Time Won’t Give Me Time

I have been struggling with time management lately.

I’m sure I’m not the only one.

After much self-reflection and self-evaluation, I have come to realize that I’m a Renaissance Woman.

That can mean a lot of different things to people, but for me it means that I have a ton of interests and I want to do them all, all the time, all extremely well. As you might have guessed, this is not necessarily a great kind of person to be.

I wake up in the morning, the world is my oyster, and I can’t for the life of me decide what I want to focus on that day because I want to do it all. And if I do start on something, I tend to get distracted easily and flit to the next thing before I finish what I was working on.

Now often, I have an appointment, or a job, or an errand or something that helps me to formulate the day’s schedule. This helps me decide how to fit in what I want to do with the rest of my day, simply by giving me less time to work with. But it doesn’t help me decide WHAT to fit in.

Here’s an example of the numerous “to-do’s” that run through my mind on a daily basis:

Exercise, Check email, respond to email, read articles sent to me by email, bookmark and catalogue helpful websites and emails for later review, practice monologues, practice songs, write screenplay, work on DOGFACE Theatricals items, write blogs (the other one being Full Stop Eating, if you’re interested!), clean the apartment, make apartment nicer, walk the dog, learn spanish, learn guitar, organize my desk, contact friends, spend time with family, update my website, watch movies, watch tv, listen to podcasts, read books, listen to music…….etc. etc. etc. on and on and on.

It’s ridiculous. I have lists upon lists upon lists that break down all of these items into potential actionable details, but it makes me so overwhelmed that I look at it all and tend to flop down on the couch with a glazed look on my face and watch “Housewives of Orange County.”

Okay, I’m exaggerating.

I do usually achieve 1 to 3 things on my day’s activity list before I’m spent and go into said above brain coma.

I have been told again and again that if you accomplish 1 to 3 items on your daily list that you’re doing great, actually. That humans aren’t wired to constantly “multi-task” and that’s why our society is incredibly exhausted, worn out, and over it.

I really do want to “suck out all the marrow out of life“, as was so eloquently written by Henry David Thoreau and spoken in the movie “Dead Poets Society.” (And if you haven’t seen it yet, HELLO!, put that on your list of must-see-movies, stat!)

So I guess the real challenge for me is to control all of these “over-achiever” urges and calm the heck down. To know that what’s most important for me is to value quality over quantity, focus on what is really inspiring me RIGHT NOW, and not what I feel I SHOULD do. I need to trust that I will accomplish all that I desire in life, in the right time, for me.

How about y’all?

Are any of you “Rennaisance?” What does that mean to you? And how do you manage your time and projects?

***For a fascinating book on how some of the most prolific writers, artists and thinkers of our time organized their work and life, check out Daily Rituals. ***