Image via WikipediaUp at 4:30 am to get Tim off to work, have my coffee and greet the day, find my notebook, empty pages and begin to list. Today is list day. Not just my daily list, but the day when I make multitudes of lists. The first list is...
- What I should accomplish today.
This list entails all those things that are time sensitive; phone calls, vegies that need harvesting and what needs to be done to finish my website (if you can ever truly finish it). I star those items that have the highest priority. This list then goes on the kitchen table where I can see it ALL THE TIME. It doesn't get covered or moved, or I'd forget about the things on the list. I'm truly not forgetful, well to some degree maybe, but mostly when there's a lot of lists and a lot to do, it's easy to procrastinate or get side-tracked. In grade school they would have issued me drugs but they hadn't invented the term attention deficit yet, so I developed the habit of listing to keep me on track. An example of this is the beautiful crochet lace buffet runner that I have halfway completed. I set it down once and haven't been back to it. That was 11 or 12 years ago. Sheesh. And here I am going off on a tangent again. See how easy it is?
My next list usually is an off-shoot of the first. If I have a big project that will be on my daily list, but know that I won't be able to complete it all in one day, then another list will contain the specifics of the project; taking measurements, buying paint, cleaning.....until the project is defined to steps. Today my daily list contained several of these sub-lists:
- Apple tree storm damage,
- East foundation project,
- Ad package design.
The first sub-list contained these items:
- Remove apples from broken branch,
- Remove branch,
- Treat wound,
- Remove additional apples to reduce overall weight on all of tree,
- Prep apples for cider*
- Prepare Equipment to make cider*
See the starred* items? Those are the sub-project lists.
The sheer amount of listing can become enormous. You have to learn when to quit. I take my lists and organize them in a folder with tabs and a master so I can easily find them and so they don't clutter every horizontal surface in the house. It sometimes takes a whole day to do this, but it's well worth the cost in time and has great benefits to time management. In effect, I've created a project journal. I can later add notes about each project and use them for creating shortcuts on future projects. I'm a spreadsheet queen too and electronically, a spreadsheet is the best list builder ever invented. A spreadsheet is easy to tag and bookmark, add or change and organize. I make them interactive and connected, so a change on one sheet will result in a change on another. I can look up the exact date that I planted my spinach and it will show me when to expect harvest. I have yet to incorporate any of this into my Google Calendar, but it's coming.
For the farm and also for myself, I make a Goal List. This list contains things that I'd like to do or have done at the farm or for myself. I try to have on that list, things that are achievable, that also interplay with other projects or specific needs. My biggest goal? Hmmmm.....to get to the point where I may only need to make a list once a month. That might be called old age. I smile and chuckle at this thought. Dog Boy's ears go up and he gives me the 'come on Ma' look.
Living on Drag'n Rock Farm is a choice. But, with that choice came a lot of extra chores and duties and my lists became longer and more profuse. I went from a low maintenance apartment complex to a small house on a small corner lot, to what amounts to six acres. My children were raised on all three and were both a part of the upkeep and decision process.
The farm has the capability and facilities to become a small hobby farm complete with livestock. If we were younger, I'm sure we'd have seriously considered this. However, I'm not inclined to raising a beefer or a milker, some unruly goats or passive aggressive geese. I've been asked about raising chickens or turkeys and Tim hinted at pigs - which I squashed as soon as it was uttered. At this point it's not an option open for discussion. We buy what we need locally for all of our meat, dairy, and vegetable needs. From one farm we get some of our beef, all of our pork and the most magnificent chickens you can imagine. All dressed and packaged and ready for our freezer. We can get eggs from neighbors, cheese and butter from the cheese factory down the road and fruit and vegies in large quantities to can, dry or freeze from farmer stands and the farmer's market.What I get from my garden handles our daily needs, what I get from the local farmers will fill my freezer and my two pantries. Any excess from our orchards and vineyard goes into making wine, juice, or syrup.
Today, one of the items on my list and sub-list is to take care of the storm damage to one of my apple trees in the north orchard. This will require removing the branch and apples, treating the wound and lessening future damage by culling more apples from off the remainder of the tree. A production apple tree sets a lot of fruit. Apples become heavy as they grow, deeply bending the branches. If a good wind comes along, limb damage can occur. Removal of a large amount of unripe apples can help prevent this and the added plus is that the remaining apples grow larger than if there were more and the apples and the tree are healthier. My problem then is to figure out what to do with all those unripe apples. And that my friends, is for another list and another post.
So ends my post for the morning of July 13, 2010
Stormed over the evening hours, sunny and a bit humid today. Morning temp is up to 70, with the high 80's expected.
I love that you use lists much the same as I do... well, maybe not quite as obsessively.
ReplyDeleteOne really nice thing about sub-lists for large projects is that by breaking them down into steps, I wind up with SOMETHING I can actually check off as DONE before the big project is completed. Very valuable to somebody like me, who is a great starter but not so hot at finishing. On rough days (I have chronic severe depression), I use this method even when washing dishes: Good for me, I washed the spoons! Good for me, the water bottles are clean, dried, 1/3 full and back in the freezer, resting at a 45 degree angle. Yum, I'll have fresh ice water later!