Steps into the future
Jan 2nd, 2009 by Liz Bennefeld
Friday's Sunrise (2009.01.02)
I don’t see sunrises very often, other than in the wintertime. I’m not much of a “morning person,” preferring the hues of sunset to the piercing rays of first light. My energy rises from about four in the afternoon until well after midnight, and I do some of my best work then. But we do what we can with what we’re handed and try to cope.
I have been thinking quite a bit about what changes I would like to implement in my current mode that would make it easier to get things accomplished. Previously I mentioned a few of the things that make planning and execution difficult, not the least of which are inattention to time and place and the tendency to confuse thinking about the deed with accomplishing it. I do tend to think even the smallest matters to their deaths.
Lists have been a problem, in the past, because I lose the lists and,or obsess with making the lists to the point where I have no time to do the things I’d put on it. Schedules are great, if I can hang onto what actually constitutes “daily” and if I can establish enough of a framework that I don’t have two or three things occurring at once, followed by great blocks of time during which nothing is scheduled at all (and I end up writing little snippets on my blog instead of writing poetry or taking photographs or, heaven forbid, doing household chores).
The truth is that my days are quite unpredictable. It would help if I could plan out what hours I will work, which hours I will not, and create blocks of time that will allow for some scheduling. And a list of things that I want to, or should be, doing during the day in addition to writing and editing for clients, would help a lot. Preparation would be a good thing. I do think that I let some things go when I don’t have all the parts on hand for completing them.
Structure! Carve out a place in space and time in which the future has room to grow and a firm base that will support that growth. Build reminders into my space and time to help me refocus on a daily basis. Because I will not remember on my own.
I need to organize my life better, too. I keep hitting the end of the day before half the stuff I meant to do got done, but a lot more computer card games got played. {rueful smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin