'Twas the work before Christmas

The world is going to end on December 25. It must be. It's the only explanation for why every single thing on my To Do list has that particular deadline.

Everyone wants to 'catch up' before Christmas. Like we will not be here come Boxing Day. Multiple Mum has moved her entire Christmas 'catch up' list to January 2011 and reports great success in lowering stress levels in the Multiple household. We should all try it.

Everyone wants copy in before Christmas. Like we're not all going on holidays for at least a week or two, leaving said copy to languish unread and unloved.

December is always insanely busy. Every year I am surprised. Every year I complain about the work. Every year I forget. Temporary amnesia. The same reason women can cheerfully get pregnant with their second child, knowing what's ahead.

For now, though, I am slogging through it. One foot in front of the other. In time to Jingle Bells.

I can only imagine how Santa must feel. Now there's a man with a looming December 25 deadline.

{image: via squidoo}

Time waits for no Muse

Just a short post today because I’m supposed to be writing something else. I’ve been dwelling a lot on the concept of time lately. Mostly because I never seem to have enough of it. Today, especially, because having a birthday tends to amplify the tick-tick-tick of the clock running down.

As a work-at-home-mum, I fit a fair amount into each day. Fulltime mum, part-time job, some-of-the-time domestic goddess, all-of-the-time partner. What I learned early in the piece was the importance of prioritising what was important and letting go of everything else. Only I’ve never been real good at letting go of anything except the housework. That, I sent out to sea on a raft a long time ago. Everything else, I try to fit in.

When I started blogging, I didn’t stop to consider where I was going to put it in the schedule. I just figured I’d do like I always did and fit it in. I joke about procrastination, but the truth is that I’ve always been very serious about deadlines. If you want to make a living as a freelancer, you have to be. So when the baby/toddler/preschooler went to sleep, I sat down to write. There was no waiting for the Muse. The Muse, I find, is often held up in traffic so it’s excellent policy to begin without her. If she's good, she'll just pick it up as she goes along.

That’s how the paid work got done. Also how I fitted in the writing of the fiction. The proposals and pitches for new work. The volunteer bits for the school. You know.

Then I started blogging. And it’s a lot of fun. So when I sit down, my head doesn’t immediately go to ‘GO’. It goes to blog. Which means everything else is, well, waiting for the Muse.

Which is why I’m writing this, instead of the other thing I’m supposed to write.

I’m not complaining. Just putting together some notes for when I begin to lobby seriously for the 25^th hour in the day.

Anyone with me?

{image: PhotoExpress}