Getting Organized

I’ve been getting lots of compliments on my haircut lately. It’s short . Really short.

I’m not sure what it means, but when I dream, my hair is always long. I USED to wear my hair long. The difference between my dreams and reality is that in my dreams, my long hair is gorgeous. There is none of the shampooing and conditioning and fighting with it. In reality, after all that it still looks stringy.

So the busier I get, the shorter my hair gets. At this rate I will soon be bald. Think Sinead O’Connor.

I’ve been doing a lot of de-cluttering and simplifying in my life. It began with making room to move my workspace into the room that is now my office. (I love my office, by the way. I wasn’t sure I would, but I do.) But the de-clutter campaign has moved into other areas of the house. If you’re trying to get organized and feel out of control, check out the Fly Lady. She’s been directing me to toss the junk under my kitchen sink, to clean out the freezer, to dump the old cosmetics and to get rid of the stacks and stacks of paper clutter.

Okay, I’m having trouble with that last one. But I’m working on it.

What I really need to organize at this point is my time. I made some goals for 2007 that include finishing the first draft of Death Bet as well as writing and submitting one short story or article each month. January is slipping away and so far, I haven’t fared so well. The problem isn’t coming up with ideas or knowing how to bring them to fruition. The problem is TIME.

I’ve been taking my mom to physical therapy three days a week to have her muscle spasms treated. I visit my dad at the nursing facility four days a week. I teach three yoga classes a week. I have taken on the duties as Area 3 Representative for Pennwriters, which, of course, turns out to be more work than I expected. But I enjoy it. Then there are all the little things like cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning the house. We’ve just hit the low end of the priority list here. Sorry, Fly Lady. (I do love the feather duster, though).

In order to accomplish my goals—and I am determined to accomplish my goals—I need to steal some time to write. But from where?

I don’t have any answers. I think Mom’s P.T. will be over soon. (She’s doing much better, thanks for asking.) That will give me back a couple hours. Basically, I think I need to be more insistent that when I block off a couple hours for writing, it STAYS blocked off for writing. No more spending that time checking email or reading blogs (say it isn’t so!!!). No more making lunch dates with friends during my writing time.

Here’s what I’ve done to get me started. I have a notepad on my desk that is my “to-do” list. If someone needs me to check into something or if I have a deadline coming up or if I need to write a thank you note, it gets listed on that notepad. So I started a new page with next week’s dates on it. I listed what I intend to do toward reaching my goals for January. It’s a scary-looking list, but if I stick to writing during my writing time, it’s do-able.

I hear that bald is beautiful!