Author: Ina Du Toit

Ina is made up of anxiety and a little bit of cold water. She is a 37-year-old daughter, sister, wife, mother and boss who wants to share her ways of getting on with life after losing her hearing partially. She enjoys writing, reading and cooking and is an avid planner and would like so share all these little bits with you.
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Timebox

 -Time management, time blocking and the death of my eight-hour workday

If you have followed these rambles for a while now, you will know that I am someone who:

  • Gets distracted easily
  • Struggles with a lot of things happening at once
  • Am super motivated every Monday and lose that spark by Tuesday afternoon
  • Can no longer work crazy hours because I apparently have a life, and because, honestly, I don’t want to

The Engineer and I had a discussion last night about how working from home (or living at work) has changed our mindset about the eight-hour workday. The difference is interesting. The Engineer enjoys the freedom of being able to move things around, get something done after dinner, work on the weekend. I on the other hand really struggle with feeling guilty towards my family because I am working and then feeling guilty about my work because I am … doing the washing. So while my time management is focused on the fact that I have limited time to do everything, he is focused on the fact that things can fit into a little box. I have also learnt in recent times that just because you work crazy hours, does not actually mean that you are more productive.

It is in fact, also bad for you. This study in the Washington Post states that “A growing number of studies are examining the link between long hours, health problems and productivity. And what they’re finding isn’t pretty.”

The Economist wrote a piece on how we should “get a life”.

Some even state that boasting about the long hours is a sign of failure.

We would never have worked from home had it not been for Lockdown2020. We would definitely not have had discussions about what mop to buy or fought about unpacking the dishwasher because we would never have been here during the day for these things to be on our radar. But here we are, a publisher armed with sticky notes and planners and an Engineer who has just been introduced to the term time blocking.

Type “time blocking” into Google and you will find an abundance of information. Type it into Pinterest, and you will find templates and designs and various individuals stating that it has changed their life. Over the past weekend, the Engineer bounced into the living room, armed with his phone, showing me that the app that his team uses at work has a time blocking functionality and how fantastic that is. I nodded and smiled but felt a little chuffed that he has a little understanding of my planning brain.

At the beginning of August 2020, I challenged myself to try it. I have read a lot about it and realised that the principle behind it is something that fits into my sticky noted, colour-coded way of thinking. At the time I also knew that anything that could give me more productivity during my day would be an improvement because this ship was sinking, and fast.

So I needed a plan. I have already been bullet journaling for a little more than a year, and I feel that I have worked out a little system there that works for me. Among other things I have learnt that I am without any doubt a paper-based creature and that I am okay with that.

Since I started with my planner, I have figured out that my day needs a double-page spread. So an ordinary day would look like this:

Boss lady worker ant things are on the left. On the right is the “home stuff”. So it has a personal to-do list, a space for physical things (I am a bit of a symptom checker because I believe that physical things trigger emotional things and vice versa). On the other half of that page is a column for all my annoyances, things that I love, things that I hate, little plans, general rambles (note how I limit my mind to only half a page!). I think that people who seriously journal will understand this section.

In short, the above method is what I have been using to get myself through the day. There is a lot of motivation in being able to colour a little box when something has been done. 

Towards the end of March I realised I relied a lot on my team’s work to be reminded of things. I thrive in an office environment because I can slot my tasks in with the others, but suddenly in isolation, I realised that I was forgetting things. Again I turned to my planner for assistance.

Added to the planner a weekly divider, that had tasks arranged by project and also a daily divider on which I could stick important things of that day. Daily work pages were then used to actually write down those things that were accomplished, yes, so that I can colour a box, but also so that I did not lose my mind.

Pretty soon, however, these would be updated on a Friday and then simply be moved from day to day with very little progress. So my action plan needed to be revised. I was introduced to the concept of time blocking a while back but thought it to be … well… a little overkill. I then looked at my small handwriting and my colour-coded sticky notes and realised that overkill would suit me just fine.

