It's not the time that goes, it's the energy. it's a popular belief - myth - that time goes faster as you get older. The hazy, lazy days of endless summers that you lived through as a child just seemed long because you did so little that you had trouble filling all the time at your disposal and that's why the time seemed long. Now you have so much to do that time is too short. I don't think so! It's not time that is in short supply now, it's you.

There are lots of admonitions to help you get along. Don't work faster, work smarter. Do one thing at a time versus multi-task. Many hands make light work as opposed to too many cooks spoil the broth. If you want a thing well done, do it yourself, or, delegate! You choose. Above all, keep a list. Don't forget to seed the list with things you've already done. It will make you feel so much better if you can tick off more things that you have accomplished.

Yeah, well, there remains today to take care of. I have about nine hours, if I'm lucky, to perform a major job today. The thing is, I have to allow for nap-time. If you don't already know this, naps are very time-consuming.

Someone sent me a list of suggested new punctuation marks, cutesy made-up things we should all learn to make our communication more precise. It's supposed to be fun, but it's a lot to remember, and I suggest that vivid writing might be an adequate substitute for funny marks.

Several months ago, I outlawed exclamation marks in my writing, casual writing in letters to friends and my diary. I started by substituting underlines to emphasize what I used to attach to ! or maybe to !!! if I wanted to be emphatic. Shouting, of course, in computer language is achieved with CAPITAL LETTERS. I use them, too. I write my diary in longhand (cursive) writing and easily added caps. Also circles and balloons. The result is a very messy page, already messy with my increasingly illegible handwriting. Sometimes it looks a lot like cluster thinking, not a bad thing.

I actually tried to transfer the list of new marks, each with a description and an explanation of the need for it, but the marks didn't survive the trip and the explanations without them were lame. I think that one could achieve the required effect of each of the marks with effective writing. I remember some early writing exercises designed to encourage skill, fluency and accuracy.

"Without using your hands, describe an accordion."

When fitted sheets first came on the market I thought that would be a good exercise: "Describe how to fold a fitted sheet." The first ones came with instructions. Now, long since, you're on your own. Mine are always lumpy.

I heard of one writing student who became so skilled at this kind of writing that he went on to a successful full-time day job writing instructions for the use of various products. We can use all the help we can get.