Post #35 Less Domestic Repetitions

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” —Michael Altshuler

Not a life goal for most: spending extra hours/days (cumulative) on boring, repetitive tasks. With reflection & planning, we can minimize them. Instead of being annoyed that we ‘once again’ have to do that task, we can start being happier if we have minimized it; ‘yay’. Finding ways & ideas for cutting down on repetitions; I start here with 5 of my own ideas:

1. I now grocery shop only once every 3 weeks. Over the last year I transitioned from shopping once a week, to shopping once every 10, 14, & now only every 21 days. Not only has grocery shopping @ Costco cut my shopping bill (~ 50%) over the past several months, but I spend less time on it overall. I don’t enjoy clinking shopping carts endlessly at the store; I minimize the task.

2. Similarly, what’s the longest to reasonably go between domestic repetitions? We can measure what’s the reasonable longest, & then calendar the task repeats. Example: I don’t enjoy cutting my toenails. How many days can I reasonably go between repeats of that task? Another example: something we currently do once a week, can perhaps be done every 8 days.

3. Less time (eventually) deleting junk emails. A ‘drain the swamp’ initiative: blocking those junky emails that we don’t read. Instead of spending time every day/week reviewing/deleting them. We’ll maybe be happier & satisfied for a while, until we might need to drain that swamp again. Rewarding.

4. Less repetitive time spent by: grouping multiples of the same task. Often more time effective. Example: cooking a big batch of something, then dividing it into portions to put in the freezer. & Then might not have to cook it from scratch again for quite a while.

And:

5. Less repetitive driving/shopping in the neighbourhood. During the week keeping a note of what is needed. Combining shopping tasks into one trip; maybe only once a week. Plotting a circular route of the shop locations (trying not to backtrack). Uses less gas (if driving); use less time overall.

Reminder: a classic rule for installing a new wanted habit, is doing it 21 days (or 21x ?) in a row. It then begins to be automatic. The trick, e.g.: if we do it 15 days/times in a row & then fail to do it once, we must start all over again (with ‘1’) counting up to 21. & Let’s fill ‘extra time’ with mindful, meaningful things, & not take it for granted. Maybe: studying, or working on a side hustle? Also valuable: meditate and/or let the mind roam free for short periods. Or?

“Domestic work, is, after all, both tedious and repetitive, and it is not surprising that most women and all men avoid as much of it as possible.” — Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

“Own time or time will own you.” —Brian Norgard

Kellie

Kellie tries to improve quality of life, while lowering cost & simplifying ['mostly: let's Not do expensive rocket science every day']. So: high quality @ lower cost & simplified when possible. Some experiments work better than others; I plan to share how the experiments go in my blog(s).