A Scarf and a Question!

Before I ask my question, another scarf. I cannot tell you how much I love this one - I so wish I could wear that color green... I mixed up the SOFTEST sari silk yarn with Noro silk yarn and just adore the resulting scarf. It's funky, it's pretty and the ruffle at both ends adds a bit of whimsy. You can see more pictures of it here in my Etsy shop! (But come back after you visit there...)

Now to my question... How do you schedule your days?

I know that I am not a routine kind of person - I don't do the same things every day at the same time. Nor would I like that - I need change and variety. However, sometimes I have trouble fitting everything into my days that I want to do. I start painting, for example, get into that creative space, and then find I have little time left for the other things I wanted to do.

Plus, I find that some things I love to do totally fall by the wayside. I haven't touched a book (well, one audio book) since I was in Germany. And I LOVE to read!

What do you do? Do you have a set schedule? Do you have different days when you focus on your art? Your writing? Your crafting? Your Etsy shop? Your correspondence? Your house work? Etc? Or do do you a little bit of everything every day? Do you set a timer for yourself? Do you work with a calendar? How do you stay on track?

Ok, so those were more than one question, but they are all related, aren't they? I'm always interested in how you all manage to be so productive!!

How do you...

...make sure you take time to smell the flowers? How do you stay balanced in everything you do? I really want to know!

I have a hard time with this - there's so much I want to do, so much I am interested in that I could split myself into four people and still be busy with everything. I find that it's difficult for me to do a little bit of everything every day. You know, that old dilemma of breadth vs. depth...

That means that I'll have a knitting and crocheting phase, when I don't do much else. Then I start painting again and that will take up my time. Last weekend, for example, I finally picked up a book again (first time in weeks) and did a lot of reading. It was wonderful. I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and loved it! But, while we did much outside and took advantage of the beautiful weather...I did no knitting, no blogging, no e-mail even, didn't talk with friends or family, painted a little bit, but not much, didn't visit any of your blogs, etc.

You get the picture, right? The problem is that I love it all, but each interest could be a full-time endeavor. And I didn't even talk about cooking, entertaining, housework, walking Winslow, etc.

As we get into my most favorite fall and winter seasons, I want to make sure that I savor life, that I enjoy all I do, that I have time to tune in to shorter days, cooler temperatures and the quiet strength of winter. I want to get that feeling of introspection and stillness that is so different from the feeling of hectic panic so often experienced the closer with get to the holidays!

So, my question to you is this: How do YOU do it? How do you stay balanced? How you do make sure you have time for everything that's important to you and for yourself? How do stay healthy and happy during this time? I'd really love to know!!

P.S. One tip I have for you readers out there who find themselves short on reading time - audio books! I always have one on my MP3 player and love it! And that's what I'm going take advantage of now -- listen to The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh and travel to Greenland in my mind while getting the house in order!

P.P.S. Some of you are asking about the audio books - I find the best source for them to be our public library! They have them as tapes, CD's and even MP3 downloads. A huge selection of both fiction and non-fiction!

UPDATE

(today's harvest from our little garden)

Well, I've gotten some wonderful comments from you all that have been incredibly helpful! Most of you were telling me to just do what strikes my fancy, what's right in front of me, enjoy doing that and then go on to the next thing. That's exactly what I did today - I just took care of stuff, one after the other, and pretty soon I had lots done, the pressure lifted and then I had time to relax and knit for a while.

I also realized that this isn't really a problem at all - because my dilemma is a very positive one. My dad wrote an e-mail to me saying that he still feels that way - never enough time in the day to do all the wonderful things we want to do. And how important it is to just enjoy what we are doing in the moment and not think about all the other things that are waiting to be explored, to be done, to be created. Let's hope life stays that full for all of us for a very long time!!

Thank you for being my friends!!!