A Wristwatch Day & Another Lesson Learned

Yesterday was a live by my wristwatch day thus no creative time for writing or pushing pixels. I’m literally stealing a bit of time now to sit down and write this post before diving into my studies and tackling the list of phone calls to be made to set up various appointments for my son.

On the positive side, I’ve been thinking about topics for future posts to share here on the blog. On the not so positive side, my new love and I haven’t had enough time to get to know each other better. It would be worse if the delivery of archival paper had arrived but it’s still en route. I anticipate it’s arrival sometime next week and am hoping to catch up on all the other tasks on my to do list so I’ll be able to spend some quality time with my Pro 9000.

The issue of time management and my fly by the seat of my pants way of tackling things has been on my mind a lot the past two weeks. I’ve finally given in and will be hiring a bookkeeper to take over the financial reporting for my son’s Microboard. I’ve been doing the work of the treasurer and the secretary for the Non-Profit Society since its creation.

There has always been a bit of an internal tug of war going on inside of me with regard to my creative side and my business side. I believe this is my year to find a viable balance between the two. Realizing that spending hours going over financial transactions and statements isn’t an effective use of my time and that it’s okay to delegate that responsibility to someone else is a big step in the right direction.

Has this been another life lesson about learning to let go? Perhaps, but in this case it’s a calculated and controlled form of letting go. Less stress and paperwork means more creative time. More creative time means a more relaxed and happy me.

If you haven't entered a Witku in the contest, now is the time to be creative and have fun playing with words to create a funny haiku that'll tickle my funny bone or at least make me smile.

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.)