It’s never easy to keep Daily Life from interrupting or even consuming art and writing time. Last week, I wrote about making a game of troll smashing. This week, I offer a game-like tool for time management of mundane tasks.

One of the maxims Chris follows stringently and which is key to his productivity as an artist is: “Do the most important thing first.” Art and writing therefore take place in the morning. The order in which lesser tasks happen is left to fate, literally, by tossing a paper cube with a task stamped on each side, among them MAIL, FILE, CALL, LOG, SCRUB, DUST.

As you know by now, what works for Chris doesn’t always work for me. Yet I was immediately drawn to decision dice as a tool I could use. I both resist locked-in routines and freeze up when faced with many choices. This method was a way to push past my resistance—decision dice as “anti-freeze.” It also adds an element of surprise and I like novelty. So several years ago I asked Chris to make me a couple of my own.

Decision dice are great when you have a few tasks of equal importance that don’t need clear 1-2-3 prioritizing. Tasks that need to get done in a single afternoon, say, or over the course of one week. Chris uses them for bill paying, written correspondence, phone calls, cleaning and record keeping. I use mine for calendar updates, wallet organization, filing, napping, laundry and miscellaneous email.

Now that I’m one-third of the way through my first year of blogging and mastering Square Space and Instagram, I've added a low-tech skill to my battery of new techie skills like SEO keywords and hashtags. Attached you will find a decision maker of your own to click, print, label, cut, fold and toss.

Bon Chance!