Lately I’ve been taking on a ton of hobby projects and it’s starting to get overwhelming. So here’s a big brain dump of all the projects floating around in my head. I find I have to do this kind of reevaluating on a fairly regular basis, or I let myself get overwhelmed with all the things I need/want to do. My steps for culling it down go something like this
- What are all the things I want to do?
- Once I have that long list, what things can’t I drop? In this case, I’ve already started my two courses, I don’t want to back out now!
- Finally, what things fulfill the same needs (multiple knitting projects, books to read, etc. ) If so, which one is more important to me?
- Hopefully that’s 3 things. If not, realistically, what do I actually have time for?
- That should be 3 things.
Here’s my current list
- Finish my quilt
- Finish my beatnik sweater
- Start a new sweater before NaKniSweMo
- Work on homework for Science and Cooking
- Work on homework for Ideas of the 20th Century
- Spin my pound of fleece
- Finish reading The Kindly Ones
- Read Alice Monroe’s Short Story, Fiction
- Read the LSG Book Club book – Let the Right One In
- Read Kidnapped
- Read The Enchanted Castle
- Write a pattern for my tee shirt yarn rug
- Finish making tee shirt yarn
- Knit a sweater for my sister’s baby boy
Clearly this means that I’ve abandoned my plan of having just 3 things to focus on. And next month I plan to do NaNoWriMo and NaKniSweMo (National Novel Writing Month and National Knit a Sweater Month), so I have to either put some of these things on hold in 2 weeks, or finish them to get them off my plate. Not to mention the fact that I think about doing all of them in one day, but generally have time for 0-2 when I get home from work.
Let’s do a quick priority check here.
- Finish my quilt – work on the top for 4 hours over the course of the next two weeks, then put it down for the most part till December
- Finish my beatnik sweater – I’m on the sleeves, so I should be able to finish this in two weeks
start a new sweater before NaKniSweMo- These two are ongoing, so I’ll keep chugging along with them
- Homework for Science and Cooking
- Homework for Ideas of the 20th Century
- Spin my pound of fleece – when I feel like it, this is something I can do when it pops into my head and has no deadline
- Finish reading The Kindly Ones – I’ve been working on this for months, it’s time to finish the darn thing.
- Read Alice Monroe’s Short Story, Fiction – when I get time I can fit this in, it’s a short story after all
- Read the LSG Book Club book – Let the Right One In – I’d love to have this read so I can discuss it this can be done by Mid-November, so it’s not high priority
- These two can be read when I get around to it
Read KidnappedRead The Enchanted Castle
- This is something I might get around to once in a while, but doesn’t need to be on my mind
- write a pattern for tee shirt yarn rug
- finish making tee shirt yarn
- Knit a sweater for my sister’s baby boy – I can start this in December and have it done by Christmas
OK, so I’m down to the essentials, ordered to reflect my priorities. (I know #2 is cheating, but it’s that I want to devote time to these courses)
- Finish my beatnik sweater
- These two are ongoing, and I feel like I made a commitment to finishing an online class this “semester” so I’ll keep chugging along with them
- Homework for Science and Cooking
- Homework for Ideas of the 20th Century
- Finish reading The Kindly Ones – I’ve been working on this for months, it’s time to finish the darn thing.
Phew! That feels better. Now on to do this with my non-creative life.