Title : Monday's List: Begin as I Mean to Go On. . . Or Something Like That. . .
link : Monday's List: Begin as I Mean to Go On. . . Or Something Like That. . .
Monday's List: Begin as I Mean to Go On. . . Or Something Like That. . .
Although I'm beginning my fourth year of retirement this month (!), I still find that the rhythm of my life is influenced by the notion of Monday as the beginning of a "work" week -- I'm not being paid for my work anymore, and even when I was, that work was far from confined to any Monday to Friday schedule (nor did it stay within anything like 9-to-5 hours). Marking and reading and researching and planning classes sprawled over my weekends and evenings and into my vacation time, absolutely. But Monday-to-Friday was when I had to show up and perform, to stand in front of a room and lecture or facilitate a discussion, to sit in my office and meet with students, to cross campus for committee meetings. . .
I was fortunate enough that my work flowed from an interest I would have pursued anyway -- literature and stories, the way texts have meaning in a culture and also the way they give meaning to that culture, the relationships between construction (narration) and representation. So much of my work overlapped considerably with what I might consider play. Just as some of my play felt like work sometimes -- running, for instance, or my Pilates classes on days when I really didn't want to exercise; knitting, when I'd made a mistake on a pattern and had to rip back and redo; scrambling up a rocky slope, cranky and sweating, and terrified of falling, behind my indefatigable husband.
Still and all, as I said, I continue to feel, of a Monday morning, that I'm starting a new work week, and with that, I regularly have an impulse to sort out a list of what I'd like to accomplish, or what I'm looking forward to working on/playing at. Sometimes I make the list in order to ensure that I "pay myself first" -- that I prioritise something creative, perhaps, or simply give myself a replenishing three or four hours simply to read. Sometimes, the list serves to help me get some monkey or other off my back, to push me to make the phone call or the online registration or whatever's needed to complete some niggling administrative task so that I can stop waking up at 2 a.m. fussing about it.
It occurs to me this morning that this Monday morning list-making has a different weight in retirement -- it's both less and more urgent than it was when I was working for a salary. Less urgent, of course, because if I let this week be shaped by daily or hourly whim rather than be guided by a list (and let's be honest, I've done that regularly, and nothing grinds to a halt). But more urgent, also, in that my weekly to-do list indicates rather clearly what's guiding me forward on some much bigger calendars.
Understand, first of all, that this to-do list sometimes exists only in my head, that I often fail to write it down. Also understand that it's ongoing and it includes many items that I know won't get down this week -- or, necessarily, in any given week. What's more likely to happen is that I add items, when I get 'round to sitting down with my notebook, to an ongoing list which mixes Errands that must be done Soon! (or Pronto!) -- and I try to write those down because that action tends to harness the free-floating anxiety and make it manageable -- alongside Goals and Hopes and Commitments and Wouldn't-It-Be Funs. . .
Sometimes I'll be crossing off items three pages back in my little purple-covered notebook (3.5x5-ish) and adding to the list at the same time, with six or seven items persistently undone in between. (As a safeguard against losing sight of these, I circle the remaining item on a page if it's all that's holding me back from drawing a big X across a page that's been completely worked through). At some point, I'll let some of them go, drawing dark ink through them with a gesture that's as much absolution as regret. Eventually, though I do get to most of them.
Why so much chat about my list-making this Monday morning? Perhaps because I have three days with the place to myself (Pater off following lists of his own), and I'm want to spend them wisely. Partly because it's two weeks now since I finished the first (perhaps only) draft of a long manuscript I worked on for over a year, and it's time to wonder, "What's Next"? Partly because my Morning Pages the last two days have returned me to the question of what I want to do here, on the blog. A question that moves me into that's space of discernment: what is work, for me, and what is play? What do I really want to do with the time I have? How much obligation is good for me? How much freedom? How much discipline? What's the balance between what I Should do and what I Must do, and how do I recognize the difference? (my daughter gave me Ella Luna's The Crossroads of Should and Must for Christmas year before last, and I recommend it as an engaging and provocative and creative way of "finding our passion."
Time to wrap this post up, though, so that I can get on with my list.
Some of the items, in case you're curious:
- Write 3 blog posts for the week; Try to complete 1 for reading blog as well
- Get back to the Gym!!! (Exclamation marks because I haven't been to the gym since that 'flu hit 3 weeks ago)
- Knitting -- sweater for N
- Journal sketches -- experiment with fountain pen and dry-brush. . . Also practise using the flexible nib
- Coffee Break Italian
- Italian, French drill with Duolingo
- Book eye and dental appointments
- Downtown to look for replacement black cardi for P
- Something in the mail for G and for S
- Urban sketching -- get organised and get out there!
- Find top to wear under new Fair Isle sweater
- Mend socks
- Pick up shoes from cobbler, drop off second pair for new Topys
- Get some photos printed (This one has been carried forward so often, it really needs to get to the top of the list or to be abandoned honestly. . .
- Book piano tuning
- Get notebook to keep notes for new writing project.
Okay, clearly that's not going to get done this week, probably not even this month, but I can obviously pick out several items to do today, and there are a few more that will be manageable within the week. I need to work them around the commitments in my day-planner, of course, but so far only this afternoon and Thursday morning are blocked out. Mondays an ideal time to block out time for the errands on my list, and that's what I'm going to do next. I'm thinking I should book those appointments and then sit down with my knitting and listen to my Italian podcast.
Also thinking that if I pack up my sketching gear, I could stop along the way to buy that new notebook. . .
