Snooze Button

[Radar tone] - “Water the blackberries” - SNOOZE.

Nine minutes later: 

[Radar tone] - “Water the blackberries” - SNOOZE.

I’m in the middle of something. But it’s getting hotter and hotter outside. The plants are wilting.

[Radar tone] - “Water the blackberries” - STOP.

That radar tone is...not annoying enough. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want the alarm to lose its power to attract my attention.

I love putting a plant into the earth--digging a hole, settling the plant inside, patting down the soil on top. I don’t enjoy watering the plant afterward. I’ll do it for a week, maybe. Two weeks is pushing it. Three weeks? Unless the plant is directly next to a spigot or I’m motivated by something beyond the plant itself (see: my husband’s birthday blackberry bushes), the poor thing is probably going to die.

This is representative of other parts of my life. I love organizing and planning. Maintenance and execution? Not so much. But I really do want to do most of the things I plan! Recently, I discovered a new technological aid for accomplishing a variety of life-maintenance tasks. I learned I could set and name multiple alarms on my phone and make them repeat on pretty much whatever schedule I wanted. 

Having a wake up alarm is not new, but now I also have several others, like this one: “9:30AM Water blackberries, Tue Thurs Sat.” I set alarms for personal development, such as “4:00PM, Check goals, every weekday.” I have an alarm for medication that’s due every evening in that sweet spot between dinner and bedtime, when it’s so easy to forget. 

I was once the kid who wouldn’t notice the class had gone to recess if I were reading a book. My powers of deep concentration atrophied over years as a parent, when I feared I would make a big mistake like forgetting my child at school pickup time if I got too immersed in work. Even though my nest is empty, many of the brain habits remain. Finally, with the oh-so-adjustable alarms on my phone, I feel free to lose myself in concentration again. If I have a webinar coming up or an appointment to keep, I can set an alarm and label it. When my alarm rings, the label gives me the context I need as I poke my head out of whatever rabbit hole I’ve gone down.

So, I know I’ve got to watch it with the snooze button. I need these alarms. Yes, they are tiny tyrants that I have to answer promptly if they are to remain useful. But they really give me freedom: the freedom to keep to the schedule I want for myself, the freedom to maintain things that really matter to me--like my husband’s birthday blackberry bushes.