Tuesday, October 1: I might have found out why my plans never work

Since I had stayed up too late to read yet again I was not all that happy when the alarm went off at 5.30. I did do most of my morning routine but skipped morning pages in favor of novel-writing. Made breakfast slightly too late which worked out fine since the boy was five minutes late as well.

My mornings would go smoother if I got up fifteen minutes earlier but somehow 5.15 feels a lot earlier than 5.30. And 75 minutes should be enough time for five minutes of meditation, five minutes of reading, thirty minutes of morning pages and thirty minutes of writing plus checking the weather, using the bathroom and checking Ravelry but transitions are a real thing and so is snuggling in bed for five more minutes.

After breakfast I spent another fifteen minutes just dawdling but then I made myself write for another session and got 1,600 words in. Phew.

My husband was a little late which suited me fine and I knitted while he made himself breakfast and ate. Afterwards we talked a lot about whether to buy new cymbals for the drum set. My husband changed one out and that one, of course, is so much better than the old ones that he was debating getting more of those. That expense has to be weighed against the money still in the bank, possible costs of house repairs next year, the cost of a couch that we haven’t chosen yet and also our mortgage.

We still got going pretty early because of my double grocery shopping run. I decided to not renew my library card for now and went off to the health food store first, came back and walked to the supermarket. Therefore my husband had to make lunch without help so that was a little late as well. But rather yummy:

Afterwards we did the lunch dishes and then it was time for non-stop teaching. Half of the lessons were rescheduled from other days. A little disorienting.

Then I waited for the boy to show up for bodyweight training, we did that for thirty minutes, I started writing this post and then did the rest of the things on my list.

Face-planted around eight, got ready for bed and read some more. Very good day.

As for why my plans never work out, well, I posted my October goals over on Ravelry. This time I thought they were very reasonable:

So. Onwards. I’m hoping that this time my goals will turn out to be realistic:

1. Finish writing EM3 (needs about 23,000 more words, I’m at 74,000 right now).
2. Edit EM0.
3. Do two things each week to improve teaching website.
4. Finish sewing Kew dress. (Two more seams, 15 buttonholes and 15 buttons.)
5. Finish Pacing-Workshop. (18 more sessions, about 15 minutes per weekday.)
6. Re-arrange living room: put wool and UFOs away, mount new light fixture, look at couches and maybe buy one, mount CO detector.
7. Call piano tuner.
8. Read “How to write dazzling dialogue.
9. Visit wool market and have fun.
10. Get birthday present for my mother, wrap and mail it on time.

And then I added a paragraph at the end that read:

And then there’s the usual, do two podcast episodes, blog every day, continue running and bodyweight training three times a week, do household chores mostly on time. And prepare for one of my husband’s friends visiting the same weekend as the wool market. And help our son get ready and pack for the workshop-thing he is going to, again that same weekend. Oh, and that Patreon newsletter again and fiddling with the podcast sound.

That right there is the problem. I have this pretty ambitious but doable list. And then there is the rest of my life that is already full and then there is this other list that I didn’t realize I had that sits hidden under „Oh, there is this one weekend that is kind of crazy.”

Also, I did forget the t-shirt in progress. And the daily meditation and morning pages. I might save time by not eating snacks and dinner (if I manage to do so – a very big if) but I don’t save energy that way.

And that is why time-blocking is such a great planning tool. Only when I block out my time in advance there is never a block of „have a long conversation with the boy about Inktober and spend some time looking for the blank notebook I knew I had and the fineliners I never use. What do you do then? Do you tell your son, sorry, but you’ll book a time slot for him come Saturday? I mean, yes, I know that there are people who tell you to only plan out half your time. Those are wise people. You need time for unexpected stuff like leaking toilets. And delightful conversations with family members.

The other problem that often I will have time but no energy. Or the other way around.

So, looks like October is pretty full already? Yeah?