Dumbass-osity

I had a list of things I wanted to do after work yesterday, including:
-workout at the gym
-gas up my car
-get money from the ATM
-get tortillas & fruit at Kroger
-drop some books and such at the library
-scoop kitty litter and take out the trash
-make dinner

As I was getting cash out of the ATM, I was thinking about what I was going to pick up at Kroger and what to make for dinner, and I pulled away without taking my card back. Zoinks! Dag-nabbit. I was already at Kroger before I realized this, and by the time I went back to the ATM, there was a line of cars there, and no ATM card. I had the bank's 800 number, so I called to void the card right away, and they're going to ship me a new one in a few days.

So, minor fuck-up, minor repercussions. However, it did screw up my schedule for the night, and I was too tired to make dinner, and we ordered in pizza instead. I can't believe I did that! In something like 13 years of having an ATM card, that is the first time I've ever lost one.

When I have a bunch of things on my schedule, I need to be more mindful of what I'm doing AT THAT TIME instead of focusing on the next step. I'm really with the Buddhists on the whole "being present in the moment" thing in theory, but not so good in practice.

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

It's been slow at work, and I've been using the down-time to read more on-line. I've found some sites, including "Project Gutenburg" where you can read entire books (mostly older books with expired copyrights) for free. I started by reading "Heart of Darkness" on-line over two days between little spurts of working.

Today, I'm reading what might be one of the earliest time management books ever published, "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" by Arnold Bennett. He starts with the premise that most of us feel that we barely have enough time to take care of business as usual, but that most of us feel we'd like more time to accomplish something beyond the routine of life. He reminds his readers of the obvious fact that we're never going to "have more time" sometime in the future, so we need to make the most of the 24 hours each day we're all given.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2274

Despite some of the information being *very* British and quite out-dated, a lot of the advice is sound. Here's a passage I particularly like:

"Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your own.

"A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure. Most people who are ruined are ruined by attempting too much. Therefore, in setting out on the immense enterprise of living fully and comfortably within the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let us avoid at any cost the risk of an early failure. I will not agree that, in this business at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a petty success. I am all for the petty success. A glorious failure leads to nothing; a petty success may lead to a success that is not petty."