Monday, June 16, 2008

Jane’s Time Management Strategy: Just Say No to Cookies

For many years, I was the official “cookie baker” for my family’s holiday get-togethers. Chocolate chip cookies were my specialty, but I dabbled in sugar, chocolate, apple, creamy fillings, and other gourmet styles, too.

As the years passed, and I became busier at work, I grew less entranced with the prospect of baking dozens of cookies under enormous time constraints. In fact, to me, baking cookies for the holidays became a duty, not a pleasure. Then came the year when I was up past midnight completing the task. I was irritated and snappy. The next day, I grumbled to my husband that this had to stop. “I’m too busy to bake all these
cookies!” I complained. And, cleverly, I thought, I asked him to call my mother and tell her that I was no longer going to bake cookies. He declined.

The next year, as cookie-baking time approached, I girded myself, picked up the phone and said, “Ma, I’ve made a decision. I’m just too busy. This year, I’m not going to bake cookies. I’m going to buy them instead.”

I’d expected a long, sad silence, followed by, “All right, dear,” or some similar, kindly worded phrase that left me feeling inadequate and guilty. Instead, do you know what my mother said? “Sounds smart!”

And in that one flash of a moment, I learned an important lesson. I learned that what I’d perceived as an obligation had never, in fact, existed at all. My family thought I liked baking cookies. And I did! I just didn’t like having to bake them. I’d volunteered once, then a second time, then a third, until finally it became an expected part of family get-togethers. I could have stopped any time, but I didn’t think I could The sense that it was a non-negotiable duty was all in my own head.

I recall that story a lot when I’m struggling with time management issues. I really, really want to spend my time doing things I value—not doing things other people value—or doing things because I think other people value them—or doing things that have become part of a tradition simply because they’re been done in the past.

That’s pretty unconventional thinking, I know. Most people value traditions for their own sake. I don’t. I value traditions for the deeper meaning they convey to me at that moment in time. And those deeper meanings shift as my circumstances and needs change.

For instance, I used to decorate like a wild woman for every holiday. I don’t anymore. For Halloween, as an example, I used to suspend paper skeletons from the ceiling in front of windows, adding backlighting so they’d glow eerily as they fluttered. To say nothing of the spiders and cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns! Now I put a few mini-pumpkins on the fireplace mantle and call it a day.

Why the change? I liked my big-time decorations—a lot. It was fun to do and fun to live with. I don’t do it anymore because I don’t need the joy the decorations provided to fill a void and I’d rather spend my time doing other things.

During the period when I’d decorated every nook and cranny of my apartment, I was enduring a tough time in my life—my mother had died, my brother had died, my beloved cat had died, and I’d gotten divorced after a 20-year marriage—all within a year or so. Decorating provided joy during a joyless time.

Things are different now. I’m happily remarried and doing work I adore. For the moment, all is well in my world.

In the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, my protagonist, Josie Prescott, is an antiques appraiser who uses her knowledge of antiques to solve crimes.

Josie likes to cook. She uses the recipes her mother wrote out by hand in a leather bound book as she lay dying, part of her legacy to her beloved daughter. Josie likes it when the recipes take time. She doesn’t want to hurry when she cooks. To her, multiple steps and complex instructions mean that she gets to spend extra time with her mom.

That’s luxury! To be able to spend time as you choose.

All of Josie’s mom’s recipes are on my website: www.janecleland.net. (There are oodles of fun, free elements on the website in addition to the recipes, including several autographed book give-away drawings, an opportunity to pit your antiques appraisal skills against those of the experts in What’s It Worth? You Be the Judge, text and audio podcasts of excerpts, and book club discussion questions... and more. Sign up for the free newsletter, too!)

Time—we all have only so much of it. If you’re like me, you strive to spend it wisely, by your own definition of “wise.”

But if you bake cookies for the holidays, may I please have one?

Your thoughts? I’d welcome your comments.

Today's guest blogger, Jane K. Cleland, is the author of "Antiques To Die For." Visit her at www.janecleland.net

4 comments:

Camille Minichino said...

I like to think I'm supporting my local businesspeople when I order their lasagna and their cakes instead of making my own.
But it did take me a while to figure it out -- that it's the tradition of spending time together with family and friends that shouldn't be changed, not the menu!

Thanks for reminding us, Jane, and welcome to our site!

caryn said...

I am forever finding myself saying yes to something and later realizing that while I might have liked the idea in principle, in reality it is using way too much of my time. You know, the little volunteer projects that suddenly take on a life of their own? Or like Jane's cookie baking, something I've agreed to do once, but then somehow it becomes my "thing." Or something I was happy to do for awhile, but then my life or family situtation changes but guilt won't allow me to quit.

Terri Thayer said...

Welcome to the blog, Jane. Thanks for guesting.

I was the cookie baker, too. I had an epiphany similar to yours and said to my mother, "I've just realized I don't need to bring cookies in order to be liked." She said, "I realized I don't need to be liked."

I thought that was a great gift.

Betty Hechtman said...

The cookie baking story brought back memories. I remmember baking a 1000 cookies at Christmas. And like you, after awhile it became a chore rather than a joy. It was a relief when I gave it up and I noticed everyone surveyed without homemade cookies.

I did the Halloween thing too for awhile. We get over 200 trick or treaters and I noticed they came whether I hung up all the stuff or not.

However when it comes to people, I always have time.

And welcome to our blog, Jane