On Tasks and Time

I sat down tonight to write out my first post for Nablopomo, and I told myself, "I'll take an hour, jot down a few thoughts, then take a few minutes to edit them into something understandable. I can do this." Two hours later, I now have two pages of jumbled thoughts and no coherent post at all. 30 decent essays with maybe a few good ones and perhaps a brilliant one somewhere in there during the month of November? Not going to happen.

My imagination frequently clashes with reality, especially in my perception of time and how long things take. I am usually overly optimistic (I can whip out a great post from scratch in an hour on a topic that I've been thinking about for months), but there are also certain tasks that I avoid because I feel like they'll "take forever." These might be the dishes, cooking, housework, or any disagreeable task. It was almost a revelation when I discovered that it only actually took me 20 minutes to make homemade pizza for my son.

It's probably not surprising that I rarely arrive anywhere on time. I am usually either just early or late enough for it to be embarrassing. My husband manages time so well that he makes the day cry for mercy. I've known people who have broken down into tears after just following him around all day; it's like completing a marathon. Getting things done seems so easy for him. I can't even seem to sort the mail without an existential crisis.

I am also optimistic about how much time I need to sleep, "I'll feel great with six hours." I've had trouble with that one since middle school, as soon as my parents stopped putting me to bed. Family life does not generally cater to the night owl. I spend most of the day trying to wake up my brain, then when it is finally awake, it is time to sleep and I have to work at shutting it off.

I feel like I haven't emptied my brain in so long, the circuits are all clogged. Hopefully I will be able to get some things off my mind this month. At least I have started. That is how I deal with most tasks, just get started and the time will come.