The last leg of my summer reorganization is about scheduling time so I get the most important things done. I don’t want to be a slave to a to-do list, yet there are things I want to accomplish in life. Importantly, these are my book A Working Life, reducing the number of possessions, and helping friends and family as best I am able. I also want to do something to support the election of progressives to the federal and state governments.

Maintaining a healthy life is on the list and that includes exercise, nutrition, keeping the house maintained, personal finances, and being self-reliant for as long as I can. All of this is a lot. I created a simple structure to get things done during the rest of this year.

From waking until 7 a.m., I have an early morning routine. It includes measurements (blood pressure and weight), personal grooming, exercise, reading, writing a blog post, managing photos, reading the newspaper and substack, tracking online orders, and running a computer maintenance program. Coffee and breakfast are in there, as are 30 minutes of fast walking on the state park trail.

The first work block, from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m., is for writing. This is where editing my autobiography will fall. I may harvest things in the garden that can’t wait, bringing them to the kitchen for later processing. The focus is on big project writing, differentiated from blogging which falls in my morning routine. On Saturdays and Sundays, I plan to set this writing aside and work on other things.

At 11 a.m., I will take stock of the day’s news developments and have something to eat. A comedian once differentiated between “fixing food” and “cooking food,” and this meal is one I fix. If there is leftover coffee, I might make a quart of iced coffee with oat milk and a spoon full of sugar. Leftovers are a likely luncheon option.

Next begins a daily, undefined work block that runs until 3 p.m. This is where I must advance the dozens of projects on my to-do list. How these tasks get prioritized is not yet well defined, however, if I don’t make time for projects like home repairs, yard work, downsizing, shopping, politics, and laundry, they won’t get done. The first block will address how to prioritize. This block is equally important with the writing block.

In our household, I do most of the evening meal preparation, so around 3 p.m., my attention moves to the kitchen. If garden harvest is waiting, I clean and process it for short term storage. If I’ve been shopping, groceries are put away. With my spouse away for a couple of weeks, my meal preparation got a bit funky, yet I strive to cook food rather than merely assemble meals. Kitchen time is also a creative time.

After dinner, I plan light tasks like caring for the yard, organizing the garage, and working at the sorting table where I am going through possessions with the intent of downsizing. It is best to be outside at day’s end where I can breathe fresh air and get some last rays of sunlight before settling in for the evening.

This plan formalizes what I have been doing with my time already. The structure seems durable.