More on the laptop story – and tired with no ticks

So to finish off the laptop story – I revisited the QPT triangle and opted for high quality, customer service and a higher price. The good news is that the supply/demand curve in technology is in favour of the customer at the moment – so our local Sony dealer was quite happy to sell me a new S-series Vaio (its so sexy) and agree that I can pay for it anytime in the next 12 months with no extra interest charge – I just deferred my payment to suit my cash flows and walked out of the shop with a splendid new piece of kit that will be used as a home-study centre. I should also mention that John in the Sony centre was fantastic at customer service – nothing too much trouble. Now on to “tired with no ticks”. I have been an avid list maker since 1980 – so much so that I’m one of those sad people who add things to the list that I have already done so that I can tick them off! In the 1980’s I began with a legal pad. Then evolved to use a Franklin Day-planner, complete with sumptuous leather binder. In the 90’s I became a techno-addict and found myself living in Microsoft Outlook, where I have been for maybe 10 years. Just recently I rediscovered the joys of writing with a smart, black Lamy fountain pen – I use it to scribble prose and poetry when the fancy takes me. I even more recently I regressed to the new Franklin legal pad sized project management lists and daily to-do sheets. I get a bit stir crazy with sitting in front of my Vaio all day – so making lists with my Lamy pen has been a rediscovered pleasure. Yesterday was one of those days where I started work at about 7.30am, finished at 7.00pm (by choice) and then realised that I hadn’t ticked a single task off my to-do list. Don’t you get some days like that? You never stop and yet you wonder what you did? I had to take a moment over dinner last night and just reflect upon what I had actually done – or else feelings of self-doubt would have crept in. I had done a lot – and resisted the temptation last night to write it all down so that I could tick the boxes. Today I’m on a tick mission – we shall see.