Productive (adj)

No one enjoys having unpleasant chores to do. Being on maternity leave means I have more time around the house, and I've taken it upon myself to be responsible for a greater share of the non-baby-related household chores as well. Here are some initial thoughts on chores, based on the last few months; some of these were surprising to discover. -As anyone who struggles with productivity knows, finishing a task can be immensely satisfying. Having a discrete chore to do and having the time, energy, and opportunity to take care of it are a recipe for self-satisfaction. Floor needs sweeping? Done. Flour on the counter? Wipe that down. Full dishwasher? Stack those plates back in the cupboard. You feel like a champion. The link between cleanliness and procrastination is well established. -But there's only so much you can tackle. Work on our  finite willpower , decision fatigue , or more enjoyably this classic Hyperbole and a Half post , illustrate that you can't chug alon...

Happy New Year! Holiday baking update: the anti-procrastination baking worked really well. Having baked all kinds of things before the holidays, I was both able to give all kinds of decorated cookies to loved ones and I was better prepared to bake "on the fly" during the holidays when the cookies had long run out (unexpected benefit). It turns out that loads of techniques that you use in one kind of recipe transfer to improvisational baking, where you try to make the best of the ingredients you have on hand. My best "on the fly" baking experience was a Victoria spongecake in someone else's kitchen; the centre didn't quite bake for long enough and therefore collapsed a little when the cake was cooling but apart from that it was a success. I took almost 3 weeks away from Toronto for the break, and it was exactly what I needed after a December of frenzied writing. That's not to say that there wasn't a lot to do - paperwork, emails, planning and so on. A...

One of my first mentors after high school told us that it was best to keep busy, because it was much easier to accomplish a task when you had several things to do. This made it more difficult to procrastinate on any one thing, whereas having only one thing to do is counterintuitively more difficult and is much more easily left for tomorrow. At the time it sounded crazy, but it's definitely something I've come to appreciate. In graduate school, I find having one paper or assignment to work on can eat up entire days at a time without necessarily any progress, but a busy day with a full to-do list and multiple appointments usually results in most tasks getting accomplished. To that end, I am giving myself a challenge for the rest of November and December: a Holiday Baking Challenge. I figure that by adding one delicious task to my to-do list, I will through sheer momentum achieve more of the non-baking things, and as a bonus have tons of treats to eat and/or bring in to school. I...