Don’t Suck Me In

Sometimes I make a conscious decision not to do something because I know I’ll just get sucked in and it’ll inevitably just suck my time away. For example, I avoid playing video games. I played them as a child (although not obsessively) and enjoyed them, but even then I think I realized that I didn’t really want to get too sucked into them. Video games take a lot of time and energy because you have to actively pay attention to them (you can’t half play them like you can half watch TV).

It’s not that many of the things I avoid wouldn’t be enjoyable, it’s just that it’s easy to become into something, and then you spend all of this time doing that something. Sewing is a good example of me suddenly getting into something, where I went from never sewing to buying a sewing machine, and then buying fabric (and more fabric and more fabric) and buying sewing patterns and notions. It was like a domino effect of getting more and more stuff, and then spending all this time sewing different garments. And while I like sewing, it certainly evaporates my time quickly [because it takes many hours just for me to sew a skirt. (Sigh.)]

Moderation is a good thing…if you can do it. But I think most people have at least something (if not a few things) that they do in excess because they love to do them. So I have to pick and choose which time consuming things I want to spend time on and which things aren’t worthwhile for me. Because there seems to be an infinite number of time suckage things you could do, but only a finite amount of time you have to do them in.

It’s on My List

Like many people, I like making lists; it helps to organize my thoughts and prioritize what should get done first. Some things are important and some things are minor, but it always feels good to cross something off my list. It’s nice to have that sense of accomplishment when something is done (and you don’t have to think about it any more).

However, sometimes it just seems like the list of things to do just grows longer and longer and it feels like nothing is really getting done. Something unexpected comes up that takes priority or a small something turns into a big something (and becomes a time suckage), and then suddenly the whole timeline you had in mind is off and you feel like you have to play catch up.

When you feel behind, then you have to be even more organized, like setting time limits for each item on the list or multi-tasking or simplifying certain tasks or postponing the less important items until later. But hopefully, if you manage your time well enough, you can get back onto your previous course without too much of an unwanted detour.

My Friend, the Deadline

For me, often a project without a deadline is dead in the water. When I’m designing for myself (for fun), I have to create reasonable deadlines or projects will just drag on with no end in sight. I’ll admit there have been many projects that I’ve started only to forget about them later, because I didn’t feel a strong need to finish them anytime soon (and thus, they were never finished). [Sigh.]

So I will often try to impose deadlines on projects because they help me to stay focused. Deadlines just give me that little extra bit of motivation to get started and continually work on projects. I need that because it’s so easy to be lazy. It’s easy to think that you can do it anytime you want—tomorrow or the day after that or next week or next month. That much freedom is too much; I need to give myself constraints otherwise nothing will ever get done. I need to force my own hand.

While I may not meet all my deadlines, at least I’m making an effort to meet them. And usually with my self-imposed deadlines, I create deadlines that are on the tighter side so I have some extra leeway to push them back if need be. Deadlines are great because they help to create pressure, which I find necessary to help me get things done.

The Back Burner

Time has been creeping up on me. I feel like I blinked in the middle of summer and suddenly it was November. Projects I meant to work on got put on the back burner as I worked on other things (like knitting and sewing). I thought I had more time, but time has a funny way of catching up with you.

And now with December around the corner I need to get back to my neglected projects (as the plan was create more designed items as Christmas presents). I’ve sort of known the gist of what I wanted to do for months; it was just being motivated enough to actually get started. And now with Christmas looming, I feel motivated (inevitable deadlines do that for me).

I have about month to design and put together things, which I think is pretty doable. Once I get some momentum, I think things will come together fairly smoothly (at least I hope so). So back burner projects you’ve now been relegated to the front burner. [Pause]. Congratulations, you now have my full attention.