Saturday, January 11, 2014

Productive Intentions

This seems to be occurring with more frequency as the years go by. I start the day with every intention of accomplishing something productive, but at the end, can't for the life of me name one really commendable thing I've done. The necessities seem to eat up all my time and energy (more emphasis on energy).

This week was typical. It's well into January and my Christmas tree seemed to be calling out to me to put it into storage. So after at least a week of exhausting procrastination I finally trudged upstairs to bring down the appropriate containers. While up there I decided to look for some wallpaper to patch a hole in my dining room wall (from a tree that hit the house last summer). That called for a flashlight which I was unwilling to go back downstairs to find. So I searched my son's room for his, but ended up picking up his trash and some dishes and observing his lack of housekeeping. Didn't find a flash light, so I went back to the store room and took out several rolls of wallpaper before finding the right one. What was it I came up here for? Oh yes, the Christmas storage boxes. There was a lot more rummaging through stuff and re-arranging things, but I couldn't say exactly what.

Having found the wallpaper and the boxes, I toted them downstairs in about four trips. Then I needed a break. Break time involves checking my email, the news and facebook. Two hours later it was lunch time. Then my recliner seemed to be inviting me to stretch out and crochet while watching a little TV. Everyone needs a bit of "me" time, right? So I stretched out in the recliner watching TV around the Christmas Tree and over the storage boxes stacked in the middle of the room. Three (or maybe four) hours later (did I fall asleep?) my son came home from work and it was time to fix supper. Then I remembered to check the mailbox. Stepping out my front door I noticed two neighbors still had their Christmas lights on! Well, might as well enjoy ours one more night.

So that was maybe Wednesday? It's now Saturday and I have removed all the ornaments and tinsel from the tree and had my son take the boxes back upstairs. (I'll need to go up and put them into the storage area where they belong.) The tree is still staring at me all bare and forlorn. I KNOW I've felt busy most of the time, so why can't I list more accomplishments? Maybe I need to do a time study like we had to do when I was employed as home health care nurse, listing each activity and the times. YUCK!

I'm retired and I've decided not to let my apparent lack of accomplishments bother me. Maybe I'll go back to making a daily "to do" list. Yes, that would be better. That helps to show what I've done as I cross off the items. I've just put off doing the list. First item, "breakdown and store Christmas tree". (Add and cross off: remove and box ornaments, find wallpaper to patch dining room wall, compose blog entry.)