Rethink Processes

I was talking to someone I work with yesterday about how difficult it is for them to make meals, not that they didn't have time but that when they finished making them they didn't want to eat them right away, instead they wanted to rest afterwards for a few hours. This got me thinking about how we all have processes and everyone seems to adopt them in the same way that they observed someone else do them. For the most part you can see what works for someone and see if it works for you, but what happens if it doesn't? Do you give up the good thing you could have if you did this process or do you force yourself to do it anyway? The problem with forcing yourself is that you won't really enjoy it and if you give up the good things how will you change? I thought about the problem that was presented to me and gave the coworked a different perspective on it.

What I asked was why dinner had to be prepared before dinner time. I mean, if you eat very late which we all know isn't very good for you because you're spending the time making the meal, is it really worth it? Probably not, you might be negating the benefits of the good food by eating it at a time that your body would rather be settling down for bed. So my suggestion was this: make the meals in advance. Use a slow cooker and have the food cooking while you're at work and in order to save yourself from having to get up so early to prepare it, do all the preparations after you have eaten dinner. That way instead of making dinner before eating you're making it afterwards for the next day which will help you to eat earlier instead of later. This works for other things as well, just because it is normally done one way by most people doesn't mean that's the way you have to do it.

I look at recipes as more a basic set of instructions to be loosely followed. With that kind of mindset I can go from making what it says to creating what I would rather have. I often do this with soups and casseroles because I don't have everything they ask for and normally they turn out pretty good with the changes I make. Some of the processes I change aren't always for the better either, at least not for everyone, but they work better for me and makes it more of my own so that I can actually remember it. I often did this in math class when I was in school, skipping steps or doing two parts of it at once. I did this because I saw it as redundant and it drove my teachers crazy, they would always ask how I got there and tell me to show my work, which I would point out I did but I just cut out the extra steps (and my answer was right, so did it really matter that I did it their way?). There are many processes we follow in life, some are good as they are but others can be changed to accomodate your own lifestyle. Perhaps there is a time that works better for you to do something, it may not be normal, but if it works and doesn't disturb other people's processes I would say go for it, take that task and make it your own.