Monday, August 21, 2017

Time Management

Everyone struggles with having enough time to do everything they want or need to do. For a person who has an outside job, one where they drive or walk to, clock in and clock out, they know when they will have down time and know when they have to be working.

For the creative person or any other person who works from home, it can be hard to make a set time frame for work and one for pleasure and household duties.

I can be cleaning the house or helping with the hay and I'll figure out the element of a story that needs to come out or come up with a new book idea and sit down to make notes and before I know it, I haven't finished cleaning or my husband is knocking on the swather door wanting to know if  the machine is broke down. 

When I'm feeling creative and the words or ideas are coming, I don't want to stop. But I must. There are meals to make, clothes to wash, and floors to clean. Not to mention horses to feed, dogs to tend to, and flowers to water.  There is a person and animals who depend on me.There are days all I do is clean and take care of animals or ranching duties. Those are my down days. The days between projects or when I need a break. Like other people have Saturday and Sunday, my weekends come at any time during the week.

Me and Bud
The days when I know I need to get projects done - where I'm at right now - I pat my horse on the neck and tell him, soon. Soon, I'll be able to ride him. I just have to finish this project and finish driving around the state to judge and we can ride. A week, then two go by, and I've still not taken the time to saddle up Bud and ride, even though my heart is yearning for such an outing.

I am behind in my writing schedule. When I get caught up, I can ride, I can take a trip with a friend to browse second hand stores, I can take time to visit family.

But for now, it's eating at me that I took time away from writing to write this post, even though it is writing, it's connecting with my readers, and it's letting the world know, I am creating as fast as I can and putting out  the best book I can. 

I'm a person who doesn't like to miss deadlines, I've missed two this year. I had promised readers a book that I'm still unsure of publishing. This has been an off year for me, but I hope that next year will be better as I set my sights on the next books in the mystery series and the two new shiny historical and contemporary western series I've started.

Are you good at time management?  What is your secret?

5 comments:

Denise Z. said...

Ride that horse, life is too short. The rest will sort itself out. Just this morning, my husband and I were doing the breakfast prep dance in the kitchen and I was 10 steps into my day, thinking who I was going to strangle, and I had to force myself to stop and enjoy the moment with him, because those moments are precious.

Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel said...

What Denise said, "Ride that horse, life is too short." I have found it challenging to take a more leisurely approach to life also, but along the way I'm discovering I do want to smell the roses--as well as take pictures of them and keep planting flowers even though fall is coming and cuddle with my dogs and play silly card games with my son and granddaughter, and more little things that just feel good. Love my projects, but I'm making it a point to just relax and enjoy the beauty in little things also.

Paty Jager said...

Thanks Genene and Denise! I know I need to do the simple things that make me happy. Writing also makes me happy but I need to slow the releases down, I guess.

Diana McCollum said...

I'm terrible at time management. I always have good intentions, but life in our household has a way of interfering with the best of plans. I even bought a weekly calendar, thinking I could plan writing and appointments and chores. Check each thing off, but by the end of the week I've not accomplished half of what I wanted to. Smell those flowers life and ride that horse, is too short to wait!!!

Paty Jager said...

Diana, I know, I need to do a better job of smelling the roses. But my books are finally starting to pick up momentum and I want to stay with it. You have so much going in family wise that I admire every word you write.

Thanks for stopping in!