I don’t know how you are, and I really don’t know how important this is, but when it comes to a day and I’ve got a few errands or chores to do, the question becomes this one: Do I do the chore as early as possible so that I clear the schedule or do I do my normal tasks and then do the errand or chore later in the day? Here’s how I do it:
As soon as possible.
On a Friday afternoon I realized that we would be gone Saturday and Sunday and it dawned on me that the grass would get too long. So, at about 4:30 I mowed the grass. While I was mowing behind our garage I realized that I had never mowed back there in the evening because … you guessed it … I always mow as early in the morning as the weather permits. Which means, when I take my first study break — say somewhere between 9 and 10am, I see if the grass is dry enough to be mowed.
This got me to thinking about when to do errands … like mowing and going to the bank or to the post office or to the cleaners. I don’t like to have those things hanging over my head during the day, so I do them early and (as we say in Chicago) often and then I have the rest of the day’s schedule clear.
How about you? What’s the wisdom here? Am I giving up my best hours for errands in exchange for tranquility?