Does she chop the wood for it, too?
I’ll put an hours worth of effort into figuring out how to save 5 minutes on a task.
All I have to do is do the task 12 times and I break even. !2 more and I’ve saved an hour!!!
I only put grocery store lists in order where they appear if I’m making it for someone else. Actually, I almost never actually take my list with me. Once I write it down I can remember it.
Have you considered asters? This site has some very nice ones.
Ha! I’ve got you microwavers all beat. In order to make my microwave cook on high for one minute, I press “START”. That’s it!
As to the rest of the OP, I like doing things the easy way. I am inherently lazy.
Max 
Grump, grump, grumble… My old microwave with that same feature just died. I’m currently too “poor”* to buy a new one, so I’m stuck with having to key in :66. Of course, when I’m reheating my coffee, I key in :66 once, remove the cup at :33, and only have to hit the start button for the second cup. Efficient, not lazy!
Regarding the OP, I generally try to do things the easy way, except that my lists and coupons are always in the order that I’ll shop for them. What with being a single mom two kids, running a business, and being naturally disorganized, I need that kind of structure in some part of my life. I try not to be obsessive, though, 'cause I have a (literally) crazy uncle to demonstrate the negative side of that. (As a retired cabinetmaker, he recently volunteered to help me replace some water-damaged wood in my base cabinets. “Measure twice and cut once” turned into “measure fourteen times, cut once, re-measure, sand a millimeter off one edge. Then install. Then uninstall. Sand another millimeter. Reinstall.” Repeat on cabinet number two. I love the man, but I generally have to open at least two beers during the course of these minor household adventures.)
*“Poor” in quotation marks, because that’s one of those notions that continues to amaze me. Poor in the USA doesn’t mean poor. It means I own my car outright, I own a fair chunk of my house, my kids have too many toys, I have too many clothes - most from Goodwill, but still, and I happen to have a spare microwave oven stashed in the storage building. “Poor” in America means that I have too much to eat and have to monitor my weight. It’s hard to wrap my head around that definition of “poor.” [/hijack]
I guess as “the hard way” is described in this thread I do them this way. I never make lists for the grocery store - well, I have tried to, but it always works out this way: start writing list… milk, eggs, cheese, bread, hmmm… what else do I need (if I’m going shopping it means the refridgerator is literally empty)?.. guess, I’ll just figure it out when I get there and see everything in front of me and can decide for each item whther I need it or not. I write lots of ‘To Do’ lists with pitifully few items on them… then promptly forget about the list and tuck it away in my backpack only to find it a few days later and realize that I haven’t done anything on it yet. Add some things to it and repeat the process.
I figure there is no point in planning everything. I’ll just wing it instead. Planning requires too much effort and reduces the spontaneity in my life. I never really have anything that I have to do. Or if I did, I would write it on my hand perhaps so that I don’t forget. I’m still young and irresponsible and prefer to keep it that way.
As for the microwave, pressing 60 instead of 1:00 has never even crossed my mind. I’m a very lazy person, but not usually in regards to such insignificant tasks as pressing buttons on a microwave. Now, that it has been brought to my attention though, I’m sure I’ll start using 66 instead without even really thinking about it.
Come over to the Dark Side…
I, of course, do everything the simple, straightforward, and logical way. cwPartner, on the other hand…
cwPartner’s mom once said, in front of both of us, “If there’s a hard way to do something, cwPartner will find it.”
To all the microwave people, I’m even LAZIER! Instead of putting in 1:00, I will set it to 99:99 So that I can just press “start” when I need to microwave something.
B-b-but then you have to pay attention! sob
Don’t make me pay attention! I’m already bad at this whole being alive thing. Paying attention might push me right over the edge.
For someone like me, with very subtle learning disabilities, reading directions often is the hard way. Especially with complicated stuff like software or electronics, my eyes begin to glaze over as a meaningless mess of abstract processes passes before them. In these cases, the learning curve mounts a lot quicker if I just start banging around and trying this and that. I then get the knowledge I need to understand the written directions, and I eventually use them to learn the full functionality.
When I go shopping I will just look at everything on every aisle. If I need it, I’ll know it when I see it. The problem is if I buy too much of the item or if I don’t want to get to much. I figure if I buy too much that is not a problem, I’ll just not buy that item the next time I go shopping. As far as forgetting if I need the item goes; how can I forget a monumental moment such as running out of milk?
If you take the time to memorize things (like the names and years of all 43 presidents), things will become much easier for you. It will save you the time of having to look things up. Sure you can easily look up who was president in 1841, but if you know it was Harrison and Tyler then life becomes easy living. Imagine not having the alphabet memorized because it can be easily looked up.
I like asters, but the one remaining spot is part sun/shade. Asters are full sun. We’ll figure it out. The folks at the nursery said their fall-blooming stuff is not in yet.
“I aster what she thought, but she wouldn’t say.”
Mostly the easy way, but when it really matters or I think that having to redo / repeat something (if it went wrong due to sloppiness) would be catastrophic or tedious or aggravating, then I will go with the meticulous way.
Hard to say in my case. I try to do things the easiest way possible, but I obsess first. I have to go get a spark plug. But I don’t want to drive out JUST to get a spark plug. I also need vacuum cleaner bags. Where’s a place that carries both? I don’t want to go to two stores. Now which store would be closer, or which store would have the lesser amount of traffic lights in my way? Which store would entail the lesser amount of walking?
I can’t go during mid-afternoon. That’s when the stores are busiest and I hate waiting in line. I’ll have to wait till just before closing. Then again, maybe I can just clean out the old bag and order the spark plug online.
This scheming takes me all day until I put it off till tomorrow.
Like Homer Simpson said when he saw somebody with an IV: “And here I am eating food like a sucker!”
My daddy always told me, “You want to find the easiest way to do a task, assign the task to the laziest worker.”
That would be me. It may not be perfect but it will be good enough for government work.