the blue muse

I often find myself folding laundry at midnight. Seriously. You would think that since I work at home I could get it done earlier in the day, but it rarely seems to work out that way.

It’s not that I plan to be matching socks as the clock strikes twelve. In fact I usually put the load in the washer early in the evening. I plan to have it dried and folded well before midnight, really I do. But then I get… distracted.

I once heard a line in a movie (a long time ago–can’t remember its name) that went something like: “She was partly distracted by the possibilities of life.” Well, that’s me. I am constantly distracted, mainly by creative pursuits, but sometimes by less-than-glamorous ones like straightening the junk drawer, too. But…back to the creative part. Being creative is what I want to spend my time on. What I would spend all of my time on if I could.

But it’s time that gets me down. I am always running out of it. Where does it all go? Like sands through the hour glass…

So I try to come up with more creative ways to manage my time, or more time to manage my creativity. It isn’t always easy. I’m trying to learn to work more efficiently, watch less television, and focus on one task at a time. Trying to be more organized in general (which is hard since I am not hard-wired that way) so I can spend less time looking for things and getting ready to work, and more time actually creating.

I’ve also been using the fifteen minute rule. For example, my jewelry making table has been an absolute mess since the end of December. Every day I would say to myself “I really need to clean that up,” but it was one of those projects that seemed too overwhelming to begin. So instead, I scheduled (in my handy dandy blackberry that is going to change my life forever) a fifteen minute appointment every day. And then spent those fifteen minutes doing nothing but cleaning and organizing. And before I knew it, voila! clean bead table! It’s amazing what you can get done in fifteen minutes.

There are things we all have to do. We have to work, care for our families, clean, exercise, and keep it all together in general. And we have to do laundry. Never ending laundry. No matter how many things I choose to give up, laundry just isn’t one of them. But I can’t promise that I won’t get distracted during the wash cycle and start making that new bracelet I’ve been planning, or writing a blog post, or reading that fabulous novel. No, I can’t promise that.

I guess in the end, I just choose laundry last.

But it’s okay, folding laundry actually makes me sleepy.

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