Time Management & The Creative Mind

Try as I might effective time management just isn’t my forte. I’m a free spirit, creative mind, product of the 60’s, and general fly by the seat of my pants sort of personality. I don’t like living by a watch. In fact, I don’t wear one unless I absolutely must. It works for me, most of the time. I usually know where everything is even if it’s buried under a stack of yet to be read and filed mail, unopened and unread 3-month-old magazines I never manage to find the time to flip through, scraps of paper with bits of verse hastily handwritten during a moment of poetic inspiration, clumps of yellow sticky notes with reminders and study notes neatly penned on them that now sit in a stack on my monitor ledge having lost their magical sticky-note properties, my son’s drawings, etc.

They say that a messy desk, home, car, sock drawer, etc. is the sign of a creative mind. It works for me. It’s either that or having to admit that I’m a domestic klutz. Don’t get me wrong, I clean and our house is tidy but two cats, a dog that sheds enough fur I could save it up and use it to knit sweaters for the family (I don’t knit but if I did we could have some very cool dog hair sweaters), a son who somehow manages to create the mess & laundry of 3 people, a husband (Who cleans. Yes, I know I’m blessed), and my son’s support workers who work here at the house sure give this place a heck of a workout.

I could clean the house top to bottom every day and it would still look like a twister hit by evening. I decided to get used to the organized chaos and lived in look. It was either that or slip over the edge and wake up one day to find myself dressing up in pink rubber gloves with those fake fingernails painted on, a frilly apron, curlers in my hair with a headscarf, fuzzy slippers and a house dress. Not a pretty sight. A domestic goddess I’m not.

Back to the time management bit, I dragged out my day planner and made a valiant attempt to write down some sort of schedule for myself to incorporate study time (I’m part way through a distance-education Medical Transcription course. Think I was temporarily crackers when I signed up, but I’m determined to finish and make a go of being able to make sense of dictation given by doctors who sound like those speed talking auctioneers. You thought their handwriting was tough to read!), keep track of my son’s medical and therapy appointments, care team meetings and microboard meetings, and somehow manage to squeeze in creative time for my art and writing.

After writing and reading back through all of that, I realize it’s no wonder I’m always falling behind. I need a clone, but can we alter the DNA a bit and make sure she’s a domestic goddess?

The picture is from Carolyn's Kitchen - Wildcat Hot Pink Dish Gloves (I couldn't find a pair with painted fingernails but these are a close second.)