I was re-reading Linda Mason's "The Working Mother's Guide To Life" (it's geared more towards mothers who work outside the home, but I like it anyway) and came across her tips for how to make everything go more smoothly with your toddler. "Lay out clothes the night before. Pack lunches the night before." That kind of thing.
But how does that save you time? Or even effort? It doesn't. It just shifts the burden to a different part of the day.
Of course that alone can be a good thing. Personally, I function a lot better early in the morning. That's why I use a slow cooker. I'm happy to chop onions at 5am. Different story twelve hours later. So I chop at dawn. But--I am *not* saving time or effort.
And it doesn't stop me from running into the typical problems people face. On days when I have looming deadlines and/or a kid or husband wanting some extra time, I don't make my AM kitchen date. If I can make it up at lunchtime, I do. If I can't, it's takeout time.
Here's the thing. In order to fix that, I would not have to *do* anything or adopt any technique. In fact, I couldn't even if I wanted to. There is no technique that can save you from your priorities.
We like to think there is, but there's not.
For me to get a home-cooked dinner on the living room floor every night (where we sit with our plates and watch SpongeBob), I would have to make a decision that cooking would come first. That would mean sometimes interrupting either my work or my family. And I'm just not going to do that. I have a choice, and I made it.
Same thing with housekeeping.
I once had one of those fits of self-improvement that will visit themselves from time to time upon the American citizen. I read Julie Morgenstern's "Organizing from the Inside Out"--a fantastic book. She, in fact, tells her readers flat out that being organized is a huge time commitment, and warns people to ask themselves if they're really in the right circumstances to make the effort. I respect her for that.
But again, what struck me was...it's not about systems or processes or techniques. It's about *priorities.* Morgenstern became organized the minute she *wanted* to. *That* was when she began devoting herself to making sure everything in her life was stored in an accessible manner in a logical place. *Then* came the systems, processes and techniques. But without the initial determination, the priority, the shaking-your-fist-at-the-sky display of Nietzschean will while you vow that "As God is my witness, I will never spend half an hour searching for the can opener again," forget it.
Personally, I don't lose the can opener that often. When I do, it's pretty bad, but most of the time I only have to look one or two places. I'm good with it. YMMV.
