Dividing and Dedicating Time

As I have been slowly getting out of my sabbatical and into action again, I am thinking a lot about how I want to divide my time between the many things I want to do.

If I say yes to opportunities that arise, it means I am saying no to something else. Recently I have had some conversations with several people about just that. People who turned down ‘unique’ career opportunities, inspite of others telling them that this chance should be taken in order to ‘grow’. It’s very inspiring to see people saying no to an opportunity, so that they can say yes to their family, health, more time for themselves, and/or to personal growth and development.

I am learning that the sense of urgency I sometimes feel, often isn’t based on more than my unlimited enthusiasm for the idea, project or opportunity, combined with the fear of losing momentum.

But the fact that an opportunity comes by doesn’t mean that it’s yours to take, or that it’s the only one you’ll ever get. If it’s not on the right time for you, it’s OK to follow your intuition, let it go by, and trust that there will come some other opportunity that will fit into your life. Or even better, create your own opportunity.

The past weeks have all been about editorial calendars, prioritising, and puzzling how to divide my time to do all the things that I want to dedicate my time to. Turns out I can’t do everything at the same time, even though I really want to. Accepting that is the hardest part, but now that I am finally learning that there’s only 7 days in a week and 24 hours in a day, I am slowly getting better at it.

I am not only working out my priorities for current and upcoming projects, endeavors and ideas, but also for play time.
At the top of my priorities list are
-Drawing
-Walking
-Yoga and workouts
-Painting
-Time with my husband
-Time with friends and family
-Self education, online and offline courses
-Reading

The priority list above are all the things that feed me, as well as relax me.
Now I can start prioritising the rest (you know - work) and see how they fit into my schedule. I want to divide my time in the best possible way that fits with what I want to dedicate my time to. These two words, ‘divide’ and ‘dedicate’ were on my mind constantly while I was taking a walk this morning before lunch. And ‘decide’ (prioritising) fits well to these words too.
It’s so important to be mindful of the things you really want to do. It’s easy to lose track, because of a busy job or other necessary obligations.
There’s just so many things that need to be done, even though it’s not necessarily the stuff on your priority list. Then we say to ourselves: “I really wanted to ___ (draw / workout /read / study, practice the guitar…or fill in the blank) but life got in the way”.
But whatever you filled in the blank above, that’s what life is. Even if you squeeze in 5 minutes to do the thing that feeds you, that brings you joy, that makes you feel happy, then you are dividing your time so mindfully and to yourself. That is what life is about. And it gives you the energy to do the stuff that has to be done (while you are already looking forward to the reward you’ll give yourself: play time!)

This drawing above symbolises play time pretty literally. These three people depicted here, each have a lot of responsibilities in their lives when it comes to their jobs and family to take care of. And they very mindfully dedicate time to play. They got together last week at our place, to play Mario World.
For a couple of hours they each allowed themselves to escape from the real world into a very colorful video game world. I had been in the other room, because of an art date I had with a friend online (playing with art materials we hadn’t used in ages, and we had so much fun!), and when I came into the living room I found these three adults, playing a game that looks as if it’s for kids (grown-up kids too!), the laughter being alternated with very concentrated faces because of the importance of getting through a level by working together. What else could I do but draw them?

That importace of play. The concentration and focus and forgetting all the other things, it’s called flow. I feel it when I draw, paint, walk, and do other things that make me feel happy. And I saw it happening in the room, on those three faces lit by the TV screen.
It’s beautiful to see how much joy it can bring to an individual or to a group of friends like that. It’s so inspiring

Let’s do the things that feed us, let’s make them priorities. Then we help ourselves to balance things out, to work in a more focused way, and get all the things done.

Now I’ll set the example - I am off drawing! And maybe after that I feel focused and inspired to write another chapter for my book!