It’s been a month since I got back from my trip, so last night I had a look at the stuff I wrote when I first got back, in particular the to-do list that turned into an examination of what I do with my time. I’d highlighted what I wanted to do more or less of.

More:
Write short stories – done (well, a novella)
Attend writing critique group – not done
Exercise – done, though mostly unplanned activities
Home maintenance (gardening, etc) and improvement – done
Read – done
More art – done
Travel and take more holidays – planning to

Less:
Convention attendance – well, none have come up to not go to
Tv – no reduction
Craft related internet – moved to evening, mostly
Hobby group meetings during work hours – done

The best solutions were:

* Shift reading Pinterest and Bloglovin’ to the evenings, while watching tv, so I don’t get bored, feel the time is as wasted or hurt my back and hands embroidering too much.

* Do some gardening in the mornings instead. Not every day, though, and only for a half hour or hour to allow my body to get used to it. So far it’s been mostly tidying up – weeding, pruning, cleaning out and rearranging the shed, and putting mulch down. (This is short term, though. Once full summer hits the garden and I will go into ‘hibernation’.)

The other successes have been unplanned or easy because it’s easy to not do something. The novella was commissioned, not initiated by me, for example. I’ve had exercise, but mostly through activities, not imposing a routine. Not attending a craft meeting takes no effort or planning. The trouble is, the same inertia and lack of planning had me miss another crit group meeting, mainly because I didn’t make time to read the stories.

Most of our planning time and energy has been going into another half work, half holiday trip coming up, but Paul has started gathering info for an adventure we might do next summer, or the one after, and I’ve been toying with the idea of a short visit to Japan.

I’ve done some work-related drawing as well as progress on the portrait. I’ve designed and started another cat embroidery. If I hadn’t done anything this month I’d be very worried. I always write better when I’m doing some other kind of creative activity.

The weirdest thing we’ve been doing is looking at houses. Like I need another source of anxiety! So far I’ve concluded that there are a few things about this house I really don’t like, but maybe not enough to face the upheaval of moving and renovating a house to fit our needs. I’m not sure Paul agrees.

Looking back over the month… perhaps it’s all just resettling after a very hectic first six months of the year. Between art classes falling on Tuesdays, working on weekends, and fad hobbies, routine didn’t exist. Not that I’m the sort who needs a strict routine, but meeting more recent deadlines has threatened to send me down the same path again. I just want weekends to be weekends again.

Two free days I know I can plan for. Maybe then I’d plan a little crafting.