February 02, 2012

Weekend Update

Since school started back up, I'm tracking all my activities for 2 weeks. I know social networking and the Internet are a time suck, but I wanted to know just how much time gets wasted elsewhere. Like today. Today was a studio day and yet, there it is in plain view- only 2 hours. It was a good 2 hours- I almost finished 2 paintings that were in various stages of unfinishedness, but nonetheless, it wasn't a solid 6 hours in the studio.
It's true, I busted over 1.5 hours on FB today- though in fact, some of that was meaningful correspondence. 
[note: I have since discovered a setting which makes it possible to multi-task, like right now for instance- I am on the internet, drinking coffee, and giving the dog my divided attention within moments of getting out of bed. 


Lost time is a black hole for me. It's that time between doing dishes and working. Or between showering and leaving the house. Some activities included in lost time are: looking for glasses, trying to figure out what coat is proper, realizing I can't stand wearing my skinny leg cords anymore, suddenly deciding to make a pile for goodwill etc. I think you get the picture. 

The other reason for wanting to track my time is to see whether I could justify an intern or an assistant for office work and some emergency organizing. And all those little things add up. I called it "housework," but I spent 20 minutes in my crawl space with someone who was checking out whatever it was that woke me up at 3am the other night. It sounded like a 30- pound hamster on a metal wheel making its way through my duct work. Nothing dead or alive was found. The mystery remains. From there, I walked the dog and picked up sticks. I saw a couple of branches that might make good paintings, so I guess picking up sticks is good.

3 comments:

Steven LaRose said...

What is this app? I need it.

M.A.H. said...

www.atimelogger.com
I've already gotten sloppy about using it, but it gave me a realistic idea. And while essentially no learning curve, it's challenging for the ADD multi-tasker like moi. I'll be drinking coffee in the morning which I consider idle time, and then start painting on the way back to the bedroom to change out of my pajamas. Then I'll vacuum and eat yogurt while checking my email or waiting for gesso to dry.

I might try to break my life into broader categories such as "good" and "evil."

Steven LaRose said...

Good, evil, and idle.

Thanks for the link.

It's over.

Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough.