I got a call from a women’s magazine the other day asking me for advice on how women could be more efficient in their lives. “What do you do to save time?” they asked me.

I asked her what other interviewees had said. “Well,” she replied, “there was the physicist who thought it was a good idea to make lunches in advance for her children to take to school.” I imagined a subatomic refrigerator filled with seven years’ worth of fluffer nutter sandwiches. My husband and I forage for food every night. We are unlikely to be able to pack a brown bag for the next day. What if the next day never comes? Then making lunch would have been a waste of time, and I can’t bear that.

“What else did they say?” I asked. “The CFO of a large company suggested that no one should allow a piece of paper to pass over her desk twice.” To me, this sounded like some kind of weird ritual, one my Sicilian grandmother might have used to ward off evil spirits.