04 Nov

achieving my basic level of competence

The first thing to do when working out the structure of my days is to work out which tasks I need to do to achieve my basic level of competence. My BLC is the minimum amount of work I need to do around here to keep the house and life ticking over. If something happens—I’m engrossed in a project, or out all day running errands, or (like yesterday) B is home sick—as long as I’ve done the things that make up my basic level of competence, I can feel like I’m still on top of things.

These are the things that I think make up my BLC:

  • Reset kitchen: deal with dishes (dishwasher or sink), wipe benches, take out rubbish, keep it nice
  • Pick up lounge
  • Reset bedroom: make the bed, put clothes away, clear rubbish
  • Pick up bathroom
  • Know what’s for dinner
  • Do one load of washing and hang it up afterwards

That last one’s a big one. There are many days where I put a lot of washing on and never quite get around to pulling it out so it sits in there getting moldy and I need to wash it again. If I put a load on, I have to get it out and hang it up to dry. Which reminds me, there’s stuff in the machine now; I better go deal with it.

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Seriously, that’s all it took. Although it was mostly towels, so I cheated and put them in the dryer. Now I need to remember to get them out of the dryer later.

I don’t have to do a load every day, many people don’t, but I find if I leave it for a couple of days the pile gets too big with towels and bedding and I get daunted. Better instead to do a little every day. On Monday I did three loads, and that did make me feel fairly productive, until I ran out of room on the drying racks.

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I’m finding the best time to do these is first thing in the morning after Dave and B leave. Well, first after I finish my coffee and watch the news and check facebook and blogs, so maybe 9am. It seems to give me a burst of energy that means I might keep being productive, and then I can concentrate on other things without this hanging over my head, so if I do get obsessed with a project at least the house isn’t falling apart. And if I don’t know what’s for dinner, it gives me time to get out to the shops.

Yesterday B stayed home from school with a tummyache and wanted to be glommed onto me, but I spent 15 minutes resetting the kitchen and another 15 on the bedroom/bathroom and throwing on washing, and I was pretty much done. It meant that when she was feeling better the kitchen was clean enough to make a batch of muffins together without me getting snappy. And it was easy to clean up too. I felt competent yesterday. It was nice. I feel competent today too.

Do you have a set of tasks for your basic level of competence? What are they?

2 thoughts on “achieving my basic level of competence

  1. My BLC seems to consist of:
    * Breathing
    * Eating (I originally read this as “BLT” and got all excited)
    * Passing wind.
    I was going to add ‘Physical movement’, but some days this just seems an optional competency.

  2. Pingback: NaBloPoMo fail, and other updates |

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