Going with the Flow

Outside it is still dark. This is my "Time Management" for the day. It was my turn to post yesterday, but I ran out of time, so early-up I get to fit blogging into today's schedule. I have loved reading everyone's posts and comments on this subject. I love talking about time management with my self-employed friends. I always find inspiration. Over the years I have tried all kinds of time management tools from Franklin-Covey calendars to wall-size calendars with each hour accounted for, mind-maps, pocket-sized calendars, computer calendars, and post-it notes. I have anticipated a week ahead of time and documented a week looking back. I have analyzed and workshopped time management in multiple ways and come to the conclusion that it is best to go with the flow. The evolution and flow of life determines my time, not the other way around. When I think of how much I got done in a day when my kids were little as compared to now, when I have whole days to myself in the studio because my son just got his license and can drive himself to circus classes after school and my daughter is at college, I accept that the flow of life makes it impossible to have one system of time management that always works.  

Better than a clock or a calendar, I have found that a few moments of writing in my journal about what truly matters to me each morning helps me plan my day, week, month, even year, around priorities. If I am working on a deadline, then I know early in the day what matters and it helps me to say "No" when necessary to keep my studio time sacred. When I was in college facing choices of whether to finish a paper or go out with friends I asked myself this question: "If I were to die tomorrow, what would be more meaningful?" (Can you guess which I chose?) I still often use this question to prioritize my plans and as I grow older it takes on new meaning. What do I want to accomplish in a day? A year? A life-time? It is no longer the light-hearted college question, but one that carries weight for me.

Too Much Frittering

For me, Edie and David hit the nail on the head in their posts. Like David, I have no official full-time job, yet I can fritter away entire mornings and afternoons without ever managing to tackle the most important task of the day: writing. Only recently did I consciously decide to switch up my routine and start with the writing. So far, the results have been mixed. But in my case, mixed is better than nothing!

Related to this, like Edie, I find the more unstructured time I have, the less I get accomplished — not only with writing. Lists and daily goals work to some extent, but it’s embarrassing to admit how often it’s time to go pick up Ben at school and realizing I haven’t even looked at my writing goal for the day! In my defense, the “frittered” time is taken up with chores and errands (I’m not a total slacker!) but it’s still frustrating. You can’t accomplish a goal if you don’t even remember you have one! That’s what I mean by embarrassing.

My plan? Keep making lists and setting goals. Do my writing early in the day before distractions suck away the hours. Cherish each small step and continue working on my craft whenever I can, for as long as I can, every day.

That’s the plan. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Busier, The Better

As I am learning from my fellow spuds, time management is a universal struggle. I have found that the more free time I have in my life, the less focused I become and the less I accomplish. But the busier I am, the more I am able to define small increments of time to accomplish specific tasks. I am a list maker, mainly because I love to cross items off my list once they are accomplished, and it allows me to look back at my day and pat myself on the back. Lists also keep me from forgetting those necessary tasks, and they help me prioritize.

When I worked fulltime while also enrolled in an MFA program, I accomplished more writing in my one-hour lunch break than I did in 3 hours on the weekends--that is, if I left my office and hid in a study carroll in the basement of the library. And now that I am spending much more time sitting with my father, I always take along a notebook and pen. If he's in a talkative mood, as he was today, I ask him all sorts of questions about his childhood and jot down notes. I am so enthralled with his family's experiences in south Florida during the 1920s and 30s that I may incorporate them into a future book. And right now, my time with my father is of the essence.

This photo above was taken in the mid-1950s in front of my grandparent's coral rock house in North Miami Beach. My father is the first on the left, and I am the little girl waving.

Where Does Time Go?

Stories are films that reel all the time in my mind. I have many stories to tell. What excuse do I have for not sharing them?

Seven days a week, between 8:30 and 9, I come down to my office. I read and answer emails; I peek in Facebook; I open Catalyst and read posts from my Whidbey Island MFA students and colleagues. Answering the latter takes me until noon. After lunch, I begin to write my stories, interrupting myself here and there to check and answer emails and posts again and again. My goal is to write a page a day. Some days I accomplish it. Some days? One page? Wait a minute! I am a writer. It's a sin not to share my stories.

I have to go back to work at the Mulnomah County Library's Writer's Room. I used to go there with pencil and paper. No computer. Cell phone off. In four hours I couldn't see anymore, but I ended up with many pages.

Isn't this Lent? Now that I have confessed, I better go and write--or the inspiration given to me will go to another writer.

Time Management

I don't have a partner or children. I'm not constrained by the demands of a full-time job. Then why is it a struggle every day to find time to devote to my writing and illustrating?

I've learned that if I hope to accomplish anything with my career as a children's author, I have to give myself goals, especially daily goals. Yesterdays goals included revising a transition scene for an upcoming picture book and typing a new story so I could share it with my critique group. Such simple sounding projects, but unless I make a conscious effort to address them, they won't get finished. And I need to address them first thing in the day or they won't even get started.

As I've mentioned in other posts, the biggest distraction for me has become the Internet. I find dozens of excuses why I need to check my email, and soon I'm responding to queries about school visits, replying to editors, answering questions from readers of my books, and setting up lunch dates with friends. All of these are important, but they keep me from doing what I want to do most: create books.

Others seem to manage their time better and accomplish more. Or is this an illusion? I don't know. All I know is that time management remains a daily struggle for me.

I Love This Book

STUPID FAST is crazy good. Minnesota author Geoff Herbach has written a moving, beautiful story. The characters, the action, the Wisconsin setting of Bluffton all ring true, but what really shines is the incredible voice of the narrator, Felton Reinstein.

Felton is funny, engaging, and alternately clueless and perceptive, sometimes at the same time. In other words, he's a high school boy. I'm not going to give any of the plot away since the book is so good, but there's a wonderful love story between one of my favorite couples in YA literature.

STUPID FAST was selected as the best YA book of the year in the Cybil Awards and I can see why.

I just finished an ARC of NOTHING SPECIAL, the next Felton book, and that is something special, too. Enjoy meeting Felton Reinstein. You won't forget him.

OKAY FOR NOW

In the midst of helping to care for my 90-year-old father and preparing to fly to the funeral of my dear aunt (my father's younger sister) in Phoenix, AZ, I've been reading Gary D. Schmidt's OKAY FOR NOW as I can squeeze it in. The book would not be a typical pick for Valentine reading. It's not an overt love story, but when I finished it yesterday (Valentine's Day), I realized it is ultimately a love story on many different levels. OKAY FOR NOW is also a master example of "show, don't tell" as it is vividly "told" through the remarkable voice of 14-year-old Doug Swieteck with humor and honesty and, most notably, without sentimentality. An added bonus--Not only do I feel enriched by an array of unusual characters, but also by a new, deeper understanding of art and design through the careful and caring teachings of Mr. Powell. Now you have to read the book to find out more...

David, thank you for recommending this book a number of months ago! It's been on my "to read" list since then, and I'm so happy I finally got to it.

So, my pick for Valentine's Day is OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt, and in the midst of family turmoil, I am feeling okay for now--in fact, far better than "okay" after having read this book!