Results tagged "Atari"

Guest Bird #10 – Mari

Remember my post on the Master Schedule? I neglected to mention that my biggest hurdle to actually following through with anything is my acute case of anti-willpower. It’s been plaguing me for years. I think a lot of those years the lazy bug stemmed from doing too much – I was working full-time, making art in my studio part-time, and an adjunct faculty teaching college courses part-time. And I lived 40 minutes away from all of it. I was overloaded, and it meant that I was never interested in doing any of the things I’d committed myself to do – because there was no commitment left in me.

The cheesy way to put it? I was losing any passion for what I was doing.

Luckily, it appears that working for myself is restoring my gumption. The Master Schedule – picking one main project to focus on each day of the week – works. Mostly. When I have an idea on Blog Monday that belongs with Art Wednesday, all I have to do is write it down for Wednesday (a tabbed notebook is KEY). There’s less paralysis over what priority is next. Plus, at the end of the week, I can actually see what I’ve accomplished on a daily basis. It does require flexibility. The week I devoted to Small for Big’s theWANTlists 2009? Well, it took all 5 days and the weekend. But I also knew I had dedicated time for each neglected project coming the following week – when I returned to the Master Schedule. Regrettably, some things don’t change. I still have to answer Freelance Tuesday’s emails even if it’s Etsy Thursday. And no matter what, when Baby Cries it’s Baby Day. She definitely forces me to be more realistic with my to-do lists. But the best part? I find myself willingly going back to get something done because I know it’s my only chance that week. I thought that part of me was long gone.

However, I am finding that if I push myself too hard, the burnout returns. I’ve been feeling it the last couple of days. Suddenly, all I want to do is be mom (nothing wrong with that, is there!) and knit someone else’s designs – mindlessly. The long and the short of it is this. Even when I’m doing what I love, I need to find a way to reward myself and rest. So the cliches about finding your passion have to be balanced with the other clichés about everything in moderation. So, apparently, I have to listen to all those kitschy signs and sayings? Ugh.

Mari (rhyme that with Atari, not Gary) is a full time Mom that owns and operates a huge for small blog called Small for Big, crafts like nobody’s business and stalks Martha in her spare time. She is also an accomplished artist and freelance designer. Heck, is there anything that Mari can’t do?

This is Mari’s second For the Birds landing. Click here to read her first post.

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Guest Bird #5 – Mari

I’m Mari (rhyme that with Atari, not Gary, thank you). I’m so happy to have a place to ramble on and on and on and on, without having to post about the things I post about at my usual blog – Small for Big. Hope you’re ready for that Ry!
 

I’ve been looking forward to writing a post for days, but I keep running out of time – or more importantly, I keep forgetting it because of all the other random little things that take up my time. They keep pushing the writing aside. So now that I’m actually pushing all the other things aside, it seemed appropriate to write about the random business that is my life.
 

I mean, come on, I no longer have a day job! (lost that to a lay off in April) I should have oodles of time! The problem is, I forget to account for the 10 month old nipping at my heels. Ok, she’s a baby not a puppy, but she does nip at everything. My daughter is definitely a time-muncher. In my new life as a Work-At-Home-Mom (though the work is rather sporadic, see above) I’ve been eating up interviews with other Designer/Etsy/Artsy moms who all seem to agree: when your children are awake, your focus is on them. I agree, in theory. But in practice there’s always one more email, one more website, a little more to draw, and on my lazy days, a bit more TV to watch. The bigger issue is my Over Achiever brain (I blame that tendency on my liberal arts Undergraduate Degree) (and of course I said Undergraduate because I’m an OA and I also have a Graduate Degree). As an OA, I forget about the reality of the day’s schedule and assume I can get 10 things done. Instead, I should be choosing 1. Then, at 10:30 PM when I finally decide to give in and watch some bad Conan O’Brien (and I think he’s getting worse) I might actually be able to say I accomplished something.
 

I had an old boss who used to email herself the top 5 things she’d accomplished at the end of every week. She used them as a record for reviews later on. But when I managed to copy her practice for a couple of months, I found it actually helped me remember what I’d been doing. Actually, as I think about it, I’d bet a lot of my “time management” issues stem from my inability to remember anything.
 

Anyway, the end of all of this rambling is this. I’ve decided to try out a “master” schedule.  Because the larger problem – larger than over-scheduling my days – is that it appears I’ve chosen to focus on 5 different career paths. Blogger, Freelance Designer, Artist, (future) Etsy Shop Owner, and Mom. We’ll analyze the feasibility of that at another time. Given that the work week has 5 days in it, I’ve decided to pick a focus for each day. In the order listed above. Obviously I’ll still be all of those things – Mom in particular – on all of those days, but let’s see if choosing one thing at a time can help me make some progress. I’ll let you know how it’s going.

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