Creative People and Organizing Skills: Time Management

Today was the day when I reached the tipping point in my clutter/creative disorder situation by posting a desperate scream on Twitter “Why am I so disorganized?!” It made me think about all these successful women who juggle career/family & friends/hobbies without a glitch and still find the time for themselves. Is it a myth or reality?

How can I bring structure into my chaotic life? What if I do it but won’t like it? ;-) What if I start planning, and then my life will turn into boring routine, too predictable & controlled? Do I really need more structure?

Well... YES, I DO!!!

I have been crawling to the acknowledgement of this regretful fact for the last couple of weeks now. It started with trying to find an app for my smart phone vs. regular Outlook Calendar that I religiously use for my normal business life. I tried a few apps but none of them necessarily caught my fancy.

While surfing Russian sites last night, I came across a mention of a planner by Yana Frank “365 Days in the Life of a Creative Person” (per her publisher, it’s been translated into English -- please hurry! ;-)), a sort-of a workbook/daily planner that goes together with her bestseller “The Muse and The Beast”. The publisher’s website generously shared a few of the worksheets that she had created & used herself -- I felt they were doable and easy to implement.

So, after a series of incidents today, I caved in and proclaimed to my very patient husband that I was going to Barnes and Noble to buy “a magic book” -- A DAILY PLANNER. The last time I used one was back in 1997...

The variety of products available to the aspiring organizing gurus was overwhelming. After a thorough search I picked a 2012 Weekly Professional Planner (Don’t be fooled by its name, it actually starts from July 2011 and goes to June 2013!). I liked it because it looked non-scary, had a half-hour appointment scheduling (will change it to 45/15 & explain why later), huge section of notes, a monthly & weekly format. The perfect solution to all my problems!!!

Upon my return, I waved it in front of my husband with apparent triumph, pushing it back and forth into his face, saying “Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Looky! Looky”. The next 15 minutes were spent discussing the thoughtfulness and craftsmanship put in the planner, then I had to find an appropriate time-management quote to be calligraphically inscribed on the inner left cover with a new pen (to be used for this book only) that took about half-an-hour, while I was chasing my hubby around the house with the laptop, reading him aloud the possible variants, and the grand finale -- I had to find/put stickers from my old scrapbooking project to decorate a few pages of the notes portion.

An hour of super-productive preparation... Beware efficient creative living -- here I come!