I love Whatever...Whenever and visit this blog as often as I can...check out her links as well--she's artistic and funny and this post on over-achieving could have been part of my yet-to-be written autobiography LOL.
I have 24 hours in my day--established fact, right? And the job that pays for everything takes nine of those hours, including computer boot time and the 30-minute lunch that allows for nothing but eating.
Of the remaining fifteen hours, my body requires a bare minimum of six being spent in sleep, with 6 1/2 to seven being even better. Occasionally, I can get by with five, but the older I get, the less flexible my body is when it lacks proper rest. So, use six as the touchpoint, and we now have nine hours a day for everything else that "general living" requires.
Let's define general living as cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, paying bills/handling mail, personal hygiene (shower, anyone? LOL), etc. Granted, in a one-person household, a few of these things are not daily tasks--laundry is once weekly. Walking to/from the grocery store takes time. Carrying groceries by hand means more trips because there are limits as to how much I can carry. So, the days I go to the store are usually weekend days. Other errands requiring bus travel (I call it "destination shopping") are either vacation days or weekends because the bus trip alone can exceed an hour each way.
So, at nine hours a day times seven days a week, I have 63 hours to work with. If cooking for one takes a total of an hour daily, followed by an hour of general housecleaning and a half-hour of mail/business, the free time is reduced to 45.5 hours. With walking/bus times for the household shopping, let's reduce that by a minimum of 9.5 hours weekly.
I am a writer of historical/speculative fiction. I need time to research. I need time to write. I need time to network with other writers. I need time to study the craft of writing. With the idea of my most recent challenge in mind, let's devote a minimum of one hour daily to writing, and perhaps another daily hour to research. There go fourteen more hours, leaving 22 left to "schedule".
I am a paper crafter who sells Stampin' Up! as a sideline, primarily to receive the discount (although all new customers are quite welcome to my website LOL), and I enjoy my crafting. In an ideal world, I would play with paper (or at least be puttering in my studio) for an hour a day. 22-7=15.
Who doesn't like to connect with friends? I talk on the phone often with my friends; I follow various blogs (and have people who follow mine--wonder of wonders). Welcome to my new followers--I am so happy to meet you! Reading and responding to e-mail takes time. Commenting on blogs takes time. This socialization is important to someone who works from home.
Look at what I am doing to myself! I have already posted that over-organizing and my pursuit of perfection denies me the opportunity to simply enjoy life! I need to learn to say "no". I need to learn to "hit a lick at a snake" and know that BALANCE is key. "All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull person", and who wants to be dull? I don't.
Who wants to join me and make a "To Don't" list?
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