The Menagerie

Shelley Mactyre's Day Off

Today I took the day off.  I've been trying to take off one weekday each week while Matthew and Peach are off at work and daycare, because I usually end up working one weekend day (at least) and because, well, my underemployment has to have some benefit.  It's not paying my mortgage or student loans, so it might as well be something else. 

I didn't nap (that is the gold standard of a good day), but I did work on that TiVo backlog (and figured out which Fred Meyer the Roloffs shop at on "Little People Big World") and made a cursory attempt at scrapbooking while doing so. Days off at home don't exempt me from getting Peach ready in the morning, and today I was actually awake enough to get the camera out. 

(Yes, I spun off the baby blog, but for those of you who don't look at Eden's Garden, I have to show off my new favorite picture anyway!)

My balancing act

Saturday I downloaded the free trial version of Life Balance, a piece of software (for Palm, PC, and Mac) which is a sort of project manager/ultimate to-do list/graphic representation of where your time and effort is going. 

It's a very useful tool.  It was interesting for me to look at my to-do lists and realize just how much of my time, thought, and effort goes to work -- much more than I'd originally thought -- as opposed to doing the things I enjoy.  (No wonder I never have time to practice the cello.) 

A recurring challenge for me is maintaining my motivation during a big project.  I have so many more demands on my time now that any interruption can derail me completely.  By forcing myself to make these detailed lists (and to prioritize and schedule tasks), it's much easier for me to pick back up where I left off.  "Where was I?" doesn't take ten minutes of retracing steps - I just look at where I was on the list of tasks. 

And that's the key for me - the real magic of making lists and putting everything down is giving myself the power to forget - if it's not rattling around in my brain, then I'm that much clearer on the tasks I am trying to focus on.   And by "that much clearer" I mean "able to work."  Between the baby and being so ill, it's been impossible the last couple of weeks to accomplish much of anything.

The magic of the software is in the way the task lists are categorized - by where you will accomplish that work, how often the work recurs (daily, weekly, or whatever), what priority level the work should have (from no effort to maximum effort), and the neat pie chart showing you what a balanced task list would look like, vs. the way your task list looks.

It's simple software (though not always intuitive, though the help is actually helpful) but it does what it does beautifully. 

The software is spendy -- $80 -- but there's a free 30-day trial.  I'm giving it the old college try for the next couple of weeks, but if it continues to be this helpful, purchasing a license is a no-brainer.  (And the trial download comes with a reminder to purchase the software.  Naturally.)