Those Long Neglected Jobs

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 40, 26 November 1938, Page 7

Those Long Neglected Jobs

TT is not so difficult for a mother to get her work done on time and even to get in a few extra jobs if she is clear and definite in her thinking about what she wants to do. A purpose arjd a plan lead to accomplishment. I have found it interesting to apply this idea during the last few weeks to different phases of, my work, especially to those parts that had seemed rather formidable or that I was inclined to neglect (says an ■ American woman writer).

There was the spring housecleaning, for instance, something that always looks like a big job. It would not be possible to crowd it all into a few days for my time was well filled already. I decided that two mornings a week would be all that could be devoted to it, but by knowing exactly what I wanted to accomplish on those mornings and by getting- off with a good early start each day—l have learned from experience that “the morning hour carries gold in its mouth”—the work was finished without any great difficulty.

, Even If It Took a Month. ' Then there was a typing job of some hundred pages. It had been long neglected, waiting for a more convenient time, a few free days. I decided to go at it at once. It was •forth doing. Then why not get it do';<» r Even if it took a month, and it might lor I could work on it an hour only occasionally, but that was better than putting it off any longer. By centering my attention on it and by planning to have the materials easily available when I did have a free hour, it was finished. A music teacher quite unknowingly gave an added incentive right along this line. We were talking about the possibility of my-seven-year-old boy taking music lessons when school opened in the fall. She said, “He has had a little start and if you would spend even five minutes a day with him all. summer giving him drill in recognising the notes, it would save many hours next fall. That little bit of drill day after day works wonders. It often can be given in the form of play, too,” she added, and went on to tell me more in detail how to go about it. The result is that we are spending a few minutes each day practicing reading the notes. But

Need For Purpose And A Plan

the idea has meant more to me than just' this practice. It has helped me to appreciate the importance of five-minute periods and the accomplishment that results when they are used with a definite purpose and a plan. i y Those Little Odd Jobs. Working with a purpose and a plan have helped surprisingly in clearing up those little odd jobs about the house that so easily are neglected. The bit of mending I had tucked away, the drawer in my desk that needed straightening, the letter I had put off writing. I listed a few of these illusive tasks, decided when to do them, and they were soon done.

After finding how much the idea helped me in my own work, I became interested in observing others to see if it might not be one secret of accomplishment on their part. We have a neighbour who, whether consciously or not, evidently has set before herself the art of being friendly to newcomers on our block. She carries flowers to them, calls on them and does other little things that so often are neglected because one’s thought is not definitely directed toward the doing.

A Hint From the Boys. It is not just from grown-ups that one learns. The boys in a family of my acquaintance have given me interesting and helpful illustrations. I have observed the direct way they go about their college studies, their outside jobs, and their hobbies. Their achievement is a joy to see.

I told a friend about these boys one day and how much I had learned from them of the value of having a purpose and a plan. “A purpose and a plan,” my friend repeated. “I never thought of wording it in just that way. It is a good idea.” And then she added, “Why don’t you put it in an article for other mothers?” Ever since she suggested it, that is what I have intended to do. But I found myself procrastinating until I realised that the article never would be written until I put into practice in the doing of it the very thing I was to write about and worked toward it with “a purpose and a plan.” So that is What I did and that is why you have it here.