Every Pro Has a Con.

April 24, 2007 – 4:07 pm |

My silence of late should not be interpreted as lost interest in blogging or, quite assuredly, lack of material about which I’d like to pontificate. My failure to post here is not even due to my lack of organizational skills.  Quite the contrary, in fact.  Recently, I got organized; and when I did, I lost time.

After the tragedy of Crabby Patty the VIK, I went in search of a good system with which I could organize my life: my calendar, my husband’s calendar, the kids’ calendars, the various to-do list items I have for work projects, home projects, etc.  I discovered Google’s Personalized Homepage. 

I set up separate, but linked, Google Calendars for my events, my husband’s events, and the kids’ activities, and I put the calendar on the homepage. I placed links to all my favorite blogs.   Finally, I popped on a Google Gadget To-Do List.  I put all the tasks I’ve been long failing to accomplish on the list, and I congratulated myself on my new foolproof system of life structure.  

With this new orderly method of planning - with my calendar, my links and my list of tasks now accessible from any computer - I was certain my life would be linear, logical and organized.  “Now,” I thought, “I can really start getting things done.”

It’s been a couple weeks, and I have discovered some unfortunate glitches in the system.  I’m not sure whether I can blame Google, but I’m hoping I can find a solution to the system errors. 

For example, “post on my blog”, (much like all the tasks I do primarily for myself and thus instinctually label with Google’s ‘low priority’ tag), seems to sink quickly to the bottom of my new Google Gadget List.  It gets continually stomped down as those irritatingly snooty ‘high’ and ‘medium’ priority administrative tasks elbow their way to the top.  Just when I can ceremoniously delete the “make dentist appointment” item that has needed attention for at least two or more dental seasons, I have to add a somewhat urgent “take limping dog to vet.”  Just when I can cross off “grade papers,” I have to add “return several student inquiries about extra credit.” 

Sometimes blogs I really like to read just stop updating or disappear altogether, and it’s rather unsettling.   When I’ve been tuning in to read a blog, I’m prone to worry.  Where’s Mombat – is she ok, did something happen, did she give up blogging or go on to blog somewhere else?  Did the News Moms get sent away to cover a story and never return? Were the Urban Mommies abducted due to rising crime rates in their big cities?  “Where have all these great blogging mothers gone?” I wondered.

Now I have a potential theory: their lives, lives they describe with labels like ”working mothers in the big city” simply come with so many to-do list items that they have to turn several pages to even find “post on my blog.”