And I've already written one of my three posts for this week. . . Now maybe you'll comment on this one, tell me, if you're already retired, whether Monday's still got that beginning-of-the-week feeling for you. Retired or not, do your lists tend to shape up on a daily, weekly, or longer-term time-frame? Does your list look anything like mine (with different activities and tasks, but a similar balance of work and play)? How much "carry-forward" do you allow yourself? How much does your weekly list indicate your big-picture goals?
I was fortunate enough that my work flowed from an interest I would have pursued anyway -- literature and stories, the way texts have meaning in a culture and also the way they give meaning to that culture, the relationships between construction (narration) and representation. So much of my work overlapped considerably with what I might consider play. Just as some of my play felt like work sometimes -- running, for instance, or my Pilates classes on days when I really didn't want to exercise; knitting, when I'd made a mistake on a pattern and had to rip back and redo; scrambling up a rocky slope, cranky and sweating, and terrified of falling, behind my indefatigable husband.
Still and all, as I said, I continue to feel, of a Monday morning, that I'm starting a new work week, and with that, I regularly have an impulse to sort out a list of what I'd like to accomplish, or what I'm looking forward to working on/playing at. Sometimes I make the list in order to ensure that I "pay myself first" -- that I prioritise something creative, perhaps, or simply give myself a replenishing three or four hours simply to read. Sometimes, the list serves to help me get some monkey or other off my back, to push me to make the phone call or the online registration or whatever's needed to complete some niggling administrative task so that I can stop waking up at 2 a.m. fussing about it.
It occurs to me this morning that this Monday morning list-making has a different weight in retirement -- it's both less and more urgent than it was when I was working for a salary. Less urgent, of course, because if I let this week be shaped by daily or hourly whim rather than be guided by a list (and let's be honest, I've done that regularly, and nothing grinds to a halt). But more urgent, also, in that my weekly to-do list indicates rather clearly what's guiding me forward on some much bigger calendars.
Understand, first of all, that this to-do list sometimes exists only in my head, that I often fail to write it down. Also understand that it's ongoing and it includes many items that I know won't get down this week -- or, necessarily, in any given week. What's more likely to happen is that I add items, when I get 'round to sitting down with my notebook, to an ongoing list which mixes Errands that must be done Soon! (or Pronto!) -- and I try to write those down because that action tends to harness the free-floating anxiety and make it manageable -- alongside Goals and Hopes and Commitments and Wouldn't-It-Be Funs. . .
Sometimes I'll be crossing off items three pages back in my little purple-covered notebook (3.5x5-ish) and adding to the list at the same time, with six or seven items persistently undone in between. (As a safeguard against losing sight of these, I circle the remaining item on a page if it's all that's holding me back from drawing a big X across a page that's been completely worked through). At some point, I'll let some of them go, drawing dark ink through them with a gesture that's as much absolution as regret. Eventually, though I do get to most of them.
Why so much chat about my list-making this Monday morning? Perhaps because I have three days with the place to myself (Pater off following lists of his own), and I'm want to spend them wisely. Partly because it's two weeks now since I finished the first (perhaps only) draft of a long manuscript I worked on for over a year, and it's time to wonder, "What's Next"? Partly because my Morning Pages the last two days have returned me to the question of what I want to do here, on the blog. A question that moves me into that's space of discernment: what is work, for me, and what is play? What do I really want to do with the time I have? How much obligation is good for me? How much freedom? How much discipline? What's the balance between what I Should do and what I Must do, and how do I recognize the difference? (my daughter gave me Ella Luna's The Crossroads of Should and Must for Christmas year before last, and I recommend it as an engaging and provocative and creative way of "finding our passion."
Time to wrap this post up, though, so that I can get on with my list.
Some of the items, in case you're curious:
- Write 3 blog posts for the week; Try to complete 1 for reading blog as well
- Get back to the Gym!!! (Exclamation marks because I haven't been to the gym since that 'flu hit 3 weeks ago)
- Knitting -- sweater for N
- Journal sketches -- experiment with fountain pen and dry-brush. . . Also practise using the flexible nib
- Coffee Break Italian
- Italian, French drill with Duolingo
- Book eye and dental appointments
- Downtown to look for replacement black cardi for P
- Something in the mail for G and for S
- Urban sketching -- get organised and get out there!
- Find top to wear under new Fair Isle sweater
- Mend socks
- Pick up shoes from cobbler, drop off second pair for new Topys
- Get some photos printed (This one has been carried forward so often, it really needs to get to the top of the list or to be abandoned honestly. . .
- Book piano tuning
- Get notebook to keep notes for new writing project.
Okay, clearly that's not going to get done this week, probably not even this month, but I can obviously pick out several items to do today, and there are a few more that will be manageable within the week. I need to work them around the commitments in my day-planner, of course, but so far only this afternoon and Thursday morning are blocked out. Mondays an ideal time to block out time for the errands on my list, and that's what I'm going to do next. I'm thinking I should book those appointments and then sit down with my knitting and listen to my Italian podcast.
Also thinking that if I pack up my sketching gear, I could stop along the way to buy that new notebook. . .
And I've already written one of my three posts for this week. . . Now maybe you'll comment on this one, tell me, if you're already retired, whether Monday's still got that beginning-of-the-week feeling for you. Retired or not, do your lists tend to shape up on a daily, weekly, or longer-term time-frame? Does your list look anything like mine (with different activities and tasks, but a similar balance of work and play)? How much "carry-forward" do you allow yourself? How much does your weekly list indicate your big-picture goals?
Thus articles Monday's List: Begin as I Mean to Go On. . . Or Something Like That. . .
that is all articles Monday's List: Begin as I Mean to Go On. . . Or Something Like That. . . This time, hopefully can provide benefits to you all. Okay, see you in another article post.
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