September 7, 2011

My good writing friend, Sherryl, and I were Skyping about a seriously time-consuming writing project we’d like to take on together. Since we both spend our lives constantly trying to squeeze out five more spare minutes, we realized that something in our schedules would have to give.

“Where’s the dead wood in your life?” we asked each other. “What can be cut?”

Take a Closer Look

I thought about it a lot last night and couldn’t come up with much of anything. I have a couple of writing jobs, I hold offices in a couple organizations, and I lead a couple of church groups. Some are new responsibilities this year, and some I’ve helped with for years. I was clueless about what to cut.

Then I heard someone on the radio this morning say:

“If the horse has been dead ten years, it’s time to dismount.”

Put It Out to Pasture

I made a list of my paid and unpaid jobs then. Which lifeless “horse” was I still trying to make gallop? Which job or position that once was fun and satisfying and productive was now just an unproductive time drain? Which things had run their course? Where should I “dismount”?

Some of our time drains are just habits we’ve had for years. Or they’re community or school obligations we took on, and somehow we feel they’re life-time commitments.

Take a close look at your stable of horses. I hope this month to dismount a couple of dead horses so that I have time to ride a new one!

Follow-Up

This is a re-posted blog–and here’s the follow-up.  I did resign from two of my long-term volunteer activities. In both cases, people who were on the sidelines stepped forward to take the positions. I stopped doing free book critiques too.

The changes took nearly a year, but I now have five hours per day to work on my writing, compared to the one hour I had when I first wrote this blog post. It was hard saying “I can’t” and “no, thanks” many, many times. But I love the outcome! I love looking forward to my work days now. Our lives are all different, but I bet you could get rid of some dead horses too.

Can you name ONE that could be eliminated from your over-crowded life?

5 Comments »

1. 

   Kristi, what a terrific update! I am sort of in the opposite stage, where I am adding volunteer hours to school and church. I sacrifice socializing … and sometimes reading and movies. I’d like to sacrifice the housework, but gee, my family might not like that But I tend to be pretty efficient with it, so I don’t mind, and in fact, a lot of my thinking happens during the repetitive tasks.

   Comment by Vijaya — September 7, 2011 @ 6:52 pm

2. 

   Vijaya, you’re so right about much of our thinking being done during the non-think repetitive tasks. To be honest, that had been part of my problem lately. I had traded in the non-think repetitive tasks (like folding diapers and pushing kids on swings and sweeping) for things like free book critiques. I used to do a lot of my pre-writing during those repetitive tasks when my kids were small. But doing things like free critiques, book reviews, etc. was using up my creative time, plus my energy to concentrate. Not good when it finally came time for my own work.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — September 7, 2011 @ 8:04 pm

3. 

   Huzzah for you! Thanks for the follow-up! It’s a great example for the rest of us to know that the world won’t stop turning if we say, “No.”

   Comment by Jane Heitman Healy — September 7, 2011 @ 8:56 pm

4. 

   Jane, that is so true. Each time, I was by far the most upset or uncomfortable. The person I had to say “no” to was shocked maybe, but quickly turned to someone else or (lo and behold!) tackled his/her own problem!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — September 9, 2011 @ 8:56 am

5. 

   Right now, I think I would like to sacrifice my phone, and my tenant’s ability to socially speak vocally! (this would immediately garner me 6 hours a day, over the 1 hour where the actually “work” gets done, I’ll bet!) Also, all the fees that get added on to things in bills, where I have to call every month and say, I thought we handled this LAST month? That’s good for a few hours a month! I would like to try not having a front door for a month – (I can go out the laundry room window, sight unseen!) Pure bliss! Aside from that, dead horses that I used to beat lately, have now become those little fake skin drums, which hang on the wall near my banjo, and collect dust! LOL! This month is actually making sense for a change!…(knock on wood)

   Comment by jen — September 10, 2011 @ 4:55 am

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