1970s Shore Home

Structural Stuff

One of the things that came up during the shore house home inspection was some cracking along the foundation. Foundation cracks are not an unusual part of settling, but these were bigger than usual. About 3/8″ wide and running all the way through to the crawlspace under the house.

This crack could be nothing, or it could be bad news
This crack could be nothing, or it could be bad news

We called in a structural engineer to look at it and should hear back next week.

Additionally, some support beams under the house weren’t properly footed. These beams were clearly added later to mitigate some problems (not uncommon given how old the house is and how soft the ground is on the island) but they should have been set into poured concrete footings.

Water + wood + house = bad news long term
Water + wood + house = bad news long term

Lastly one of the joists is rotting. This is not surprising that the house isn’t properly vented underneath. It needs to be “sistered,” wherein they add new lumber on either side of the bad spot in order to shore it up.

Here’s the rotting support beam:

Bad news bears
Bad news bears

And here’s a diagram that shows what they do to fix it:

An illustration of some sistered joists
An illustration of some sistered joists

So yeah. While this stuff is a little terrifying now that I’ve written it all out, it’s not super uncommon for a home this old. Overall the structure is in good shape. When we get quotes back from the contractors we’ll approach the seller for a credit towards fixing this stuff. I’d probably be panicking right now except we’ve seen much, much worse.

Still, fingers crossed that everything comes back OK from the structural engineer!

New Construction Townhome

A Shore House in a Flood Zone

Let me start by saying that I never really wanted a beach house. I’ve been in enough hurricanes that the idea of owning property near the beach is more terrifying than alluring. Super Storm Sandy ravaged the New Jersey coast in 2013, bringing flood waters near or above what FEMA defines as the “100 year flood” level. While many businesses have bounced back, condemned houses and drawn-out reconstruction efforts still dot the neighborhoods along the Jersey shore.

So naturally, that’s where we’re buying a vacation house.

Our family vacations at the Jersey shore each summer and as we’ve grown the sleeping arrangements have become increasingly cramped. On weekends we pile six adults, two toddlers, and two dogs into my father-in-law’s 1,000 square foot house. When the next door neighbor’s house came on the market last year we joked about buying. The longer it sat on the market the more we eyed it up. In January the sellers dropped the price considerably, and we decided it was time to think about it more seriously.

Our Maybe House
Won’t You Be My Neighbor

 

The house got through Sandy mostly unscathed, and after checking it out we decided to put in an offer. We had the inspection this week and while there’s some stuff we need to follow up on, nothing was too horrible. That said, it’s a 40 year old house. It has a bunch of stuff that’s at the end of its lifespan, including the roof. But it’s all in decent shape right now, so we can spread the costs out over the next few years.

The flood risk is a non-trivial consideration in all of this. The house is built below “base flood elevation” or BFE. BFE is the “hundred year flood” level, or the expected flood level in the “one percent chance” flood. I don’t really like the term “hundred year flood” because it falsely implies that such a flood only happens every hundred years or so. But the distribution is not necessarily even. Every year there’s a 1% chance of such a flood, regardless of what happened the year before. This means that over a 30 year period (the length of most mortgages) there’s about a 26% chance of having a “hundred year flood.” Never mind any effects climate change might have on flood / sea levels. But I digress.

I mean, it's not the worst.
I mean, it’s not the worst.

One thing I am VERY excited about with the house is the chance to put in a new kitchen. The one that’s there now is original to the house, and it’s pretty sad. A fresh coat of paint made it look tolerable for the real estate photos, but in person it is a very tired kitchen. IKEA just released a new line of cabinets sooooooooo… yeah. This is happening. I’m going to DIY as much as I can, like assembling the cabinets and putting down a wood floor, and hire professionals for things like the electrical (duh) and maybe painting (I fucking hate painting).

