Tuesday morning. Got that? Was I clear enough? :)
Tuesday morning long enough after the Sunday sale paper to make a complete grocery list.
But it's soon enough after the start of the week that I haven't run out of milk or bread. It's early enough in the day that clearance meat is available and not picked over. Since I arrive right at store opening, there is no crowd. And the cashiers are still pleasant and not exhausted yet.
Most of all, my OCD forces me to do my grocery shopping every week without fail. Tuesday morning is grocery time.
Except that, this time of year, it isn't.
My husband, once a year for a period of two to three months, works a crazy schedule at work. During that time, I have to adjust my schedule. We live outside of the city where he works and the kids attend school. We had to swap carpool schedules, so for a bit, I'll be going to the grocery store in the afternoon instead of the morning. Sometimes, I won't even be able to go on Tuesdays!
This minor change would not stress a normal person out.
But I am not normal. I make the plan, write it in my planner, and follow the plan.
If I say I'll be there at 6 p.m., I will be there at 6 p.m. If I say I am cleaning the bathroom, I am cleaning the bathroom. If I promise you the project by Friday, you will receive the project by Friday. I don't run out of milk.
But when the plan has to change, I have to remind my Type A that my Type B is something worth striving for.
Etcetera.
4 comments:
For all my planning efforts, I value the ability to turn on a dime to handle the immediate need or changed priority. I plan my days carefully and block off time slots to get things done, but I also leave a large chunk of time for overflow/unanticipated stuff. If I get called into an emergency meeting or if someone needs to go to court tomorrow and is unprepared, I can handle the emergency and still get done what I was planning to because I built in that overflow time. I'm writing a post on this to be published on Janet Carr's blog soon.
Wow, this is like reading a post in my own mind. Especially where groceries are concerned. I do my shopping early Saturday morning. First thing. I want to get it out of the way so that I can enjoy my weekend, but even more, I want to avoid the crowds. And while my timeframe varies from week to week, depending on what other errands I have to do, if I don't make the grocery store by 10 or 11 am, I get stressed. After 11 am everyone comes out of the woodwork and I have to work around other people and their carts. My main goal is to get in, get my stuff, and get out before it becomes a struggle.
I, too, need to learn to roll with the punches if my trip doesn't work out exactly as planned.
"I make the plan, write it in my planner, and follow the plan." - that is just sheer poetry.
Have you ever tried planned surprises? - where you make a plan and you schedule a period of time in the middle where anything could happen?
I write a load of different things from my task list and maybe some fun stuff as well on paper and pull one out of a hat.
If I am really stressed and or bored I do that.
The rules are:
1) You HAVE TO stop whatever you were doing even if you were in the flow
2) You have to go and do the unplanned thing no matter the consequences
3) You have to accept that you have no choice and it doesn't matter that your plan is messed up
It totally messes with your schedule and your plan (especially if the unplanned thing turns out to be a really big task). But it can be really liberating.
I have just recently found your blog and have been going back and reading some of your posts. This post reminds me totally of myself as my grocery day is also Tuesday. I am retired and, on Tuesday, Shop Rite offers a 5% senior discount. I am at that store the minute they open EVERY Tuesday. I am so OCD, that I was even called to Jury Duty about a year ago and, of course, it was on a Tuesday. I was able to reschedule to a different day so that I could do my grocery shopping and get my senior discount. How OCD is that. Ha Ha Ha!
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