R is for Rushed

R is for Rushed


I'm always rushing around.  My husband says its because I don't sit down and plan well enough.  And he's probably right, but who has time to sit down?  I like to think it's because I try to pack a lot into my day.  But some days all that rushing around backfires on me.  Like yesterday.  Here's what was supposed to happen:

Wake up early to write and edit Jess's book
Homeschool Ryan (Jess and Alyss mostly work on their own)
Alyss dentist appt
Get everyone lunch
Go to work
Take Alyssa to skating practice
Go back home
Take Jess to violin
Edit Jess's book while sitting at her lesson
Pick up frozen Chinese dumplings for dinner
Head home
Make rice and dumplings
Eat
Make sure kids are ready for bed
Collapse into bed

The first part of the day went quickly and smoothly.  But then things went awry. We were at Jess's violin lesson and I was editing her book. Jess was just finishing up her lesson and I needed to quickly pack up my laptop.  I thought I clicked "save", but something happened and the file closed itself.  What just happened?   I wondered.  I reopened the file.  Whew, it opened.  I packed it up and hoped everything was ok.

Later I opened up Jess's file.  Everything looked ok, until I read the last comment I had made.  I had highlighted some dialogue and I asked, "Who is speaking?", but it clearly stated "Seth said" in the sentence.

The one before that concerned a sentence which was,

"I never thought it would be this way."

My comment was "cut out 'thought it would be this way' "  leaving only:

"I never"

What was I thinking?  Had I fallen asleep while editing?  No, I was quite awake.  I scrolled up the document.  My heart sank.  Every comment I had made for the last 100 pages shifted to the wrong spot.  I was afraid to tell Jess.  I knew she was counting on me to have this done soon.  But she could tell I was getting riled up about something.  "Uh, Jess, I did something," I said sheepishly.  

We spent an hour trying to fix it. Usually Jess can quickly figure out what silly combination of things I've pushed and reverse them, but this time there was nothing.  Somehow I had inadvertently pushed some combination which scrambled all the comments.

I felt bad for Jess.  She felt bad for me.  We went through the comments together and laughed at how some of the comments were now creating hilarious scenarios. We felt more relaxed.

This morning I resumed my editing 100 pages behind where I had been.  But everything happens for a reason, and maybe just maybe I learned to not be so rushed.  
Yikes I gotta go now, I'm late for work!

Check out all the other A-Zers.

Have a relaxing weekend! :)

Kathy :)

P.S.
Oh and can someone please tell me how to apostrophize Jess? Is it Jess' or Jess's?

P.P.S
Yeah, I know apostrophize isn't a word but hey im in a hurry!!!

Time Challenged

I've never been efficient with my time.  My husband always says I run around a lot but I don't accomplish too much.  OUCH!  But I've finally come to realize that he's right.  (It's hard to admit!)

How many times have I gone to the store three times in one week because I left my list on the fridge and I've forgotten an essential ingredient?  Or how about all the time I spend repeatedly searching for something that I know I left on the counter, instead of just putting it away in the first place.  Or how I make lots of lists in different places and then misplace the list and forget what was on it.  Then I search for the list!

Anyway you get the idea. I'm time challenged.  But it takes precious time to be more organized! I felt I couldn't spare a moment.  But I wasn't getting any closer to attaining my goals.

This year I knew I had to change if I ever wanted to finish my novel and accomplish everything on my 2012 goals list (which I put on the computer, so I can't lose it, hopefully).  So finally today, I enlisted the help of Google Calendar.  I made a list of all the weekly items I wanted to have and some that were simply necessity, like making dinner.  I carved out time for each one, starting with the my most important item.  I couldn't believe that after I put everything in, including an hour each day to do a quick clean up and 1 hr each week to plan, I still had some pockets of time that were free.  In fact on Tuesdays I have 4 hours open!  I don't know how that happened!

I'm not sure this system will really work for me, because I've never found any schedule I can really stick to.  But at least I know that I really do have the time to get everything done.  Now it's up to me to make it happen!

How do you schedule all you need/want to do?  I'd love to hear your tricks!

Kathy