I’ve heard it asked many times, how does anyone get anything done after the internet? Well, I might have to ask–how did anyone ever get anything done before smartphones? Or is it just me who is so lazy? Or, well-intentioned, willing, but easily distracted?
My phone reminds me to yell at my representatives in Washington and Phoenix.* My phone wakes me up, and my phone talks me to sleep. It’s teaching me Spanish and German. It tells me what others in the world are yelling about. (Arya Stark, most recently.)
Now, at last, I may have figured out how to get my phone to make me do stuff.
I’ve talked about Productivity Challenge Timer before (though apparently not here, oops.) Yesterday I got more done in one day, both writing and on the house, than I have in I don’t know how long. Last night I decided to go ahead and pay for the Pro version, since I’m getting so much help out of the app.
The Pro version is $4.99 (that’s it, no subscription) and it has a schedule. It will remind me when I should be working. Not in an easily dismissed way, no. It will tell me when I should start and then it will keep reminding me every few minutes until I do start.
Roomie says this app sounds like a pain in the a$$, and she’s right. But if it’s a pain in the a$$ to make me get things done and then I get things done, I’m good with it. Sure, I should just do the things because I want them to be done–but I think we all know how that’s been going. What’s the saying, if you can’t make your own neurotransmitters, storebought is fine? Well, if I can’t make my own motivation (I have motivation to have things done. I don’t have motivation to go do them NOW) then Play Store-bought is fine.
The important thing here is that my room is much less of a mess than it was yesterday morning, the kitchen is moving back towards useable after two weeks of no AC making me unwilling to so much as run hot water there, and some of the stuff piled in the front room to leave after my Marie Kondo round has done so. Not everything is done, no. But progress is happening. And with my little friend nagging me because I asked it to, I have hope that progress will continue to happen.
Like this. Here is a blog post. Why is there a blog post? Because I started my app in desperation–it’s 1231 and until I started writing this I’d accomplished very little today–and discovered that I could make a schedule. Hey, that’s a great way to procastinate while seeming to do something! So I made a schedule. And PCT noticed I should be working at the very moment I was scheduling work sessions… (which clearly isn’t doing work…)
Not gonna lie, it also helps that we had a lovely thunderstorm blow through last night, and currently the weather is a good 20° cooler than normal for a day in mid-May…
Yesterday I did several rounds of editing (Project: Flame Edit), several rounds of map-making (I got a new software! I’ll show it off soon!) (Project: Writing Maintenance) and several rounds on Project: House Stuff. So I edited three scenes, made a map of the Spell-Wracked Lands, and
- stripped my bed, washed my bedding, turned my mattress
- Re-made my bed
- washed and put away my laundry
- Moved Christmas decorations from under-bed storage to closet storage, decluttering an amount of it as I did
- Put away or tossed things cluttering up the living room
- Decluttered the kitchen island, getting rid of some things and washing others
- ran the dishwasher
- vacuumed the dust in the back bathroom including moving stuff
- decluttered the back porch a wee bit
- Took the garbage out
- took the recycling out
- Sorted out pens I don’t want for donation, and put the pens I do like to use on my desk where they are accessible
- decluttered my desk
- Uncovered the extra chair in my room, put the laundry and new purchases (office supplies!) away, moved extra chair OUT of room so I won’t pile on it anymore
- Vacuumed my room
I mean…I’ll take it.
Yeah. I’ll take it.
*No actual yelling is involved. I’m just very…firm.