Month: October 2018

What’s the first rule of Tiny Task Day (TTD)?

Don’t talk about TTD.  No, wait that’s the first rule of Fight Club.

Try again, what’s the first rule of TTD?

Get a kick ass partner. No, wait that’s Rule #7 of Zombieland.

The first rule of TTD is …make a list.

Handwritten lists are the best.

I love lists and handwritten lists the most.  I love writing lists and then crossing stuff off the list.

I digress – what is a tiny task?  Tiny tasks are things you need to do that take less than 15 or 20 minutes to complete.  A tiny task might contribute to a project or a much bigger task but it stands on its own.  Tiny tasks are non-recurring or recur at such irregular intervals that it’s hard to predict when or if they need to be done.

A daily, weekly or monthly task is ‘recurring’.  Unloading the dishwasher is a recurring task.  Putting the bins out for collection is a recurring task.  Cleaning the accumulated receipts, coffee cups, spare coats, empty water bottles and candy wrappers out of your car is a tiny task.  Only needs to be done once in a while, takes less than 20 minutes and is complete. So that’s clear now.

Every so often, I give myself a tiny task day.  It’s a great tool for productivity and breaking through the procrastination barrier.

A tiny task can have a level of annoyance and irritation disproportionate to the time needed to complete it. Talking to a call centre to say cancel a membership or subscription is a tiny task – you might go over the 20 minute limit – so lets say it SHOULD be a tiny task. Or going on line and engaging in a multiple step process is a tiny task.  But both of those can be mighty annoying. Any so our old friend procrastination crops up.  Even if it costs us money, we still procrastinate.

An example of a tiny task  I procrastinate – unsubscribing to Apple Music.  I am ambivalent about Apple Music.  I have subscribed and unsubscribed on average once a year for the last three years.  Yes, that’s since Apple Music was founded three years ago.  It’s easy to subscribe and annoying to unsubscribe.  I Google ‘how to unsubscribe from Apple Music’ and then follow the steps.

Tiny tasks are unlikely to have an externally imposed deadline.   If the tiny task is difficult or annoying or inconvenient a tiny task might go undone for months.  This brings us to the second rule of TTD – eat the frog for breakfast.  Mark Twain said,

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Do the thing you least want to do first and your day will improve.

Find a paper and pen, write your list,  figure out which tiny task is your personal live frog. Get on with your own tiny task day.

These muffins are the first recipe I made with my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook and they remain a favourite.  One of these muffins is the perfect breakfast for busy people.  The cookbook itself was a gift from my elder sister, Rachael.    It’s a gift that keeps giving and has given me and my family lots of joy.

This is a muffin recipe and it really is one of those that anyone can bake.  It’s full of fruit, vegetables and seeds as well as whole grains.  I’ve done the ingredients in metric (except for teaspoons and tablespoons). I have done the instructions in the order that I do them – not the order they are in the cookbook.

Ingredients

225 grams whole wheat flour

210 grams light or dark  brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

200 grams of carrots – grated

2 large tart apples – grated

85 grams  raisins

45 grams desiccated coconut

45 grams slivered almonds

60 grams sunflower seeds

3 eggs

130 mls corn oil

55 mls orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (or 170C fan).  Put paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.  Line a small (450 grams) loaf tin.  You might not need it, but I always do.  You’ll see why below.
2. Prep the dry ingredients.  Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a big bowl.
3. Prepare the carrots.  I don’t peel the carrots and I’m not precise about the amount.  I cut off the tops and bottoms, weight the carrots and err on the side of more carrots not less.   I use a small electric chopper (like this one from Amazon – I actually have 2).  The electric chopper is a great gadget and is priceless for people who use lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Chop the carrots small and throw them in a medium bowl.
4. Prepare the apples.  I use two big green Granny Smith apples.  I core them – like the carrots, I never peel them. Chop the apples into big chunks and then chop them small, like the carrots.  You don’t need to be too precise with the apples either and I always err on the side of more apples.   Put the apples in with the carrots.
5. Add the coconut, almonds, sunflower seeds and raisins to the bowl with the apples and carrots.  Stir it together and then add the contents to the dry ingredients.  Mix well using a big wooden spoon – DO NOT USE YOUR MIXER.
6. Beat the eggs in a separate medium bowl with a fork until they are well mixed.  Add the corn oil, orange juice and vanilla to the eggs.  Stir together and add it to the dry ingredients and the fruit vegetable and seed mixture.  Mix well with your wooden spoon!
7. Time to fill your muffin tins.  I use my trigger ice cream scoop (like this one on Amazon).  A generously filled scoop is perfect for a muffin cup.  Don’t overfill the muffin pan.  You may well have enough left over dough for a small loaf.
8. Bake the muffins for 23 to 25 minutes; the tops should look dry.  If you make a loaf as well, that needs to be baked for about 35 minutes at the same heat.
9. Take the muffins out of the oven, leave them in tin for about 5 minutes, then tip them out onto a cooling rack.   The muffins are sturdy; they travel well, they freeze well and kids love them.  The kids never notice the healthy bits.

Sturdy muffins that travel well.