(In conversation with myself, or the part of myself that is smarter than I and often gets ignored.)
ME: Why is it that I didn’t get anything done this week? Why is all this stuff still left undone? I did so much!
SELF: Because you do too much.
ME: That seems like a contradiction. How is it that doing too much equates to not doing enough? Self, you make no sense.
SELF: Well, let’s make a list. We’re fond of lists, no?
ME: (begrudgingly) So we are. Fine.
Here is what I have on my plate for this week (and next):
- Help Lea sew and paint for Their Highnesses for Gulf Wars.
- Finish collecting assets for moonlighting client #1
- Start design for moonlighting client #2
- Go shopping for costume bits
- Go pick up stuff in Athens for BIL
- Make ~10 bookbinding kits for Crossroads to Jerusalem
- Do something resembling laundry
- Think of something to blog about
- Take stock of knitting projects to determine priorities for finishing said projects
- Plan knits for SIL and her impending progeny
- Do something resembling tidying/cleaning at home
- Continue to research medieval India, specifically garb, so that I can sew more
- Practice Hindi
Happy?
SELF: Well, what have you done on that list?
ME: Nothing, except maybe 12. Before bedtime. And while procrastinating on the other list items.
SELF: Not even 13?
ME: Well, no. Normally #13 happens pretty frequently, as Mr. Jaipur and I communicate 3-5 times a week. This week, he’s taking exams (and celebrating Holi, of which I am quite jealous), so it’s been a nice little break.
SELF: Okay, well cross that one off, then.
ME: But this doesn’t address my question. Why haven’t I finished more?
SELF: Let’s break it all down, shall we? Assuming that you have 112 waking hours in one week, 40 of which are taken up by work, and another 15 of which are taken up by travel and extracurricular activities, that leaves roughly 57 hours for you to do other things. Which gives you ~ 4 hours each for the remaining things you have left to do.
ME: That should be enough, right?
SELF: No, wait. Add in 10 hours spent eating and another 3 spent bathing/primping/dressing/undressing. 44 total. Plus spending time with the husband (which trumps all other list items). 35.
Just about 2.5 hours per activity.
ME: I see now why I don’t get all that done.
SELF: Also, watching TV on Netflix doesn’t help much.
ME: Shut up, Self.
SELF: Oh, and then? Some of that ought to be spent exercising, though it isn’t.
ME: Did you have to bring that up?
SELF: Yes. Some is spent eliminating, obviously (I always liked using “eliminating” as a term for using the toilet; it makes me feel like I’m 80, since the only other person I knew to use it was my elderly grandmother).
ME: So basically you’re saying that I’m an idiot.
SELF: A lazy idiot.
ME: Self, you can be kind of a jerk sometimes, did you know that?
SELF: You do realize you’ve wasted 20 minutes having this conversation with me, don’t you?
ME: Shut up.
(Evidently I ignore that other part because that other part is a jerk. I had no idea!)
_______
So anyway. That’s pretty much why I don’t get more done. I’m going to consider 1/3 of that list completed to be a good number.
knitters = angry mob 