I’ve made a discovery. It is the same discovery I’ve made at least three times in the past four years, which does dampen my excitement a bit. However, I will still apply it in my life. Again. Perhaps this time it will stick.
I am going to start better partitioning my time.
Two days ago I wrote about child induced task limbo. After the fact, I recognize that the limbo was only half caused by the expectation of interruption. It was also created by the fact that all of my days have turned into a mish-mash of everything. I constantly task swap between business, household, and parenting. This leaves no time which feels free for relaxation. It was also not leaving time for anything but the barest bones blog writing. And then there were the household things which were forever incomplete because no time was set aside for them.
So I’m making new rules for myself. Or rather, I dug out my old rules and realized I should still be following them.
From getting up in the morning until dropping the kids off to school my time belongs to the kids and the house. I am not allowed to get on a computer nor to check the internet using my phone.
From dropping the kids at school until noon or 1 pm, my time belongs to the business. This is when I will do accounting, email, shipping, book layout, etc.
From noon or 1 pm until picking up the kids from school is my writing time and/or relaxation time. It is the space in the day reserved for my things.
From picking up kids from school until dinner I am primarily taking care of kids and house. However there is likely to be some business and/or writing mixed in if the kids are occupied. It is not focused project time and I am not allowed to bury myself in my office for hours. Gardening is a good thing to put here.
Dinner to kid bedtime belongs to the Children.
Kid bedtime to my bedtime I can do final rounds of internet checking, writing, reading, etc.
It feels like a good and sensible schedule. I suspect it will be less than a week before I’m blurring the lines again. I’ll probably have a good reason, like the last rush to get EPD off to the printer. All it takes is for a kid to get sick to land parenting stuff in my business hours. Then it feels fair that business spill into family hours because Stuff Must Get Done. In short order I expect it all to be mish-moshed together again, but it is a lovely schedule and I shall endeavor to make it real.