Every time.
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why am i like this
me to everyone: im so tired, all i want to do is sleep, i love sleep, i crave it soooo muchh.
also me when i actually get the chance to sleep:
so judging by how astonished people are by it every time we explain it to anybody, it seems like my wife and I might really be onto something here
during the pandemic, we invented something we call "astronaut time."
when it's astronaut time, it's like we are two astronauts wearing the big helmets, moving around the station on totally separate tasks. one of us is outside the space station and one of us is inside the space station. our radios do not work and we have no way of communicating with each other. we might see each other through the lil porthole windows, but we ignore each other because we both have different things to do.
"astronaut time" is how we get total privacy when we live in the same apartment. I will pretend you don't exist. You will pretend I don't exist. we have a nonverbal, zero-contact signal for when astronaut time is over (usually "I'll draw a smiley-face on the whiteboard in the kitchen when I'm done"). No talking, stay out of each other's line of sight, we are actively avoiding each other, unless you are currently experiencing a medical emergency goodbye.
it has been. a godsend. imagine living with your partner and being able to close every single tab in your brain related to social interaction. no fear of being interrupted by a "hey, quick question--" or "sorry to bother you, but do you know where the scissors are?" or "did you want something to eat, too?" Once or twice a month, we look at each other lovingly, hold hands, and say "baby I think I need some astronaut time tonight," and the other person goes "okay cool. bye! have a nice night!" and nobody's feelings are hurt and we both go and have a lovely evening completely by ourselves.
like idk it's a small thing but it's made our lives so much nicer, so if you and your partner/roommate are both people who sometimes need total privacy in order to recharge, maybe try it
I'm the wife in question and I cannot recommend this enough. When I told my therapist about astronaut time, she asked if she could share it with the couples she councils, so even the professionals give it two thumbs up.
I wish I could make cats understand the concept of fairness. Of hypocrisy. I wish next time Beatrice was eating I could stick my hand in her bowl and dig around and say "see? Not very nice is it?" And she would say "I understand now father you're right". But instead? Big fat paw in my soup
[ID: two black cats, lying down with their paws together so that the gap between their bodies forms a heart shape. end ID]
How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do
So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!
Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.
- Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.
- Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks
- Your priority goes like this:
- 5 minutes due YESTERDAY
- 5 minutes due TOMORROW
- Half-hour due YESTERDAY
- Half-hour due TOMORROW
- Hours due YESTERDAY
- Hours due TOMORROW
- 5 minutes due LATER
- Half-hour due LATER
- Hours due LATER
- DAYS due YESTERDAY
- DAYS due TOMORROW
- DAYS due LATER
- At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.
- Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.
So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.
You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!
WOAH THIS SOUNDS HELPFUL. I’M GOING TO TRY THIS IMMEDIATELY. Also, I made a chart for myself, but if anyone else wants it for reference (or if this is wrong and I misread you can tell me) here it is:
Seems like it might be useful for organizing and maybe naclyoho?
I think there are people who would love to see this, yes!
I’ve seen this before and not reblogged it but mainly because I personally wouldn’t be able to use this system – I’m bad at estimating how long something will take to do, and I’m also extremely bad at working under a time limit pressure even if it isn’t a limit – if it’s just “This is how long it should take to do this.”
So in that sense it’s a really good example of what I’m always saying about finding what works For You – this is genius, it’s really a great idea for people who have trouble prioritizing and do well with time pressures, but I couldn’t use it and I doubt I could even adapt it into something usable for me. And that’s okay! Identifying why this wouldn’t help me, that alone helps me to know what would.
I love it when dogs try to help but the task at hand requires zero dogs so they just kinda stand in front of you and look serious.
middle aged men do this too
Christmas as a cultural icon is starting to get really dystopian in a climate sense, december has historically been a time of year in which there would be snow in a significant portion of europe and north america, and the fact that its not even icy this time of year and all the christmas songs and decorations reference a time of year that will likely never exist in the same way again in my life time is so strange.
even worse if you remember the song "over the river and through the woods" describing a snowy winter trip to thanksgiving
saxophonechihuahua
