Winning the war, in three steps
I've recently estimated how much time I spend on work and school every week. It's somewhere between 75-80 hours, which makes sense, work accounting for 40-50 and school for the rest. That's more than ten hours per day, EVERY DAY of the week.
Obviously, something's gotta give. I decided to be really strict about a few things: sleeping and eating well, as well as spending a few hours a week reading something completely unrelated to work/school. What I haven't been strict on is house cleaning. Well, not the actual cleaning, which I done once a month by the lovely staff from Aspen Clean, but the day-to-day picking up, putting away, and so on.
Yesterday, when I came back from seven hours of team work at school, my condo, usually a little oasis of peace and calm, looked more like a war zone. Two or three weeks of not picking up ANYTHING meant that no surface was usable, except for the floor (i.e. I could still walk around). I knew this was the point where I had to act, or else my day of studying today would be spent staring at the mess. It was going to bug me.
As I was making dinner, a very elaborate meal that required no attention from my part while everything was cooking, I attacked on the first front: the kitchen. Emptying the dishwasher was an easy battle, it was already almost empty. The counters and sink were another challenge all together: dirty glasses everywhere (not only in the kitchen, I noticed later on), empty containers that were waiting to be sent to the recycling (at least, they were clean), and a collection of Tupperware containers, including one that was repurposed as a Petri dish.
Then, dinner still on the way, I used the "shock-and-awe" approach to clear the dining room table. The table is often an area of conflict, due mainly to its proximity to the front door. Whatever I have in my hands when walking in ends up on the table as I attend to the alarm. 95% of the paper on the table was instantly directed to where it belongs: the recycling bin. The rest was a collection of bills (some I has already paid), three unread copies of Business in Vancouver (it's a weekly publication OK, give me a break!), and a few other papers I needed to keep (including my annual reminder of how little of my mortgage payments are used to pay down the principal on the condo).
All this in less than 35 minutes. Sweet taste of victory (and my kick-ass tomato sauce).
Finally, the biggest opponent that has been provoking me every night: the caulking around the bathtub. The Tupperware was certainly intended as a distraction from where the enemy was hiding all along. The caulking has a tendency to crack after five or six months, no matter the quality of caulking I apply or the time I spend preparing the surface. Needless to say, it was nowhere near the "bright white" promised by vendors. I had left the caulking tube on my kitchen counter and when I cleared everything else, it resurfaced as a nasty reminder. All right, this had to be done as well.
After all this, I got dressed and dropped by Raf's place for his 30th birthday party. I stayed for a few hours and left when the group made its way to Bar None. I had too much homework today to go to bed late.
I fell asleep almost instantly. Saturday was a good day.
Obviously, something's gotta give. I decided to be really strict about a few things: sleeping and eating well, as well as spending a few hours a week reading something completely unrelated to work/school. What I haven't been strict on is house cleaning. Well, not the actual cleaning, which I done once a month by the lovely staff from Aspen Clean, but the day-to-day picking up, putting away, and so on.
Yesterday, when I came back from seven hours of team work at school, my condo, usually a little oasis of peace and calm, looked more like a war zone. Two or three weeks of not picking up ANYTHING meant that no surface was usable, except for the floor (i.e. I could still walk around). I knew this was the point where I had to act, or else my day of studying today would be spent staring at the mess. It was going to bug me.
As I was making dinner, a very elaborate meal that required no attention from my part while everything was cooking, I attacked on the first front: the kitchen. Emptying the dishwasher was an easy battle, it was already almost empty. The counters and sink were another challenge all together: dirty glasses everywhere (not only in the kitchen, I noticed later on), empty containers that were waiting to be sent to the recycling (at least, they were clean), and a collection of Tupperware containers, including one that was repurposed as a Petri dish.
Then, dinner still on the way, I used the "shock-and-awe" approach to clear the dining room table. The table is often an area of conflict, due mainly to its proximity to the front door. Whatever I have in my hands when walking in ends up on the table as I attend to the alarm. 95% of the paper on the table was instantly directed to where it belongs: the recycling bin. The rest was a collection of bills (some I has already paid), three unread copies of Business in Vancouver (it's a weekly publication OK, give me a break!), and a few other papers I needed to keep (including my annual reminder of how little of my mortgage payments are used to pay down the principal on the condo).
All this in less than 35 minutes. Sweet taste of victory (and my kick-ass tomato sauce).
Finally, the biggest opponent that has been provoking me every night: the caulking around the bathtub. The Tupperware was certainly intended as a distraction from where the enemy was hiding all along. The caulking has a tendency to crack after five or six months, no matter the quality of caulking I apply or the time I spend preparing the surface. Needless to say, it was nowhere near the "bright white" promised by vendors. I had left the caulking tube on my kitchen counter and when I cleared everything else, it resurfaced as a nasty reminder. All right, this had to be done as well.
After all this, I got dressed and dropped by Raf's place for his 30th birthday party. I stayed for a few hours and left when the group made its way to Bar None. I had too much homework today to go to bed late.
I fell asleep almost instantly. Saturday was a good day.
Labels: cleaning, work-life balance
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home