Some activities, no matter how much time you spend on them, just keep coming back. These include cleaning, ironing, washing up and watching the news. There’ll always be more tomorrow. If I can, I try to spend time, first, on activities that have a lasting impact, even in a small way. Better to be tired tidying the kitchen than too tired to start that project you care about. If possible, forget about news entirely. I have consistently found that when we’ve been out of touch traveling for some weeks, the world has carried on plenty well enough without me.

Unfortunately, you still have to do the others sometimes, just try not to let them push out the other things. As you can imagine, this leads to a delicate household balance.

Spend time on activities with long-term value first

The art of cooking leaving a sparkling, untouched, kitchen.

Ghost cooking

Head, thorax - with 6 legs or wings, abdomen and an exoskeleton and you have an insect. One of over a million species. As impressive as snowflakes.

Get my new weekly sketch in your inbox

Core insect anatomy