To plan, or not to plan?

Sometimes, just sometimes, before I start the day, or before I sleep, I would think about the day or the next day. What do I need to complete, what tasks bother my mind and what is it that I need to do to ease my mind or get rid of the little voices in my mind?

I realized, that on some days when I do plan my day, things get done and my energy throughout the day is in abundance, right from the start of the day until the end. Then, on days when I have no plans, on days when I wake up not knowing what I should be doing and end up not doing much, I would feel sluggish and unfulfilled. How very odd.

I have been staying home everyday the past few months due to the restrictions set by the authorities and going out was just too much effort and tiresome, mentally and physically. And being home everyday, I can’t help but feel that there is always so much to do around the house.

Everything I see, there is something that needs to be done. When I look at the floor, ooo it needs some sweeping or mopping. When I look at the kitchen, ooo there are things to wipe, to cut, to blend, to grind, to be stored in the fridge. When I look at the dirty laundry, ooo it is time to do laundry. When I sit down to type, I look at my table and oo it needs some wiping. Is that dust that I see? Gosh, it has only been a few days since I last wiped. It is never ending really.

On days that I planned my day, I would complete each chore like a robot. The mind doesn’t think, the hands and legs just move like they have been programmed to complete the chores. Once I was done with cleaning after breakfast, I would collect the dirty laundry and start the machine. While the machine runs, I would mop the floor of every room and space from the inside to the outside.

When the machine sings its melody to mark completion of the spinning cycle, it was time to hang the laundry out to the balcony to dry. Then, it would be time to stretch. Nowadays, line dancing became part of the plan. If you have not tried line dancing with weights, do give it a try. It is quite some workout.

When it comes down to this, when my days are planned with chores to be completed, my time will need to sacrifice some activities such as writing. The sad part is, on days that I decide to not to do any chore related stuffs, I would feel quite crap somehow, maybe because I did not sweat. I have a thing, when I do not start sweating from chores, I would not feel like stretching nor doing anything physical. Another “how very odd” moment.

There was a day, we watched some Irish flute music that appeared in our video feed. We love listening to music and Irish music has a special effect on us somehow. Somehow, video tutorials started popping into our feed too. Intrigued and excited, we dug out our old flutes and recorders from the cupboard to give it a try, playing and rewinding the videos a gazillion time. It was not easy at all but it was all fun to learn, even for the wee bit that we could get it right, which was nothing much really. Just the first few notes before the instructor sped up the finger movement. Interestingly, on that day, I didn’t plan the day, it was a spur of a moment thing but I didn’t feel crap.

Everyday, we would let videos in our feed run on our screen. Feeds are usually based on our previous search results and the things we watch most often during that time. After the Irish flute feed, we went on to discovering line dancing and we gave it a try, following the steps, which was just a random video of a street performance. A band was playing and people who were watching the band, started dancing in unison, with easy to follow steps that looked as though they were forming a square. Since then, we included line dancing into our daily or almost daily staying at home workout routine.

Once, out of the blue, I decided to go through my bookcase, scanning through every book that I bought but haven’t read. I have a collection of books on crafts which I bought, just because the photos look really pretty and I wanted to try the projects (but haven’t had the time or mood, more mood than time). But while sitting down in front of my bookcase, I saw dust and I went to take my piece of cloth to start wiping the books. Old habits die hard, don’t they? Once the books are wiped, the heart becomes happier.

At the end of the day, the question remains. To plan, or not to plan? I guess I can conclude that on some days, it is good to plan while on other days, it is better to let things flow and see where the day brings us. Whether I feel good at the end of the day or I feel the other way round, I shall let it be (let it be, let it be, let it be, Beatles’ tune in my head). C'est la vie!

Prompts from: https://writingexercises.co.uk/take-three-nouns.php

Time taken: 40 minutes using mobile phone timer