Planned routine - no change there!

Has your day fallen apart, because many of the familiar external nudges, needs and necessities have vanished from it? Do you envy people with dogs, who have to stick to a dog-walking routine, as their pet pays no attention to the coronavirus news and restrictions?

This is the era for the well-organised and highly motivated, the people who can plan and get on with things. I'm definitely one of that sort. But I'm no Girl Guide. Nor am I a home-makeover or gardening expert. There's a lot I don't feel confident about tackling, and so I shy away from it, or ask other people to do it for me, or (especially if it will cost a lot of money) just put it off indefinitely.

I concentrate on the smaller things one can set up as part of a regular routine, ensuring that tasks are done with the right frequency and in the right order. I use an app on my phone called Tasks To Do Pro. These were the tasks listed for today (Saturday). I'd just finished breakfast and was ready to tick some off.

So now you know what I do at home on Saturdays, at least down to watering my house plants. The things listed below that are the optional extras. I might do just a couple of them, and carry the rest forward, accomplished by selecting the tasks to be put off and altering their to-do date to 'tomorrow' or whenever the next opportunity will arise. Mañana has never been so easy. And I'm no toiling saint.

As you can see, priorities - or best order of performance - can be indicated by the colour of the bar on the left-hand edge. Tasks that have been started but not yet finished can be indicated with various symbols. For instance, I've still got to finish off some dusting and vacuuming. Many tasks are set up to repeat at regular intervals. Some are occasional one-offs, and rather than mark them 'done' I recycle them by resetting the date for the next time, or just setting no date. That saves typing in the task next time. I also set up task categories, to keep similar types of task together, and these follow the same category organisation I use for my documents and spreadsheets, and events in my calendar. 

With all this set up, I get a buzz as I whittle down my list for the day until all tasks are ticked off, or taken to a new date. 

This app-based approach is just the electronic version of a paper list, except that you control it with a finger-tap on the phone screen. And it remains clear and tidy, no matter how you switch tasks around to suit conditions and your other commitments. Psychologically, I find it gets me up and doing rather better than a tatty sheet of paper ever did. 

I can't help feeling that the routine I self-impose with this app gives strong structure to my day, despite all the changes in these abnormal times. Nothing gets forgotten. Everything still gets done. The outdoor tasks depend on the weather, but it's still dry and sunny, and so the gardening jobs will probably get done today. I'm guiltless if they don't, though. The app doesn't care if I say mañana yet again! But I won't lose sight of what will eventually have to be done. 

I've used electronic to-do lists since acquiring my first Palm organizer in 2000. So for the last twenty years, fifteen of those in retirement. The version on my phone is essentially the same as Palm's original To-Do app. All those apps have served me very well, and kicked me into getting on with things, and not to be so lazy.

And I can't help feeling that they will continue to serve me in years to come, and probably become vital as my memory for what comes next gets more dodgy than now. Unless some robot (like Kryten in Red Dwarf) is there to remind me, and make me laugh.