Of course, in years of being cold, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. One of my favorite is to wash my face (and hands) with hot water. At one point I identified that the reason I never wanted to wash my face at night in the winter is that I didn’t like splashing cold water on my face. But the sink gets hot water too! Same with washing my hands. No need to just tap the cold faucet (the default) if the hot one is available.

It was 38 degrees outside this morning. Sadly, this means I probably won’t be able to wear my summer flats and jeans much longer. My daughter and I were discussing this when I drove her to the bus stop the other morning. She had been eager for fall weather, but she clarified that she liked just a little coolness, not being cold. But I guess it was inevitable!

I’m not sure if I’ll get to a content round-up post later this week or not, so a few highlights: Over at Before Breakfast, I interviewed Cal Newport! I’ve been running a longer episode every Wednesday where I interview someone about their time management strategies. He really embraces October and has quite the display going on his lawn…Please give that episode a listen.

Over at Vanderhacks, the post behind the paywall this week is about “Planning fatigue is real” — but here are 7 ways to take a beat and get back on track. I also reminded people that “If others can, you can.” Other, normal people tend not to have access to some secret font of knowledge that isn’t accessible to everyone else. You can probably figure it out!

I did get to see some cover concepts this week for Tranquility by Tuesday, and it’s exciting to think about the book coming to fruition. The new (old) house is also nearing completion. I’m rounding into the final sections of War and Peace too. Time passes one way or another and with any big project when you keep making progress, eventually progress is made.

I’m singing in my church’s All Saints service on Sunday. One piece we’re singing is this lovely Jake Runestad number called Let My Love Be Heard. The middle section is…whoa. It will be something and it is good to sing with other people again. I missed it.

The weekend will be cold but the leaves are mostly still on the trees so we’ll be doing at least one fall walk. The kids are not huge fans of walks but…I don’t care. They can get off screens for an hour or two! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend planned.

Photo: Sleeping baby…which he should be more often. 

1. Watch an hour less of TV. Commit this week to watching only shows you love and absolutely nothing else.
2. Do one thing at a time. When you try to check email while writing an essay, it can take 15 minutes or more to get back into the swing of things. Multi-tasking eats hours. Focus until you finish and then move on.
3. Eat sandwiches for dinner. Or leftovers, or a frozen pizza, or eggs, or a quick salad. The point of family dinners is to be together, not channel Julia Child.
4. Run one less errand. You’ll survive without that extra light bulb for a few more days.
5. Lower your housekeeping standards. The house will just get dirty again, but you’ll never get that hour back. The laundry can wait another day or two.
6. Aim for good enough. The vast majority of our work doesn’t have to be done to perfection, it just has to be done.
7. Give things a home. Time spent hunting for shoes and cell phones isn’t helping anyone.
8. Realize you look great already. The difference between a 45-minute personal care routine and a 30-minute one is more than an hour per workweek.
9. If it’s possible, negotiate to work from home one day per week. Ditching the commute (and the suit) easily buys back an hour.
10. Practice saying “no.” When you don’t volunteer for something, that doesn’t mean that thing isn’t important. Indeed, it could be so important that you know you can’t give it the attention it deserves. Suggest someone who could.

How do you free up time in your schedule?

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