Posted by Administrator | Posted in Slob Base | Posted on 30-11-2009
Tags: alarm, breakfast, chart, early, getting ready, getting up, house, morning, time, time-management, travel time
In yet another example of why truly organized people are out of their freakin’ minds, I submit table 20-1 from Organizing for Dummies. The book suggests that mornings aren’t a great time for clear thinking (I agree wholeheartedly!), so one’s routine for getting out of the house in the morning should be planned just like any other project. Um…no. If I’m not thinking clearly, which I never am before about 10:30am, the LAST thing I want to get involved in is a project of any kind. How does that make my life easier? Getting out of the house is miserable enough…now it’s a “project”? Delightful!
But the book goes on to provide this charming little mathematical equation, disguised as a to do list, so those of us hoping to turn around our disorganized ways can easily calculate how much time we’ll need to get out of the house.
Okay, I understand that putting a little thought into just about anything will make it easier to accomplish, but really, I can’t maybe ballpark this? I need a whole chart? And they’re not fooling me with this whole checklist concept, I know subtraction when I see it, and that’s my cue to start running. I promise you that if math is involved, NOTHING is getting done faster. Working with numbers is one of the most effective ways to slow my life down. If it hadn’t been for math class, I’d probably have finished junior high school in three months. I’m just saying.
So here’s the chart that’s supposed to simplify all our lives:
| Table 20-1 | Your Morning Timetable |
| Activity | Time |
| Be at your destination: | |
| Subtract: Travel time | |
| Leave your house at: | |
| Subtract: Time to dress, eat, childcare, pet care, read paper | |
| Wake up at: | |
| Subtract: Hours of sleep needed | |
| Go to bed at: |
I resent the idea of this kind of chart to begin with, not to mention the fact that they ask you to calculate coffee drinking and paper reading times, which I think just takes all the fun out of both activities. I can also assure you that to actually make this chart work, if I was really going to bother with it, I’d have to take into account any number of impossible to predict variables that this chart blatantly ignores. Oh, and by the way, you’re supposed to work backwards to come to the correct get-out-of-bed-time. If these people are so efficient, why couldn’t they come up with a chart you can do forwards?
Here’s my version:
| Table 20-1 | Your Morning Timetable |
| Activity | Time |
| Be at your destination: | |
| Subtract: Time to fill up gas tank I emptied last night | |
| Subtract: Traffic Time | |
| Subtract: Travel time | |
| Subtract: Time to return to house again for forgotten gym bag | |
| Subtract: Time to return to house for forgotten keys | |
| Leave your house at: | |
| Subtract: Time to pass out on the couch for short power nap | |
| Subtract: Time to dress, eat, childcare, pet care, read paper | |
| Wake up at: | |
| Subtract: Three snooze alarms | |
| Set alarm for: | |
| Subtract: Hours of sleep needed | |
| Go to bed at: |
To use this chart correctly, I’d probably have to plan to go to bed during lunch the day before, a plan of which I don’t think my boss would approve. I think I’ll stick with my current strategy of coming up with fabulously creative excuses for my lateness. It seems to have worked for me this far.