I started with scheduling the first hour of my workday, every day, to go through the email that has come in and jotted down my tasks. I then also go through every project (in our case mostly journal titles) and write down what needs to happen with those on that particular day). This list appears in no particular order on the work page of my planner. And then, yes, I schedule appointments with myself in Outlook. If the appointment has been set, the task gets a little block next to it in my planner and when it is finished I can colour that block. Currently, the day is broken up in 30-minute slots from 8 am to 4 pm and every half an hour is accounted for. If I finish something in 5 minutes I can go on to the next task. It does however really assist me in what I need to be focused on in that 30 minutes. I am also not distracted by other things that need to happen that day, because I know that I will be getting to it.

This has now worked fairly well for about two weeks. I have however realised today, that I am reinventing the process every morning. So in came the next phase. I have now created a simple laminated sheet. I can stick my tasks on there and move them around if things change… because they always do.

And yes, I know, there are a lot of fancy apps and programs that can do this for you electronically, but I still get a thrill from colouring that little box. There is a lot to be said for a sense of accomplishment, even if it is a small task. This also helps me pinpoint what I am avoiding.

So this lengthy ramble tries to depict how I am trying to fit my eight-hour workday into eight hours. It also helps with the guilt situation, because it shows that I have actually done things on a particular day and it allows me some free time to write about it, like now.

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Lamb shanks in the oven

The inspiration for this recipe was found here and the story of the happy accident can be read here and my version… below:

Ingredients:

2 huge lamb shanks (I see that all the recipes call for 6, but these could easily feed 6 people)

1 tin copped and peeled tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

1 tbsp crushed garlic

1 cinnamon stick

Garam Masala, enough to season the meat

Salt and pepper

1 beef stock cube dissolved in 250 ml water

Rind of one orange

200 g Turkish apricots

Method:

In a pan on the stove top, fry the onions until translucent

Ad the garlic and fry for another minute or two

Pour in the tomatoes

pour in the stock

Ad the orange rind and the apricots

Lightly stir until all the flavours have had some time to blend and heat up a little

Remove from stove

Pour this sauce in the casserole.

Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper and the garam masala and place them in your casserole on top of the sauce.

Cover your casserole and place in the oven @ 160 Degrees Celsius for about 3 hours. Mine was in for four.

Occasionally take it out of the oven and pour the sauce over the shanks again.

I served mine with couscous and a side of baby carrots.

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When the wrong thing is the perfect thing

The first wrong thing was a calculation problem…

Sometime during lockdown I sent the Engineer to the butchery. We support a local butcher who has always given us fantastic service. I make the list and he runs off on a hunting trip where he can do some inspiration shopping of his own, allowing him time to buy whatever looks good.

On his list are six lamb shanks. This is what the recipe calls for. When he arrives home he asks me about the weight and I pull up my shoulders. I have never done a thing with lamb shanks. He presents four to me… the size of a leg of lamb each. A well-fed lamb at that. I am not deterred. There will be leftovers, there will be sandwiches, we will love these lamb shanks. In the freezer, they go to appear on the menu a few days later. I leave them out to defrost overnight.

The Engineer who is also the chief braaier gets the night off as I start my preparations mid-afternoon. They need to be in the oven for four hours. Things need to be braised and coated and chopped. But, being bored and task less he ventures towards the kitchen where being an engineer he observes that my Agila casserole is too small for my cooking adventure. “No, they will fit if you stagger them.”, I announce pointing at the picture in the book where the food photographer did something fantastic in a casserole almost identical to mine.  So we stagger… they don’t fit. To such an extent that we can only fit two. At this point, I realise that this will however feed a party of ten adults. I have never been great at calculating I have always believed that there should just be more than enough.

Exactly 3 weeks later the other two lamb shanks make their appearance on the menu. Unknowingly a lot of the recipes that appealed to me the last two weeks were Moroccan, and this one sent me in search of Turkish apricots. A fantastic recipe (also called for six lamb shanks), which I ended up using as a suggestion only, because it turns out, that I could not find all the ingredients. My version can be found here.

