Thursday, February 21, 2008

Time, My Nemesis

You would think that someone with the time management skills I possess would be a better friend to the clock. But it is becoming glaringly apparent that no matter how much time I have, it is never enough. There are never enough minutes in an hour and never enough hours in a day to jam everything in it that I want to accomplish. I feel as if I am constantly playing catch up and never going fast enough to grab the carrot of completion dangling in front of me.

Now if I could just get back those eight hours from the day job...but alas, doing that would constitute living in a cardboard box, wearing rags, and driving...shudder...mass transit. The horror.

As things stand right now, I am squeezing about 1.5 hours in the morning to write. Not enough. I would love to get another hour in there, but that would mean getting up at 4:45 am, and I'm not sure my brain could function at that hour in the morning, at least not well enough to put together a cohesive sentence, let alone an entire paragraph. I would like to get in more workout time, but right now I have upped my walk to a run just to fit in a solid workout into the 40 minutes I do have. I wish I could find time to write here more too, but the workload at the day job has increased and I rarely have time on my hands like I used to.

Time with friends is limited, time with a new relationship is never enough, practicing the guitar every night is a pipe dream, and putting a dent in my TBR pile has become laughable.

When it becomes too much, I often close my eyes and mentally structure my days around the dream of writing full time. It reminds me of what I'm aiming for and what I'll do when I get there. Unfortunately, then I open my eyes, and my time is up and I wonder how the heck I'm going to make that a reality when it feels I'm running on the spot and getting nowhere.

Luckily even when my time management skills don't feel they're working at par, my 'never say die' attitude is still operating at full blast. I will get there. Somehow, some way I will find all the minutes I need, make the most of the ones I have, and make it to the top.

I'm a Capricorn after all. The mountain goat. It's in our nature to scale to the highest peak, even if we have to go around the rocky crags to get there.

13 comments:

Annette Gallant said...

In a few weeks we'll be getting an extra hour of daylight. Does that help? :-)

And I think you manage your time really well. Way better than I do, that's for sure. You just have a lot of stuff on the go all the time, which makes it hard to fit everything in.

Hang in there! One of these days, you'll be writing fulltime. I really believe that!

Anonymous said...

Maybe instead of getting hotel rooms to go out and party we should get one and hide away for a night and do nothing but write.

Kelly Boyce said...

Surely, you jest...

Anonymous said...

I don't care what you've heard, I NEVER jest.

Kelly Boyce said...

You forgot the part where you add...'and don't call me Shirley.'

Anonymous said...

Ohhhhh yes I missed it. I can't think properly yet. It's too early.

Melissa Amateis said...

I admire you for getting up that early in the morning to write! I grab every spare minute of sleep I can in the morning. :-)

Unknown said...

4.45 OMG! I can't even imagine getting up that early. I feel the same way about time. I should be able to do more but all those pesky responsibilities, like kids, just get the way of my writing.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Your appetite for living life is just unstoppable, Kelly. A blessing, really.

Joanna D'Angelo said...

Kelly, you are waaaaaaay better at time management than most of us. You're dedicated at getting up early and writing every morning - before work - when most of us are trying to grab those few extra Zs while trying to pretend we don't have to pee. We all have dreams/goals but unlike so many people who want to write - you're actually doing something to make that happen.

take care,
jojo

Unknown said...

Hmm, what's this about new relationship? Or were you just throwing that out as an example?? Enquiring minds (or mine, anyway) want to know *g*.

Oh, and it's me, using a different gmail account *g*.

Lexi said...

Yeah, Tess, I was wondering the same thing. Well, Kelly?

Kelly Boyce said...

I plead the fifth. :)