Juggling 101

My friend Paul likes to juggle. He's good at it, too. Personally, I have difficulty with any kind of juggling, be it physical objects or the 10,000 things I have to do.

Okay, so I don't actually have 10,000 things to do, but this time of year, especially, it seems that way. And while I'm used to multiple people and tasks vying for my attention, December is the one month where they all seem time sensitive.

Being a writer - especially one of the unpaid, aspiring variety - is a constant juggling act. Family responsibilities and jobs that pay the bill,s trump writing time, making it particularly challenging to meet time sensitive goals that fall into the category of creativity. And while it's logical to set aside aspirations temporarily during the holiday season, it's also scary. What if that temporary hiatus goes on too long? A movie star who goes on hiatus can afford to rest on her laurels, knowing her body of work is out there representing her talents and drawing projects to her. But when your body of work is still on the hard drive, not speaking to anyone but you, that's a different story.

So I keep my writing on the to-do list, hoping to squeeze it in wherever I can, one more ball to keep in the air among shopping and wrapping and baking and decorating and corresponding. I try to allocate at least small bits of time to my blogs and projects before I'm too tired to string coherent sentences together. After all, it takes fewer brain cells to wrap a present than to write a chapter. And while I'm working on lists, perhaps I should add juggling lessons to my Christmas list.

Just a thought.