This is the direction I'm heading in
This is the direction I’m heading in

At this point we’re getting a few more estimates from contractors. There’s some foundation cracking that could be nothing or could be significant and we need to find out which (and get a credit from the seller if it needs fixing). I’m filling up a Pinterest board with kitchen photos, and doing boring things like getting insurance quotes, but other than that we’re just waiting for closing. If all goes to plan we’ll get the keys in mid March, get contractors in there this spring to fix the big stuff, and maaaaaaaaaaaybe have the kitchen done by summer. Maybe. We’ll see.

Crafting

Toddler shirts as far as the eye can see

Last month I decided it was finally time to learn to use the serger I’ve been borrowing from a friend. Toddler shirts are a great starting point because they’re simple, cheap, and still have a few challenging elements.

I made all of these these using the Titchy Threads Rowan Tee pattern, which can be purchased online and printed on a home printer. The pattern includes a bunch of different sleeve and neckline options that you can mix and match.

The first one I did, below, I used my normal sewing machine and a zigzag stitch. It came out great.

This is her "Cheese" face
Shirt #1, long sleeve with shoulder stripe. This is her “Cheese” face

Next was a short sleeved shirt with stripes. I tried to match up the stripes at the shoulder but completely misunderstood how the sleeves attached. So they don’t line up after all. Oh well.

Rowan tee sewn by Kellbot
Tee shirt #2, this time with short sleeves and no shoulder stripe

The third one I made from a thrifted shirt. While serging the sleeve to the body, I managed to bunch up the fabric and some of the body fabric got caught in the knife. It’s not super noticeable, but still frustrating.

Shirt #3 from a thrifted adult tee. I didn't even attempt to line up the pattern.
Shirt #3 from a thrifted adult tee. I didn’t even attempt to line up the pattern.

My final shirt was a hooded long sleeve with a kangaroo pouch. The shirt itself went great, but I had a lot of trouble sewing the curves of the hood. It shifted around and came out off center. Next time I’ll baste it in place first.

Shirt #4 with the hood up
Shirt #4 with the hood up

I’m really glad I took the time to get used to the serger. The knife was super intimidating at first, and I still leave it down sometimes, but I love not having to trim my seams afterwards. I even started using the serger to finish the seam allowance of stuff I do on my sewing machine. The toddler loves  her new shirts so I’m sure I’ll be making a bunch more soon.

Crafting

Stash Knitdown 2015

Depending on who you ask I either have a lot of yarn, or a totally reasonable amount of yarn. I have enough yarn to take up 6 “cubes” of an Ikea Expedit bookshelf. Like many knitters I have been slowly accumulating yarn over the years and it’s time to work on actually knitting what’s in my collection instead of buying more every time I see a pattern I like.2014-04-26 13.34.38

For 2015 I’m following “one in two out” meaning I have to knit TWO balls of yarn for each ball I buy. This goal has a nice bonus of getting me started early on my Christmas knitting. The downside is I can’t share many pictures of the stuff I’m making. I’ll use this post to keep track of my progress throughout the year. I’m hoping to use up 50 balls of yarn from my stash!

Progress: 50 of 50 balls used up, 12 skeins given away, 30 skeins purchased.

Completed projects:

2014-01-11 14.50.37
Christmas Present #1. This yarn was leftover from a hat I made for Chris in 2013. I used up one complete ball and about half of the 2nd. 1 ball used
Christmas Present #2. I got this yarn in high school. I am 30. It's time to use it. I've got two balls of it and I've picked a pattern that will hopefully use them both.
Christmas Present #2. I got this yarn in high school. I am 30. It’s time to use it. I’ve got two balls of it and I’ve picked a pattern that will hopefully use them both. 3 balls used
Christmas Present #3: 4 balls used up.
Winter Hat:  New yarn purchase! 4 balls used up.
z
Machine Knit Gloves. The blue was a random ball in my stash, and the grey was something I got for another since-abandoned project. 1 ball used.
Christmas Project #3. This is a super ambitious colorwork project. 3
Christmas Project #3. I got a bunch of this yarn in different colors for colorwork. 1 ball used.
No photo yet: Christmas Project #4 I don't have a photo of the yarn, it's yarn that I reclaimed from a thrift store sweater.  4 balls used so far.
Ripple scarf. Reclaimed yarn from another project. 4 balls used.
Christmas Project #5. 1 ball used.
Dish Towel. Some dish cotton that I don’t think I ever actually had plans for. 1 ball used.
Coin purses. I've had this ball of ribbon yarn I never knew what to do with and finally settled on coin purses. 1 ball used.
Coin purses. I’ve had this ball of ribbon yarn I never knew what to do with and finally settled on coin purses. 1 ball used.
Cardigan for Leona
Cardigan for Leona. Matches one I made myself a couple years ago. 2 balls used.
Clapotis Shawl. This is literally one of the most popular patterns in the world. 1 ball.
Clapotis Shawl. This is literally one of the most popular patterns in the world. 1 ball.

