Showing posts with label lifehack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifehack. Show all posts

Thursday, August 16, 2018

A much needed reminder ......

.... (especially for yours truly)


“Done is better than perfect.”


(a fun and helpful website, if you are curious.) 
below you will find 13 points to consider when working on a project .... 
  • There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
  • Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
  • There is no editing stage.
  • Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
  • Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
  • The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
  • Once you're done you can throw it away.
  • Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
  • People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
  • Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
  • Destruction is a variant of done.
  • If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
  • Done is the engine of more.

from 

This is a concept that I am continually struggling with but one that is very important to remember!
love, mom



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Thursday, June 1, 2017

day97: laugh in the face of perfection

virginiacreates ©2017 collage

    " Done is better than perfect "
    .... this idea is not an easy one for me, as my #100daysofmotherlove has demonstrated! I find many projects & ideas of mine will languish in the shadow of me wanting to get 'it' just right or perfect?!?! and there is a large part of me that has no problem aiming for perfection, but it can make turn around times quite lengthy. And when you take a larger view of a situation, getting it finished and into the world is better than having it stowed away in the recesses of your imagination. Also when it comes to assignments and research papers, there is usually a drop-dead due date, so it may behoove us all to get more comfortable with the idea of 'better done, than perfect.'
And to help ease us into this newer state of mind I discovered:
(a fun and helpful website, if you are curious.) below you will find 13 points to consider when working on a project .... 
  • There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
  • Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
  • There is no editing stage.
  • Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
  • Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
  • The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
  • Once you're done you can throw it away.
  • Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
  • People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
  • Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
  • Destruction is a variant of done.
  • If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
  • Done is the engine of more.
from 

I definitely have a lot of work to do in this area, so I am writing this as much for me as I am for you.  Try it out and tell me what you think, I would love to know what you think is realistic and what just sounds good.  

and as always ...
love, mom

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Sunday, February 12, 2017

day90: Laundry, life hacks


'laundry day ...' (2017) embroidery and collage on a teabag

My theory on housework is, 
if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, 
or block the refrigerator door, let it be. 
No one else cares. Why should you? 
Erma Bombeck


It may interest you to know that this whole idea/blog/book sprang from a thought that I may be sending you off into the world without some basic knowledge of everyday things, such as laundry, shopping and other mundane activities.  And as I am nearing the end of my allotted 100 days I figured that I should begin to share some of my personal wisdom to do with housekeeping (you can stop laughing now). Even though I tend to adhere to the philosophy of Erma Bombeck (Joe H. will confirm this), I do have some tricks of the trade that I wish to pass on to you.

Today's topic: laundry
  • first of all, if you can, dry your clothes outside, on a clothesline!!! especially sheets!! The sunshine and fresh air give clean laundry the best smell, ever!! When I stayed in Holland we didn't have a dryer and each and every load was hung outside to dry and I LOVED it!!
  • wash all the elements of a set of sheets together, this way they will fade,wear or change color, if washed with some errant colored item, all at the same time. 
  • when storing a set of sheets, put all the folded parts of a set into one of the pillowcases, this way the set stay together and is doesn't take up as much space in the drawer.
  • you can take the small remnants of a bar of soap and throw it in with a load of wash for a little extra cleaning power, and then you don't need to throw out the scrap of soap. (you know me, reuse, recycle whenever possible.)
  • If you are a hurry to dry something that you just washed, first just dry that item with a few other pieces of clothing, not the entire load.  and/or if you need it dried ASAP, put the wet item in with a clean dry towel, that will help the drying to go faster.
  • If you can, stay away from dryer sheets, they seem to cause more harm to the clothes than good and isn't does sound like they are really that good for us humans! You can now get dryer balls or I love the lavender pouches and even a tennis ball will help :)
  • and lastly, a quick review of the basics: 
  1. wash similar colors together and in COLD! Cold stops colors from running. And even though you have a load of white and colors that you want to wash, and you think that nothing should run and you want to put everything in together, remember your lighter colors and whites can/will get dingy, they will start to look grayish. 
  2. Try not to do small loads, it is a waste of energy. 
  3. use warm water with whites and if you want to you can use bleach, most washers have a specific place to pour the liquid bleach so that it will be even dispersed during the washing cycle.
  4. when doing hand washing you can use the rinse cycle on the washer to get it rung-out, the washer's spin cycle is way more superior than our attempts of wringing out the excess water.
  5. be careful, as certain items should NOT be dried, like bras, athletic-wear, certain sweaters or other items that can shrink.
  6. when drying a sweater, lay it out on a clean, dry towel, as hanging it up can make it stretch and get misshapen.  
Of course there are many, many things about doing laundry but these are a few that I wanted to pass along. 

I will end by sharing with you that I love laundromats :) 
When we lived in Brooklyn we didn't have a washer and dryer so on laundry day I would gather all the clothes, handfuls of quarters and a good book and head around the corner to the laundromat.  It was a wonderful and peaceful time, with the purring of the machines, the smell of fabric softener and the warmth of the dryers.  I would read or sketch but mostly I would people watch.  And then after my loads were washed, dried and folded I would stroll home very content, knowing that all my laundry was done.  
I never get that feeling when I do the laundry in the house.  Even though it is much more convenient to throw in a load here and a load there, I never feel as though I have ever finished doing the laundry. Just one of those funny things about your mama!!

Happy washing! 
love, mom


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