The second wrong thing was a purchase…

Last week found me in the doctor’s office for an ear infection (not surprising, I know). So the kind gentleman prescribes ALL the pills, basically, the whole pharmacy, warning me that the one, although a very low dosage, may have some side effects. I drink everything as prescribed on Thursday evening. I fall asleep seated in the living room. That night I have very strange dreams and although the doctor has said to take things easy, I am working from home. So that personal life work-life is not really separate at this stage. Friday morning before 9 am I have cried my way through two packets of Kleenex. I have cried my contact lenses out. I have cried into my coffee and through a Skype meeting. I have cried over a casserole that I cannot afford. At 10 am I tell my colleagues that I am taking a sick day and put myself to bed… where I cry myself to sleep. At this point, I don’t know if it was the medication or if it was just me knowing about the medication, but Friday my body told me to remove myself from public society because I was making a fool of myself. By Friday afternoon I had read three different blogs where witty 20-somethings told me how to pull myself out of my funk. Listing peppy music and a manicure. But I got the gist of it. They were referring to self-care. Which is something that has fallen off the list the last couple of weeks.

On Saturday morning the Engineer fled the atmosphere and Kleenex with the Lilliputians for their music class and I shuffled my pajama-clad self to the bathroom. I was going to (insert drumroll here) shave my legs. I was going to pluck my eyebrows and I was going to put on a facemask that I had purchased accidentally. What I thought was a face wash (I blame the COVID mask that makes my glasses fog up during shopping), turned out to be a charcoal something or other that was good for … probably peppy 20-somethings.

I was then also going to blow dry my hair and even put in my contact lenses. I was going to wear something other than my owl slippers. I was going to make an effort even though I felt like being upright deserved applause.

So the accidental facemask was the perfect thing. It made me feel… well not 20 something, but at least like I had done something different. I have to however admit that after shaving my legs I no longer felt like blow-drying my hair, and settled for a cup of coffee in the sun rather, but this too was the perfect thing. The eyebrows only got plucked on Sunday, but at least I did put in my contact lenses.

So two happy accidents taught me a few things:

Lamb shanks come in different sizes

You don’t have to have all the ingredients to cook something delicious – I believe that (and I can’t believe that I am saying this), but maybe things do not have to be planned out perfectly to work out beautifully.

If you buy the wrong face wash, try it, it may surprise you. And even it is black goop it may be exactly what you need.

Airdrying your hair while sitting in the sun is much more rewarding than blowdrying them on your bed.

It is okay to take a moment for yourself, even if you feel that there are none.

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Fireside dinner menu # 1

This was the first planned menu during lockdown. The weather allows for, according to us anyway, year round braaing. I built the little menu in Canva and you should be able to click through to the recipe (where one was used).

Please do not be disappointed in the fact that I start this journey with you with leftovers. It just means that we cooked too much that weekend and had to think up something else. I love stirfry with a sweet n sour sauce, but with leftover night anything goes. My stirfry also always has a lot of vegetables and is cooked in an electric frying pan.

I should also disclose that I hate eating the same meal twice (which is probably why Fireside was hatched) and I also hate wasting food. So leftover night is usually a whole new meal anyway.

01_Dinner-menuDownload

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Fireside introduction

For the first time today, I am not planning out my post in my notebook and searching terms in my thesaurus… it’s going to be quick. Up to now, I have ever so often touched upon how I love cooking and menu planning and of course eating. When lockdown was initiated in March 2020 I realised that the days that are suddenly filled with all of the same things would need some form of celebration in the evenings, and so the plan was hatched to have a unique dinner every evening. Please do note that this was when I thought that lockdown would last a mere 21 days.

We are now on day 142 and I am pleased, and somewhat surprised, to announce that we have in fact had a unique meal every evening, even if it was only a different combination of things. I have logged each of these and thought that I would share my weekly menu’s with you, together with the links of where the recipes can be found.

I also have to warn you that the majority was prepared on the fire, because we are a family who enjoy unwinding outside at the end of the day. But many of these are recipes that can (and probably should) go into the oven, we just adapted them to be prepared outside.

Today, therefore, is the birthday of a new section on Tonotopics entitled Fireside (which I am not yet entirely in love with and may change). The plan is not yet clearcut, but I figured, I have done all this insane planning and cooking, I have made all the grocery lists, I have gained all the weight and drunk all the wine… I might as well preserve it here.

Please come to dinner… Here is the first menu.

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