No photo yet: Cotton Throw
I’d meant to use this yarn for a dress before realizing that worsted weight cotton is a terrible choice for a garment. 15 used.

Cable knit sweater for my nephew. 1 ball used.
Cable knit sweater for my nephew. 2 balls used.

No photo yet: Magz Bias Scarf. 1 ball used.

No photo yet: Christening Dress. 2 balls used.

In progress projects:

Ripple bedspread. Leona is due to upgrade from a crib to a bed, and I plan to make her this to celebrate. 5 used so far

2015-08-23 21.58.24
Pom Poms. It turns out making pom poms is an excellent preschooler activity. I used up some odds n’ ends!   5 balls used so far.
Family, Personal

What I learned seeing Walt Disney World in a wheelchair

My 10k run at Disney World went really well. Unfortunately the run + all the walking after really aggravated my plantar fasciitis and I ended up unable to walk well by the last two days of the trip. I rented a wheelchair from the parks ($10/day) and learned the following:

  • Disney wheelchairs are not in great shape. The second one we got was OK but the first one veered so heavily to the left that it was nearly impossible for me to push straight by myself.
  • Disney wheelchairs are not designed to be powered by the occupant. Yes, they have those big wheels so you can in theory wheel yourself around. In practice this is nearly impossible for more than a few feet. First, the chairs are entirely too wide. I felt like a gorilla reaching out for the wheels. Second, the handlebars in the back (so someone can push you) get in the way of anything resembling a smooth motion.
  • Having to rely on someone else to push you around is frustrating no matter how much you love them and how awesome they are.
  • If you try to push yourself and can’t keep up with a walking pace, people will give you annoyed looks for being in their way
  • It’s nice having a drink holder if you’re going Around the World at Epcot

None of this was even remotely surprising to me as I have heard it all before from friends with disabilities, but it was still interesting/aggravating to experience first hand. I was reminded of an article I read last year called “how to illustrate wheelchairs.” It explains that the chairs you see in the hospital, and Disney World, aren’t the sort of things anyone would use regularly to get around.

Something like this is more what I would have wanted to use, but obviously that’s not what the average Disney wheelchair renter wants. I was curious if any of the off-site rental companies offered something a little more maneuverable. While some of them offered narrower chairs, they were all hospital-style.

It looks like the popular option for most people who want independence is an ECV (aka scooter). The expense and size of those made them pretty unappealing to me – getting one from park to park on the buses is routine but it takes a little while to secure/unload. It would have been a lot to deal with while travelling with a toddler.  They also just seem a lot less nimble than a chair. I could spin around in place in the wheelchair, which is handy when you’re watching your kid zoom around a playground.

There’s so much walking necessary in Disney World that even minor mobility obstacles can become big ones. Now that I’m home I’m getting around just fine – as long as I stay off my foot most of the day it doesn’t bother me. But at Disney I was on my feet 8-10 hours per day and it hurt. I’m guessing there are a significant number of people who decide mid-trip that they can’t deal with the walking anymore.

Lastly: no I did not get to go to the front of lines (nor did I ask to). Aside from the fact that I was absolutely capable of waiting in line like everyone else, Disney has recently(ish) changed their policies due to rampant abuse. Now instead of going to the front of a line Disability Access Service Card holders get a fastpass-like service allowing them to pass their wait time somewhere more comfortable.

Exercise, Hacking

Disney Marathon Weekend Corral Analysis

This is my third set of race stats from the 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. If you find this interesting you might want to see my scatter plots of all finishers and histograms of finishing times.

Thanks to some help from my friend Will and someone on StackOverflow I’m finally able to run stats by corral.

Let’s start with the Half Marathon and Full Marathon. Those had the same number of corrals (16) whereas the 10K only had 6.

I started by calculating the median finishing time per corral. I was surprised to see that the last corral had a slightly faster median than the one before it. I suspect that this is because people without a previous qualifying time were put in the last corral, so folks who are more serious runners who are running their first Half Marathon might have been stuck back there. There was also a huge group of A runners who came in dead last, I expect these were course sweepers or other specifically paced volunteers.

Pace is in minutes per mile.

Half Marathon Full Marathon
Corral Median Time Pace # Runners Median Time Pace # Runners
A 1:42:26 7:49 508 3:38:53 8:21 519
B 1:47:07 8:11 336 3:41:49 8:27 373
C 1:56:18 8:52 656 3:58:14 9:05 704
D 2:02:47 9:22 722 4:10:45 9:34 758
E 2:06:45 9:40 755 4:24:55 10:06 767
F 2:15:03 10:18 1148 4:39:07 10:39 1138
G 2:19:49 10:40 1217 4:46:08 10:55 1223
H 2:28:57 11:22 1244 5:04:03 11:36 1172
I 2:36:08 11:55 1583 5:17:01 12:06 1518
J 2:44:10 12:31 1770 5:33:52 12:44 1737
K 2:53:51 13:16 1743 5:50:05 13:21 1613
L 3:02:28 13:55 1952 6:09:21 14:05 1948
M 3:06:32 14:14 1679 6:22:16 14:35 1509
N 3:11:19 14:36 2064 6:40:29 15:17 1704
O 3:13:17 14:45 1942 6:31:38 14:56 1440
P 2:54:27 13:19 2781 5:46:36 13:13 1864

I thought it was interesting how close the median pace for each corral, despite the full marathon being twice as long. This poorly labeled graph shows the median pace for each heat. The heats have numbers instead of letters because I am not good at matplotlib.pyplot

halffullpace

 

Next we have a boxplot of finishing times grouped by heat.

Full Marathon finishing times by heat
Full Marathon finishing times by heat
Half marathon finishing times by heat
Half marathon finishing times by heat

From this we can see that there are quite a few runners in heats 0-9 (corrals A through I) who should have been in a slower heat. Those in the slowest 25% of each heat came in later than the median of the next slowest heat. The runners outside the caps are outliers, meaning the algorithm decided those runners statistically did not belong in that heat. Even if we ignore heat A, which has a bunch of pace teams in it, there are clearly a bunch of people who were a bit optimistic with their corral placement. Likewise we see folks in the back corrals who will hopefully get better placement next time.

I had a little trouble breaking the heats out on the 10K (not sure what’s up with 4 and 7, those shouldn’t be there) but you can get the general idea. Corrals ABCDEF are heats 0 1 2 3 5 6 8 respectively.

 

Ten K time by corral
Ten K time by corral

Looking at these graphs I can gauge whether my friends and family were in an appropriate corral or not.

Chris: in corral B/1 for the half, finished in 1:47. Seems spot on.
Kate: in corral J/9 for the half, finished in 2:33. Also looks right.
Lorena: in corral P/15 for the half as she didn’t have a prior qualifying time. Finished in 2:03. E would have been more appropriate.
Matt: in corral O for the full. Finished in 4:29. E or F would have been more appropriate.
Dustyn: in corral D for the 10k. Finished in 1:03. B  would have been more appropriate.
Me: In corral E for the 10k. Finished in 1:04. B would have been more appropriate.

So why does any of this even matter?

I believe strongly that running should be for everyone. I don’t really understand the people who run long distance race at a 16:00 pace, but it’s still an accomplishment. That said if you run for time it is extremely frustrating to get placed in a late corral and have to dodge walkers during the race. Likewise I’m sure it’s frustrating to have fast runners diving in front of you if you’re walking in the back of the pack. Appropriate corral placement is key to everyone enjoying themselves.

Based on this I suggest the following:

  • If you run for time, make sure you run a qualifying race (if needed) ahead of time so you can get into an appropriate corral. If your race lets you self-report your expected time, give yourself some credit. When I signed up for the race I was running at a 12 minute pace, but was closer to a 10 by the time I finished training.
  • If you don’t run for time, be honest. Don’t submit a time that puts you in the B corral if you have no intention of running that time.
  • If you’re a new runner and want to run a friendly race where you won’t come in dead last, run a Disney race. Even if you do come in dead last, you’ll have plenty of company.

Before I wrap this up I have one more graph to show: a comparison of the finishing times at the Disney 10K vs the Philly 10k. I ran both, and came in about 6 minutes faster in the Disney 10k. Philly is purple, Disney is blue, and the dots are me. There were a different number of runners in the two races so I scaled them to match. The x axis shows place/total*100, which may or may not be the same as a percentile I’m not sure. I don’t think it is.

Kelly_PhillyvsDisney

Conclusion: Disney races are slower than my local race. A time that puts you in the top 1/3rd at Disney has you in the bottom 1/3rd in Philly.

I’m about stats’d out, but the data is on github if anyone wants to play with it themselves. You’ll need to edit the scripts to work on your system, I just chucked them into git so they have file paths for my filesystem in them (and now you can all see that I run Windows).

Exercise, Hacking

Scatter Plots!

So my stats / python skills haven’t greatly improved in the last 48 hours, but I did manage to find some fun new ways of displaying the data I already have from the 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.

I’m trying to break up the racers into their heats (aka corrals) and while I’m having trouble doing that in a way that Python can “see” I found that a scatter plot makes it really obvious to the human eye what the corrals are.

On the X axis I graphed start time and on the Y I graphed net finishing time.

Here’s the Disney World 10k with its 6 corrals

tenk_scatter

The full and the half, each with 16

half_scatter
full_scatter

And by comparison, the Philly 10k which technically had corrals but didn’t make much effort to space them out

Philly_scatter

You’ll notice in the Disney races have the widest range of times in the first corral. Some of this is probably people overestimating themselves (particularly for the 10k which doesn’t verify qualifying times) but I believe a fair number of them are race volunteers / staff who are maintaining a particular pace to warn people who are about to be swept. From what I’ve read there are folks who place little warning flags on the mile markers to let people know they’re in danger of falling behind the required 16 minute pace.

Exercise, Hacking

Disney World Marathon Weekend Results Histograms

Four of my family members and three of my friends ran races during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend this past week(end). Three of us felt correctly placed in our starting corrals,  three of us felt the race was more of an obstacle course of slow-moving people. I started wondering about race stats and while I’m still sorting through them (and brushing off my rusty python skills) I did manage to come up with some fun histograms.

10kHistogram

First we have the 10k, which was my race. I finished in 1:03:58, or about 64 minutes. Since I haven’t figured out how to control the labels on my graphs they’re just listed in minutes. My time, which is not a particularly exciting time to most runners, is surprisingly early in the graph. There’s also an interesting jump at 90 minutes. Keep in mind these are net times, not clock times, so even folks who started late but ran fast should be competitive here.

Half_Histogram

Next is the half marathon. There’s an interesting drop at 3 hours. The pace cutoff for all the races was 16:00 (and wasn’t strongly enforced) which would be a 3:30 half marathon. I’m not sure what caused the huge drop at 3 hours.Full_histogramLast we have the full marathon – 26.2 miles. I’m actually surprised there isn’t a longer tail on this graph given how many folks were walking and otherwise going slowly. I’d love to compare the shape of the histogram to other more serious runs, but those don’t have such easy-to-scrape data so it may be a while.

I’ll post more on the stats process as I work on them, but it may be a while since I’m on vacation (woo!)

Edit: Here’s the histogram for the Philly 10k in September. It’s a very different shape (and was also a much smaller race)

south_philly10k

Cooking, Recipes

Goat Cheese and Spinach Quinoa in the rice cooker

We’re in that awkward stretch of time before vacation where you still need to eat but don’t want to buy any more groceries. I didn’t want to order in since we’ll be eating out so much on vacation, so I improvised from what was lying around the fridge. It came out pretty good!

I've heard that food photos look best in natural light. I'll let you know when I start cooking dinner during the day.
I’ve heard that food photos look best in natural light. I’ll let you know when I start cooking dinner during the day.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
4oz goat cheese
3 cups fresh spinach
2 tbsp chia seeds

Instructions:

Add quinoa, water, sage, basil, and salt to rice cooker and start. After about 10 minutes when it’s steaming thoroughly, or when the countdown timer says 10 minutes if you’ve got a digital rice cooker, add the goat cheese, spinach, and chia seeds. Let steam in the rice cooker another 10 minutes. Stir and serve.

For the record, my husband thought it was “bland” so you might want to add more seasonings. If anyone tries it let me know!

Business, New Construction Townhome, Organization

Time Management as an Art Project

For the past few months I’ve been waking up in a cold sweat freaking out about things I forgot to take care of. A lot of it is little, like forgetting to schedule a hair appointment until after they’ve closed for the day. Some of it is bigger, like the Kickstarter I did a few years ago that fizzled out (more on that in another post) and a few things are huge, like the fact that I completely bungled my corporate tax filings for the last 3 years.

With some nudging from my therapist and support from my husband I finally managed to get on top of things. My to-do list has gone from “deal with 3 years of back taxes” to more mundane stuff like “clean up the dried paint in the bathroom.” I used a handful of different strategies to gain control, which I’ll detail in a sec, but the biggest key to staying motivated has been to turn it into something like an art project.

Step 1: I wrote down everything I was putting off

AKA I made a to-do list, but with some very specific guidelines.

First, everything on the list had to be something I’d been putting off for a while. None of my normal daily/weekly chores got put on there. Although I hate going to the grocery store, hunger will eventually lead me there so I don’t need to put it on my list of terrible to-dos.

Second, if it was a big task (like “unfuck my accounting”) I wrote down only the first step in the process. Whatever was on the list had to be eminently doable (if sucky). So instead of unfuck my accounting I wrote call accountant. Luckily I had the name of a good accountant already. If I hadn’t, I would have written find an accountant.

And most importantly, I limited the list to what would fit on a post-it note. I’m not rattling off every task I could possibly hope to accomplish in the next month, just the stuff I really need to get around to.

Step 2: I dedicated an hour a day to working on my list

timerThis was my therapist’s idea and at first I balked. An hour? Where am I going to find an extra hour? And then I thought what do I even do in a day? Because I work from home, freelance, my work and my meta-work and my home life and my hobbies sometimes start to blend together. In order to find that extra hour I had to tease them apart and work more efficiently.

Once I committed myself to the hour I could no longer engage in productive procrastination to avoid my terrible tasks. I set a timer and sat down with my list. During the hour I only worked on things that appeared on that list. After a week the list was dwindling. Two weeks in I’ve cleared out everything on the original list – some of which had been there for years.

Step 3: I started logging what I was doing with Chronodex

This is where the wacky circle thing comes in.

chronodexcore

Chronodex was designed as a paper planner. The circle represents a clock, and each wedge is an hour. The different sizes of the wedges just make it easier to differentiate them. It’s meant for folks who primarily care about 9am to 9pm, as midnight to 9am are on the interior of the circle and 9pm to midnight are sort of ghosted around the exterior. If you shade in your various appointments and responsibilities you have a nice visualization of your day.

I have google calendar for appointments, but I use Chronodex to record what I’ve done in a day. Rather than print out an entire 6 months of dated pages I printed a bunch of blank Chronodex cores on sticker paper and slap one in my Moleskine notebook each day. This allows me the flexibility to take up more/less space as needed on any given day. I use different colored pens to shade in what I did: billable work, meta-work, family time, exercise, sleep, terrible to-do time.

ChronodexDay1
My first day’s Chronodex. I have since given up on logging the weather despite loving to draw clouds.

If you look through the gallery of how people use Chronodex, everyone uses it a little differently. There’s no right or wrong way to shade in the wedges, that’s where the art project comes in.

Once I started accounting for my time, some really important things happened. I started to feel better about myself because I was acknowledging the things I accomplished in a day. I started thinking about my time in 15 minute blocks which has helped me focus a lot on the task at hand. I am better at stopping myself from jumping between work, home, and play because I’ve internalized that I’m “in a work block” or “in a family block.” When I take a break I take a full 15 or 30 minute break instead of just shoving food in my face while sitting at my keyboard. My reward for being productive is that I get to shade in that time on my Chronodex afterwards.

Step 4: I started having time for chores

Now that I’ve been dedicating all this time to my terrible to-dos, I don’t actually need the full daily hour to do them anymore. It’s tempting to us that time for goofing off, but instead I’ve started adding some routine chores into my schedule. This is the stuff I should be doing but often don’t and then either a) it gets gross or b) my husband takes care of it and pretends not to secretly resent what a slob I am.

This is not the first time I have tackled chores with an overly complicated art project. Behold:

Oh yeah, I remember you now
Oh yeah, I remember you now

That project served me very well. It fell by the wayside when we moved and I had a bigger house with WAY MORE THINGS that needed doing. Also I reinstalled windows and no longer have a python environment handy to generate the pages.

The biggest problem I have with a pre-printed list of chores though is that it becomes your tyrant instead of a tool. If you fall behind you have this paper trail of failure plus the question of “do I just skip those chores or is my entire day now going to be nothing but cleaning?”

For this iteration I printed out a bunch of common chores onto some return address labels. Apparently you all have a boner for labels, because this was one of my most liked items on Facebook this week.

ChronodexLabels
If there is one thing you all love it is colorful labels.

I cut them into sets of 8 or so and keep a sheet of them alongside my to-do list in my notebook (which I use as a bookmark). When I do a chore, I put that sticker on the page. The colors mean nothing; I just like colorful things. This is basically a more boring version of what you might use for a 7 year old. The stickers behave sort of like a repeating to-do list. I limit these chores to things I can do in 15 minutes or less.

Step 5: Profit

Actually I think the only people profiting here are the label companies. But I sleep better at night now that I no longer have a list of years-old to-do items hanging over my head.

My biggest takeaway from this is that I do better with accountability than expectation. Which is to say, when I plan my chores or tasks for the week out in advance I never seem to live up to the standard I’m setting. But if I hold myself accountable to what I’ve accomplished each day – regardless of what it is – I can get a lot done.

I love the flexibility stickers offer me. I can skip a day or do something different tomorrow and it’s not this weird scar in my notebook. On weekends I don’t usually need to be such a taskmaster, so unless I’ve got a lot going on I don’t bother.

And most importantly, this works because I am highly motivated by charts and graphs. Seriously. I cleaned my office bathroom yesterday expressly so I could get a sticker. I focus on work instead of checking Facebook just so I can shade that 15 minute wedge in blue. If the idea of sitting down with a pack of multicolored pens doesn’t fill you with excited anticipation, this won’t help you at all.

Speaking of pens, these are my very favorite. They don’t bleed through the pages and make a nice smooth line.

Frequently Asked Questions

Doesn’t this take kind of a while?

Yes. I spend about 15 minutes a day updating my stupid Chronodex. But I consider it time well spent because I’m actually getting things done the rest of the day instead of checking Facebook 500 times.

What about free/leisure time?

I experimented with shading in those things too after the fact and it was just too much for my taste. I like the visual effect the space has when I don’t have a scheduled task.

Where can I learn more about Chronodex?

This lady wrote up a good blog post on it.

Can I have the files you used to make the stickers?

Yes.
Chronodex core sheet – full sheet sticker: PSD  PDF
Chore stickers – Avery 8167: PSD PDF