[extropy-chat] Personal effectiveness

[Mike Lorrey]

--- JDP <jacques at dtext.com> wrote:
> Don't worry David, this is only a temporary condition, due to the
> silly and arbitrary fact that you are only one body.
> 
> More useful remarks of mine include:
> 
> > For household, adopt routines that 
> > insure a short-period return to norm, such as making sure the
> kitchen sink 
> > is empty before going to bed.
> 
> You know one great advice about this? Wash all the tools (and the
> kitchen parts) you use in the preparation of the meal as part of the
> meal preparation. If you are only left with what you used for
> actually
> eating the meal, it is no big deal. 

I have similar problems as David describes, but I've noticed an
interesting difference/change recently. In my work, I own all my own
tools, about $8k worth, in a rather huge toolbox, about the size of a
desk, on rollers. When I was first starting out, I had fewer tools, but
I only had two small handyman toolboxes to work with, so everything was
stacked and jumbled in the boxes, and finding any one tool was a chore,
they got dirty and worn easily. I moved up to a bigger tool box, about
the size of a dish washing machine, and had the room to properly
organize my tools. I found that I saved time having them organized, and
the drawers were not deep enough to really stack and jumble tools in. 

As I accumulated more tools, I bought a bigger tool box, the one I have
now, and I have racks for organizing sockets, rachets, wrenches, etc.
so the insides of the box are extremely neat and clean and well
organized. It also has a large work space on top that accumulates lots
of spare parts, broken parts, paperwork, and bottles of lubricants,
cleaners, spray paints, etc. that I have to organize every once in a
while to get space to get work done. I don't have any organizational
system for the top of my toolbox like I do for the inside, and it
shows... I call it my bipolar toolbox.

The rest of my life, outside of my computer hard drives, is extremely
disorganized, but I've always lived with less room/space than what I
needed, just like with my early tool boxes, and, I don't have the
organizational equipment (i.e. a drawer system) to organize my stuff.
People don't really look at furniture as organizational technology, and
even when they do, they don't have enough of it for everything in their
lives. People that are really organized do realize this, I have found,
and tend to be the types with lots of shelving, and boxes, drawers, all
labelled, etc.

As for the focus factor, that is a toughie. I generally find that this
happens to me because other people call me away to do things which are
important to them, and I forget about what I was doing. If these other
people are regularly bossy, demanding, needy, or if you have an
inordinate need to please others, this is an issue that is going to
take some work and some strategizing to get through.

I generally try to reply to other people's demands with "I need to
finish this now, and when I am done, you will have my full attention,"
or variances on that. Make rationalizations for why you need to finish
now and not put it off. Some needy and demanding people may think you
are a selfish jerk, but you need to explain to them the problems you
have with focusing and finishing things, and that this is something you
need to work on, and ask for their help and cooperation. Make them a
counter offer of more effort from you later if they will be tolerant of
your need to focus now.

> The horror is to wash the things
> in which you cooked things, etc. Wash these along the way, and at the
> end of the preparation, before to eat the meal. If they are still hot
> from the cooking, it's even easier to wash.

Yeah, but by that time, the food is cold. I stick all the pots and pans
in the sink to soak, then I eat, then I clean (or put it all in the
dishwasher). That way you only have to wash your hands once before
cooking, once before eating only if necessary, and your hands get
washed a third time while you are washing the pots and pans.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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