Readied Actions, Free Time and You
Readied actions are an old Dungeons & Dragons tactic. They’re also a great tool for springing to action when free time opens up. In this episode of the podcast I’m exploring similarities between capitalizing on available moments and this classic game mechanic.
Episode Details
… time stamps incoming …
References

* Readied Actions and how they work
* Info on cognitive load and decision paralysis

Chess Chip Cookies Recipe (Yup, seriously)
These measurements are all in Imperial units because I’m in the United States. As long as the proportions match, you can scale the batch as necessary. You’ll need:

* A half stick of butter (8 tbsp, aka 1/2 cup of butter)
* 1/2 cup of (white) sugar
* 1/2 cup of brown sugar
* 1 cup of general purpose flour
* 1.5 cups of whole/old fashioned/steel cut/whatever oatmeal
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 tbsp of good vanilla or 1.5 tbsp of OK’ish vanilla
* 2 cups of total “stuff” – chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, almonds

Let the butter sit out overnight so it’s soft. I haven’t had a slew of success melting the butter so I always leave it out for a bit.
Combine the butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Stir it up so it’s about the consistency of frosting. Crack and add the egg, and add the vanilla. Stir again. It should be a bit gooey and less frosting’esque now.
Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir well. I define “well” as, “Damn, I’m tired of stirring.” If I’m wondering if I should keep stirring, I keep stirring. Then I add the oatmeal and … guess what … stir.
That’s your base. Now add the “stuff.” I usually add about 2 cups total of whatever I want to put in them. I recommend chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk), white chocolate chips and almonds. I’ll usually do equal proportions of each, so 0.66 cups apiece. Another glorious combination is semi-sweet chocolate chips, dried cherries or cranberries and walnuts.
Mix it all up. It’s probably pretty hard to stir at this point. When the stuff seems evenly distributed, stash the dough in the fridge for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease up a pan. I usually use butter to grease the pan.
Make little balls from the chilled dough and just plop ’em on the pan, then cook for about 14 minutes. That’ll leave the cookies pretty chewy and soft with slightly crispy edges. If you like crispy cookies, go 16 minutes.
Eat that shit up.