must, but spare the piano!
The week went something like this (please feel free to imagine this in the style of Victor Borge’s phonetic punctuation): x*xo—x>ox xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxx>xx oo——o>>!— xø>x>xooo

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.

Nonnen werken met houwelen, Bestanddeelnr 191-1162
Nones, smash things with pick-axe, Vespers, supper, Compline…
Basically, it’s a routine which returns regularly to thoughts of higher things, thus combating the tendency to let the ups and downs of daily life assume a greater importance than that which they actually possess. (“Meat not thawed for dinner, WORLD ENDING TONIGHT” for example.)

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.

Heligan 302
Caution: napping in garden can be dangerous.
So that’s what I’m trying this week. Do you have a daily routine? Does it concern itself only with the practical tasks of life or is there something more?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *