Time Management and Loving What You Do

It always seems things take longer to do than I originally thought. I think to myself that such and such will only take an hour or so and the next thing it's three hours later and I'm still not done.

How often does that happen to us? Sometimes the hours turn into days. When the days turns into weeks, I can easily get bored with the project or distracted to something else. This is why I end up with too many unfinished products. I like to think I'll eventually get back to them.

The latest project was website updating which I hadn't done since last January. That interrupted organizing my files which interrupted the demolition photo project which interrupted finishing the two books which interrupted everything else for the whole of 2013. I did finally manage to finish the two scarves that I had started last January.

In talking about this the past couple weeks, I wondered if I could set up a schedule. I could work on files and business organization for the first hour or so in the morning, then I could work on a project to do with photos or editing. After lunch I could work on the book. That worked for about a day. I got so wrapped up in working on one thing that I did not do anything else. Come three o'clock in the afternoon, my brain is done.

What feels "stupid" to me is that none of this is really hard. It's just doing it and getting it done. And now that I've said that, it feels stupid. Yes, filing is not difficult, just time consuming once everything is set up. Re-designing/changing the website takes thought and planning as does photo editing. Writing takes a lot. In one aspect it comes very easy to me, but editing and tightening up the writings also takes a lot of brain work.

Maybe that's what I need to further define. Brain work compared to physical work. I think that I should do more because I am mostly sitting, but that isn't true. Thinking and mental work is just as tiring as physical labor. I put a lot of energy into what I'm working on. By the end of the day, I am mentally exhausted.

Nan and I were also talking the other day about loving your work. To be an artist, you must love what you do, and yes, I love what I do and I even sometimes call what I do play. But, it's still work. A lot of energy goes into my projects even those that haven't gone past the planning stages.

So, if we love what we do, why is it hard and tedious? Why does it FEEL like work? Okay, it IS work. Can it be play and work at the same time? If I love it so much, why is it such a struggle to finish?

Oh, these life questions. I enjoy asking and talking about things because I like hearing what other people have to say about these issues. How do you handle time? What do you see as play/work?