Balancing Time to Help Others and Time to Write! by DL Larson

I've done it again. I've over-extended my capabilities to complete my tasks in a timely fashion. Below is my commitments for several areas. I call it my To Do List.

TO DO LIST
1. edit a nonfiction book - a paying gig - deadline mid April
2. read and judge 3 romance genre competition entries - deadline mid April
3. read and judge 2 books in a romance genre competition - deadline end of April
4. edit my completed manuscript as my editor's suggests - deadline mid April
5. re-arrange/refurbish my office - no deadline - must install new printer before I go bonkers!
6. Take down my Christmas village in our entry - before I'm blamed for our extended winter in Illinois!
7. Get ready for Easter at my house - clean, decorate, prepare food, prepare an egg hunt, - deadline mid April
8. I'm in charge of the altar duties in my church - I need to turn the Lenten season into the Easter season - deadline mid April. I don't want to think about the commitment for Holy Week (the 3rd week in April)or the church-wide Easter Egg Hunt or that I'm in charge of Sunday School Choir preparing to sing on Easter morning.
9. I can't bare to add another item to this list ...

Now, in my defense, the paying gig was supposed to have started in January. I edited a few pages for free as I usually do, and then the author takes that info and applies it to the rest of his work. Once that is completed, then I will take on the rest of the manuscript. So January turned into late March, which would have been fine, except then the judging commitments that I agreed to a long time ago, came up.

Then my editor ran into a time issue and my manuscript was delayed until now. It should have been finished by now and on to a publisher. So I'm months behind on that target and don't want to slow up now.

As for refurbishing my office ... long story short ... my husband has a new office outside of our home and we are now going to re-arrange/refurnish my office so he can have a corner of it too when he needs office space. My office is big enough to do this, it's just the time factor of getting it done sooner rather than later so his 'stuff' doesn't end up all over the house. As for my printer - it has had a wonderful, long life and it is time to say good-bye. The new printer sits in my basement waiting for installment.

The Christmas village decorating my entry was beautiful a few months ago. Now it depresses me. It takes f o r e v e r to take it down and pack it away. I have to stand on a 8 foot ladder to reach the items, climb down with object(s) and repeat the process at least 20 times. It goes much faster to have a helper ... wonder who I can sweet talk into helping me ...

Church will take care of itself. Many hands will make the work light. It's just that somebody needs to start the ball rolling and that somebody is me. The ironic thing is, I could do it myself much faster and easier, but that doesn't make it right that I should do so. So calls and texts will be made and arrangements set to prepare our church for Easter. Many will help and I am blessed in knowing this!

Everyone has the same amount of time given to them each day. We can make plans, but that doesn't mean we will carry them out. Things come up, priorities change. I guess the important thing is to be flexible, keep a good attitude and keep moving forward, no matter how slow and cumbersome the road becomes.

My challenge, as always, is to chisel out time to work on my next writing project. I'll steal the time from somewhere. I always do.

Til next time ~

DL Larson
www.DLLARSON.com
find my historical family sagas on Amazon.com