Priorities
For a long, long time I have been an overachiever -- not just academically, but in general. When I have down time, I often feel vaguely guilty, like I should be doing things (an exception is made if I am exhausted from doing stuff). Heck, if I have a vacation where I'm not specifically off somewhere doing stuff, I get depressed. No joke.
I have a tendency to get interested in loads of different things, all of which take time, and try to do them all! at! once! until I finally freak out and collapse and have to start over from a semi-blank slate. Heck, I even do it with email lists and RSS feeds -- I keep joining and adding until I become incredibly overwhelmed, pare down to a manageable size ... and start it all over again. There's just too much in the way of interesting stuff in the world. I've never understood the folks who say they'd get bored if they were immortal. I think even if I were immortal, I'd never run out of stuff to do.
Anyway.
At Pantheacon, I got a reading from Lon Milo Duquette using his Tarot of Hard Truths. It said, basically, "You are doing too much at once, and none of it well. You need to sit down and figure out what's important!"
So I spent a week with a piece of paper on my altar, and as I did my morning practice I jotted down the ways in which I spend my time, or would like to spend it -- the activities that take up my days.
It was a pretty damn daunting list. No wonder I'm losing my mind, trying to do all these things at once. The problem is, I don't want to give any of them up -- and I really wish I could add in the things on my "I wish I had time..." list.
So, I've sorted the list out into rough catagories:
BASIC NECESSITIES (stuff everybody has to do):
Self-care - medical care, me-time, exercise, etc.
Life biz - cleaning, finance, etc.
Career - working, professional development, etc.
NON-NEGOTIABLE (things that I get itchy if I can't do):
Time with husband
Aikido
Feri
Books - reading and cataloging
Gardening
Cats - keeping and care
Knitting
BDSM
Time with friends
Online community (blogging/journaling, reading blogs/journals, email lists, etc.) TIME FILLERS (things I love to do but don't always make time for)
Time with extended family
Photography
Fish keeping (I have two tanks of easy-care fish)
Writing fiction (except every November, for NaNoWriMo)
Listening to music
Reading magazines
Listening to podcasts
Movie and TV watching
Video games
OCCASIONALLY (Once a year or less):
Candlemaking
Sewing - mending or costume-making
Costuming - both sewing and collecting things for costumes
Sculpting
Misc. other craftsOH, IF ONLY (Things I wish I had time to do/learn):
Leatherwork
Vidcasting
Drawing
Tai Chi
Latin and Greek (college learnin' is fading fast)
Yoga
Ceramics
Podcasting
The question now is, what do I do with this information? I know I need to pare down. But how and where?
My impulse is to make a schedule. Things in the BASIC NECESSITIES category get dibs on my time, followed by the NON-NEGOTIABLE category, with everything else fit in when I have time. But I'm not sure that would work. Do I kiss the IF ONLY category goodbye and limit the OCCASIONALLY to once a year at best? How do I do this?
I think I am going to start by arranging my schedule so that all the BASIC NECESSITIES and NON-NEGOTIABLE things have their time. Then I am going to tack up a list of those two categories on my altar with the following reminder:
REMEMBER TO MAKE TIME FOR WHAT IS IMPORTANT
Then, as my GodSoul is fond of reminding me, I will take it one day at a time. I will try to remember what is important and what is not, that some things are fun but not necessary -- and they should not preclude the things that are Important.
I have a tendency to get interested in loads of different things, all of which take time, and try to do them all! at! once! until I finally freak out and collapse and have to start over from a semi-blank slate. Heck, I even do it with email lists and RSS feeds -- I keep joining and adding until I become incredibly overwhelmed, pare down to a manageable size ... and start it all over again. There's just too much in the way of interesting stuff in the world. I've never understood the folks who say they'd get bored if they were immortal. I think even if I were immortal, I'd never run out of stuff to do.
Anyway.
At Pantheacon, I got a reading from Lon Milo Duquette using his Tarot of Hard Truths. It said, basically, "You are doing too much at once, and none of it well. You need to sit down and figure out what's important!"
So I spent a week with a piece of paper on my altar, and as I did my morning practice I jotted down the ways in which I spend my time, or would like to spend it -- the activities that take up my days.
It was a pretty damn daunting list. No wonder I'm losing my mind, trying to do all these things at once. The problem is, I don't want to give any of them up -- and I really wish I could add in the things on my "I wish I had time..." list.
So, I've sorted the list out into rough catagories:
BASIC NECESSITIES (stuff everybody has to do):
Self-care - medical care, me-time, exercise, etc.
Life biz - cleaning, finance, etc.
Career - working, professional development, etc.
NON-NEGOTIABLE (things that I get itchy if I can't do):
Time with husband
Aikido
Feri
Books - reading and cataloging
Gardening
Cats - keeping and care
Knitting
BDSM
Time with friends
Online community (blogging/journaling, reading blogs/journals, email lists, etc.) TIME FILLERS (things I love to do but don't always make time for)
Time with extended family
Photography
Fish keeping (I have two tanks of easy-care fish)
Writing fiction (except every November, for NaNoWriMo)
Listening to music
Reading magazines
Listening to podcasts
Movie and TV watching
Video games
OCCASIONALLY (Once a year or less):
Candlemaking
Sewing - mending or costume-making
Costuming - both sewing and collecting things for costumes
Sculpting
Misc. other craftsOH, IF ONLY (Things I wish I had time to do/learn):
Leatherwork
Vidcasting
Drawing
Tai Chi
Latin and Greek (college learnin' is fading fast)
Yoga
Ceramics
Podcasting
The question now is, what do I do with this information? I know I need to pare down. But how and where?
My impulse is to make a schedule. Things in the BASIC NECESSITIES category get dibs on my time, followed by the NON-NEGOTIABLE category, with everything else fit in when I have time. But I'm not sure that would work. Do I kiss the IF ONLY category goodbye and limit the OCCASIONALLY to once a year at best? How do I do this?
I think I am going to start by arranging my schedule so that all the BASIC NECESSITIES and NON-NEGOTIABLE things have their time. Then I am going to tack up a list of those two categories on my altar with the following reminder:
REMEMBER TO MAKE TIME FOR WHAT IS IMPORTANT
Then, as my GodSoul is fond of reminding me, I will take it one day at a time. I will try to remember what is important and what is not, that some things are fun but not necessary -- and they should not preclude the things that are Important.