Friday's Top Five

RevGalBlogPals' Friday Five asked, "What are 5 things you do or things you have bought that have made your life simpler/easier to manage?" and as a bonus, "What's something you wish you could manage better?"

5) After reading earlier comments I'll jump on the bandwagon, and praise Google Calendars. I can access school, church and home (x4) and sync all of them to my phone. Updates on my laptop or on my phone show up in both places instantly. I could live without most smartphone features, but reliable access to our household's calendars preserves my sanity! Similarly online polls like Doodle for setting meeting times has put an end to round robin emails and phone calls trying to find agreement.

4) Facebook Groups, like RevGalBlogPal, but also ELCA Clergy, classmates on internship, classmates not on internship and various ministry cohorts help keep conversations focused on a common theme. Hootsuite helps me manage conversations on Twitter and follow threads and chats when I can.

3) My phone's Volume Button. No joke. Giving myself permission to turn my phone to silent and place it face down so I cannot see the pulsing green light that alerts me to messages and phone calls has helped me disconnect at important times, like family meals, sermon writing and face-to-face visits. My laptop's power button hasn't got as much use, but it's another important feature. Turn it off to play board games with my daughter, for meals, for sleep and at least one day a week, leave it off for the morning. The world is always there when I turn it back on.

2) A treadmill. I ran, I swam, I biked; I practiced yoga and rock-climbed. I like all of them in but I'm not a gym rat and I don't especially want a crowd around for workouts. 3 summers ago, we bought a used treadmill from a neighbor down the road and while I'm not walking across the state on the Mountain to Sea Trail anytime soon, I am walking a lot more often, and further, and faster, than I would if we didn't have it, and that keeps me healthier and more fit.

1) The number-one investment that keeps life manageable ends in a three-way tie between books, my knitting needles and my banjo. But regardless of which one really has my attention in the moment, the value they each hold is that they provide an outlet that isn't academic, theological, pastoral or professional.Whether I'm reading a mystery or a Mary Oliver poem, ripping out stitches (or better yet, adding rows) or picking a very slow Cripple Creek, the time reminds me to get out of my own corner of the world and look up and breathe.

Bonus: Making a really excellent pot of coffee? No, seriously, I can wear a lot of hats really well, juggle and move from one thing to the next and work effectively, a lot of the time. But I don't do a great job at remembering that I'm connected to the people around me, and more than that, I really love them and want the things that make them well and happy, whether that means I unplug and play a game of chess, watch a movie I might not pick, cheerfully talk on the telephone, or empty the dishwasher. So I'd like to get a little bit better at managing life less and living life more.

Just like Letterman, right?
Hope you thought of some of your own top five. Let me know what they are.