S – Schedules…I have to be Where, When?

Schedules – Finding the Time

Trying to write every day can be somewhat difficult. You need to find that moment between your job, your meals, sleep, chores that need to be done and also have the space, materials, not to mention the ideas to create your piece. Fitting things into a schedule takes work but it can be done. Just look at how Herman and Otto dealt with it…

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Otto came over to visit and found Herman sitting at his workstation: on the computer was playing a youtube video on how to fix a bathroom fixture; on his lap there was a notebook that he was vigorously writing something down in; his calendar was open on his desk with all sorts of red lines drawn on it; and his cell phone was pinging him with some sort of notification. It was unusual for Herman to look so flustered.

“No. No. No. I can’t do that right now, I’m in the middle of something!” Herman screamed to no one in particular.

“You look kind of busy,” was Otto’s comment, “maybe I should come back at a more convenient time.”

Herman dropped his pencil, sat back, took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s not your fault. Stay. I could use the break. I should be able to fit it into my schedule.”

Otto laughed. “Fit it into your schedule? Why do you bother to keep a schedule? Just do things whenever they happen and if it doesn’t get done, no problem.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Herman replied, “You don’t have to get this report done for work and at the same time fix a bathroom fixture before it gets too dark to see anything and on top of that get to a meeting with my dentist in an hour and still have time to come home and cook supper.”

Otto thought about that. “You’re right, I don’t have to do that today, because I rarely schedule myself to do that much. I’m not what you call a multi-tasker. I’m not going to drive myself crazy just to fit some arbitrary schedule I feel that I have to meet. What gets done gets done. If I can’t finish my report, I’ll tell my boss I’ll have it in tomorrow. I do have more than one bathroom in my house, so I can go for days without using the one with the broken fixture. Dentist visits can be rescheduled and as for dinner, tonight sounds like a great night to eat out. Problem solved. I can just sit back, read a book or watch TV.”

“Yeah, but eventually you will have to accomplish all those things. If you keep putting them off, the pile will just get bigger.”

“If that’s the case,” Otto said, “then maybe I’m doing too much and I’ll just make my load a lot simpler. You know that TV is not going to be watched by itself.”

This time Herman was the one that was doing the thinking. “Maybe you’ve got a point there. What I need to do is schedule myself so that I have certain breaks throughout the day.  Where I can dedicate time to myself and I can turn off all of the requirements that I feel must be done now.”

Otto remembered something that Lina always did. “You know my wife always takes Saturday off from school. She decided that working 7 days a week built up too much pressure and she wasn’t looking at things through clear eyes. So she drops all talk, thought and actions about her schoolwork on Saturdays. She reads, we go places, she works in the garden, you know, stuff like that. Then when Sunday comes along she’s back to thinking about work.”

“Sounds like you’re telling me that having a schedule is okay as long as you temper it with open slots and downtime. That almost sounds reasonable.”

“Exactly,” Otto said. “Break out the drinks and chips and turn on the telly. My kind of schedule.”

“Not mine,” Herman responded, “but I think I can work with the idea.”

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As I said, finding the time to fit everything you want and need to do into a schedule can be difficult. But remembering to fit in downtime, take a step back, breathe deeply, and relax are important to not only getting things accomplished but also keeping your sanity. Which reminds me, I was trying to find a time to do some writing today. If I only had something to write about?