You know that thing about “if you need something done, give it to a busy person”? I’m now officially unemployed and with kids in school, so more time on my hands than I’ve had in years, and yet I am struggling so hard to get things done.
I have freelance work, I have designs in progress, I have a half-marathon coming up (…maybe), and I’m behind on literally everything, to say nothing of the ever frustrating job hunt. So much for all the extra stuff I thought I might do with this time. The sewing, the drawing, the reading and walking. Every day is just me flapping about to put out a fire or two before the kids come home.
There are reasons (
uh, excuses) of course, but still, it’s fair to say I am not doing my very best. And I can really relate to this essay on
why writing sucks. (Applies equally to a lot of other creative work.) As ever this leads me to some introspection – noticing, for instance, that although knitting is the thing that (a) I literally have to do right now to meet a deadline and (b) the thing that honestly makes me feel better about everything, I keep blowing it off. Humans are weird. But I’m also figuring out some productivity tactics. Nothing revolutionary: you probably don’t need me to tell you that the
Pomodoro technique is really helpful, for instance, or that starting the week with a clean desk and a clear to-do list makes all the difference. Still, it’s nice to figure out what works for me, right now. I gotta remember to knit more.
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