I've been running that phrase around my head a lot lately. The implication is that if you had enough days where you didn't have anything else to do, you could finish XYZ project.
I find myself now without that month of sundays. I'm nearly 30, and have a marraige, a young child, and a full time job. I have trouble even keeping up on maintenance of my home and finding time for friends.
The problem is, there was a time, not too long ago, when I was semi-employed, not married, not even dating, and I never found time for the big projects.
I've started thinking that I probably have time to accomplish my projects this summer, if I use my time better. To this end, I started (yesterday) keeping an insanely dull listing of the things I do after getting home from work, how much time i spend doing them. I'm not being super precise, i just say things like 6-6:30- took dog and boy for walk. I really have no idea how recording what I do will impact my productivity, but I figure it's worth a try.
There are several things I'd like to accomplish. First priority is personal maintenance. We had our home clean a month or so ago. We got everything done, and it just all went to hell. Last weekend was the town-sized yard sale up where my wife's folks live, and we came back to deposit a huge mess of packed bags and assorted detritus in the living room. Got much of this cleaned up last night, but there's still a ton to do. I need to make sure my dog and my son get enough attention, and I need to get myself some exercise.
I'm debating whether to go to the gym tonight. One of my arms was sore last night, but somehow this has changed to major muscle soreness in my back, both arms, and my legs. Going to the gym might result in some good training, and maybe help with the soreness with the hot tub and sauna, but it also means I won't be able to accomplish anything else tonight.
Second priority this summer is going to be projects. I haven't decided what exactly I'm doing, but I'd like to do a piece of material construction such as a working wagon or toy chest for my son. I'd also like to build a game in flash. I'll document my efforts if I decide to maintain this blog that long. Currently I'm riding the wave of motivation that inevitably comes when you've hatched a scheme to get your life on track, the trick as always will be keeping the momentum going.
Third priority, but something I'll work on keeping up with, is personal enjoyment. No self-improvement plan will work if it doesn't make allowance for satisfying one's emotional needs. Every other week I run a D&D game, I have probably too much fascination with television, and I recently found treasure in the form of a sega genesis and a few games I was very fond of in my youth. Amazingly, these things were sold to me for $30, when their combined value is at least twice, and possibly three times this.
I make no promises of daily updates, and I hope no-one will be reading this as a study in how to properly write a bloggish story. My words are likely to be chain of thought, poorly organised, probably mispelled, and rarely entertaining.
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4 comments:
Ok, this is the danger of allowing an editor to read anything...
Did you purposely spell "misspell" incorrectly to demonstrate your dry sense of humor? :)
ms word and ms outlook have made me lazy. i'm used to my mistakes being underlined in red.
You're not totally unread. :)
I know where you are coming from. Ten years ago I was single, semi-employed, and yet couldn't find the time to do the things I wanted to or needed to do -- with certain exceptions that in retrospect (or even at the time) one could look at and say "but why did you choose to do this irrelevant thing when you could have done this relevant thing?" Shiny, shiny... that's why. Nowadays at nearly 40 I work full time though you wouldn't know it from my schedule, I have wife and housecat, a big yard with pretty stuff and unpretty stuff, a house that wants renovation more than actually needs it, and no effort has been made for offline friends or exercise... and the deficit in those last two is starting to show.
You are holding it together pretty well, from this distant perspective. And I too am a packrat who still has stuff from last autumn's effort to prepare for Christmas stacked in my office, obscured by the new cool stuff which needs a place. You'll find the balance because you're searching for it... which is something not everyone has the sense to do.
And your writing is really good. Don't underestimate the power of catharsis.
And I can identify with this too, unfortunately. I do not have anyone I have to be responsible for, so theoretically, I should have lots of time. But somehow I don't.
The other day I was sitting at work, thinking of all the things I could do when I got home, since I didn't have any committments that day. But somehow, the end of the day came, and I had done nothing (except complain about work, which isn't exactly productive). Where did the time go?
I hope you'll keep us posted on your attempt to manage your time...maybe it'll motivate some of the rest of us. :)
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