h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just got a weird slowmo vision of the presenters.

No sound for me either.

I daren't make a list, it would scare me so much that I would never start anything on it. I know I have really big, urgent things which need to be done, writing them down would just add to the bigness of it all.

I do usually make lists as I have a brain like a sieve these days.

I made the list. This was a mistake. At least I went shopping today.

Things To Do Before Tuesday:

Work
(In order of least to most time-consuming)
Email students with ‘address to a haggis’ and check work email
Mark homework.
Catch up with the record of work and file the individual learning plans
Plan two lessons, which includes tracking down material, preparing worksheets/ powepoints, and deciding on homework
Write the scheme of work for the term (that’s the big job. Needs to be 12 pages long with five columns. Plus a class profile and an overall aims page.)

Home
(In order of urgency)
Many many sinkfuls of washing up will be generated
Tidy, dust and clean the living room/kitchen
Floor really really needs mopping
Laundry
Clean the bathroom
Change the beds
Tidy and dust the upstairs
Vacuum
Clean the fridge
Kitchen cupboards need sorting

Children related
(I will have help with this)
Make and administer breakfast, lunch and tea for the baby, plus three bottles and three breastfeeding sessions
Make and administer breakfast, lunch and tea for the toddler, some of which might be the same as the food for the baby. Also snacks.
Food for the husband and myself.Some of which may be the same as each other and if I am really lucky may also be the same as the toddler and once in a blue moon will even be the same as the baby.
(MiL will get her own food. It will not be the same as anybody else’s food, unless it is soup)
Books, crafts, singing, marble runs, snakes and ladders, and jigsaws. Helping the daughter to walk. Removing the daughter from places she shouldn't be.Removing things from my daughter's mouth she shouldn't be trying to chew.
Walking the children outside at least once a day.
Bathing the children.

h2g2
(if I ever get five minutes, which will probably be after 8pm)
Blast through seven different forums/ email groups or other related online accounts to keep up with what’s going on, where. One of these is h2g2 itself. Must also remember to post.
Feed Create’s Twitter account
Track down more 42 groups on flickr and spam them
Write Create’s blurb for the FP
Write Create’s pages for February
Write some documentation for Create
Finish the two EG entries I’ve started (hahahahahahahahahaha)
Write the story for the SciFi Workshop I’ve been doing in my head

Other
See a film
Write two blog posts: film review and a bilingual children focused one
Write another blog post for fun (hahahahahahaha. Oh deary me)
Stop procrastinating by writing to do lists and get on with it all

I was actually quite productive today - tidied and sorted, and rearranged the spare room, got the last of my boxes unpacked (though much of the content of said boxes is just sorted in piles on the bedroom floor to be put away), went to IKEA for shelving and the sports place for a competition jacket and gloves, as well as to the supermarket. Even got the curtain hung. Kind of losing the energy now, though.

This weekend I *should* finish a few drawings, update my CV, write some e-mails to do with my potential dissertation project, follow up a few job leads, sort out the kitchen, and memorise the prix caprilli test.

I'll probably end up sleeping, gaming, and going for walks, though.

I respect highly organized people. The best sign of organizational skills, in my humble opinion, is drawing up lists of things that need doing. Having a list lets you decide what to do right away (urgent), what to do if there's time left after the urgent things are done (important), and what can be postponed (discretional).

Anything to do with laundry or cooking belongs in the first or second categories, assuming that your budget doesb't allow for dumping the laundry at a place that will do it for you, or eating out.

Sorting the closet or cupboards seems discretional to me, unless they are in such a horrid state that you waste a lot of time finding things in them.

As for spending hours sending emails to volunteers, I wonder if you could delegate some of the emailing to helpers who have the time to send them for you.

Just a few thoughts.

Very sensible, Paul.

I am also a list-maker. I work out how long I'll need for everything and try and get it all in by 10 pm. Then I go and make a cup of tea and read the paper and I'm soon several hours behind schedule. This is very frustrating. Even if I plan breaks and include extra-long mealtimes to include a small nap or rest, I still never manage to keep to the list.

Maybe it's because once I've got behind on the first couple of items, I give up all together. The schedule will only take so much re-scheduling. I just wish I could practise the piano at 3 am, or that no one needed feeding in the evening.

My system works okay when I'm the only person involved. [It helps that my house is rarely open to view by people whose standards are very much high than mine ]

If your have a system of organization in a work environment where multiple people [each with his/her own expectations of you], then you might find that nothing you can do will keep them all satisfied.
Early in my career, I broke my work day down into 40-minute segments so that all the things I wanted done would at least get partly done. I was faithful to this system for a while, but I found that I was getting more and more exhausted.