this post is going to bore the pants off some of you and be of interest to some others. i wasn’t too sure about posting about this topic – i certainly don’t claim to be the most organized person, the best mother or the exemplification of domestic goddess. i try and i fail and we eat takeout and the house gets messy and i yell at my kid just like anyone else. i decided to go ahead and write this to be genuine and open and hopefully get a bit of give and take going: i’ll show you mine if you show me your time-management tips! i’m only going to talk about weekdays here, because weekends are free time, even if i do end up spending any free time tinkering with designs!
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i’m definitely not an organized person by nature but this is the groove i’ve got into and this is what helps things mostly stay on track. i say mostly because while its a helpful system and i actually enjoy the rewards i reap from sticking to the plan, i don’t live and die by the plan. it just serves as a tangible outline of the things i have to do that would otherwise buzz around my brain and keep me up at nights. i find that by not keeping track of these things i get more stressed, feel less in control and ultimately that impacts my ability to focus and be creative (which i like much more than say, dusting shelves).
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i work from home, and three of the weekdays my son is home with me. its great to work from home, and its great to spend time with my son, but the two things are a bit like oil and water so i’ve had to become quite adept at switching between work brain and play-brain, and there are a few factors that make this less difficult:

✽ it should go without saying that i love spending the time with my son, and that its never done begrudgingly. that said, he knows there are times when i need to do a bit of work and he understands that he can play on his own for a while. he’s always been quite independent and we’re lucky he’s generally an easy going kid who can amuse himself and be reasoned with.
✽ we are so lucky that our house is designed the way it is: its not very big (no one can get too far from each other and get into mischief), but the living area is big enough to accommodate my working area and playing space for my son too. i can’t stress enough how lucky we are to have something so close to a dream home, even if its not ours to keep.
✽ scheduling! argh! did i just say that word? yes. and wait until you see what i mean. are you ready? this is a screen grab of my iCal and how i plan my time, but don’t run away because i’ll break it down after the jump…

it looks intense, right? i promise its not that bad. i think of it as a budget of my time. i’m (mostly) responsible with my money, so my time should be rationed just as thoughtfully. three days a working week my son is home, and two he’s at kindergarten. those same two days my boyfriend also works from home so its helpful for me to know when i’m going to have big chunks of time to work on things or run a bunch of errands. anyway let’s break this craziness down into something more coherent:
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purple sections are meal times. it sounds stupid to need to be reminded to eat lunch but you know what its like when you get ‘in the zone’ – before you know it you’re about to pass out from starvation and its 3am. it also gives me a starting point to then plan the rest of my time around.
red sections are reminders. things like when the rent gets taken out, birthdays, etc.
pink sections are appointments: regular classes, seeing the doctor, hair appointments etc

orange things are social events: lunch dates, someone coming for dinner, concerts etc

and green is all about work!: designing, emailing people about projects, packing up etsy orders or tinkering with listings, blog post prep/writing etc.

blue sections are household chores. blurg! i don’t love this, but i do love the result of sticking to it and by pacing it out i can avoid washing machine traffic-jams and chore-overload. let me expand on this and you’ll see how i break it down:

• monday – clothes get washed so they can air dry in time for kindergarten on wednesdays. i’m anti-clothes dryer as much as possible.
• tuesday – the bathroom gets a clean and towels/bathmats get washed.
• wednesdays – i do my grocery shopping online. i love online groceries because i don’t drive, its a nightmare to all go together as a family, and even though delivery costs around $10 i end up spending less on treats and impulse buys so ultimately its cheaper and encourages me to plan out the week’s meals.
• thursdays – i tidy up the bedrooms and fortnightly i change and wash the sheets.
• friday – i do a general tidy up in the lounge, vacuum/mop floors and half heartedly dust.

there are also a few regular reminders that pop up like ‘clean out fridge’ or ‘polish the wood’. thrilling isn’t it? but these things fall by the wayside too easily for me and i want to take care of my nice table, and keep our tiny fridge in order.

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as you can see in the picture up there, there are pockets of blank time on my calendar because, as i said, i don’t live and die by the schedule. blank time is spent playing with my son, or if he’s out i just keep on workin’, or i stop and have a cup of tea and distract my boyfriend from his work. i would be really put off if every moment of my day needed to be accounted for and with a kid around you really can’t expect every day to be the same as the last. people get sick, cranky, or spontaneity takes over and you just want to see where the day takes you. so long as there are no pressing deadlines i’m not adverse to clearing the schedule to go chase butterflies. having everything laid out helps me to make the most of resting time and working time. the to-do list sidebar in iCal helps me record what i have to do for the week and prioritize it. i can anticipate what’s coming up and let my subconscious mull over the details so when a teensy one hour work time comes i can ‘switch on’ much easier.

so as you see i manage this all with my macbook and my iphone. it’s great for me because its kind of a one-stop brain dump that syncs with each other so if i’m out i can make an appointment and enter it in my phone knowing it will update to my desktop. i’ll try not to get all evangelical about how amazing my iphone is, but i do think its great – it has replaced my address book, diary, and a couple of moleskines that would need to be all kept in synch by hand. which was a pain and took up a lot of valuable handbag space. so yes, i love my iphone and it is definitely a factor in me keeping things rolling along smoothly. its not just ical that i use to stay organized though. i really love an app called evernote which is really versatile. you can use it in all kinds of ways but i find it best for keeping all my notes and lists together in one place. it exists as an app on my iphone and as an application on my computer, so i can make notes on the go that i can access when i’m home at my desk. for example i have my list called ‘bloguary’ which is where i keep a calendar list of what i’ve posted about on the blog in recent weeks and what i plan to post about in the coming weeks so i don’t get too repetetive or struck down with bloggers-block! it helps me to slowly gather links, mull over details and generally anticipate what’s coming up on drawpilgrim.com. another list i keep on evernote is what i need to remember to buy and what’s for dinner this week. that note makes the online shopping ever faster and again cuts down on needless purchases of bulk-pack mini mars bars!

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i hope this epic post has either bored you into a soothing, gentle sleep or given you some ideas on how you can manage your own time. working and parenting is crazy, but i love both and this is how i stay happy and merge my two worlds. how do you balance your time? do you have any pointers or things that work well for you?

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