It was a dark and stormy night..

It was a dark and stormy night.. 

How many times as a child and youth were we given that particular phrase as a story starter?  All too often, I'm afraid.  Oddly enough, I always managed to come away with a completely different story depending on the day and what was going on at the time..  

I find myself rather lax in keeping up with my own writing lately.  Something will spark an idea but before long morning becomes afternoon, and afternoon turns to night and another day is gone.  By the time pen hits paper, or more often fingertips hit keys the teapot has turned cold.  It's not that it still couldn't be written, but once the mood is gone, there's no point in forcing it. 

I was determined today that I was going to post and I was amused when as I began that the first words that came to mind were a long forgotten quote that until the moment I'd begun to type it  had not entered my mind in many years.  There are days when I couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast, but somehow an obscure writing prompt from a hundred lifetimes ago still sticks clear in memory.   Go figure. 

We often find ourselves so busy that we forget to take pause to work on those things that are most important to us.  Too often we get to the end of a busy day too tired to even contemplate the items still left on the plate and they are held over for another day.  From the moment we open our eyes in the morning the brain kicks into high gear already working on the list it knows is waiting.  We start each day with a large portion of to-do and end each day in much the same fashion, adding and subtracting items as we go.  Often with others waiting in rows to add more to our pile.   Blame it on time management, or perhaps an unwillingness to disappoint, the result is the same.  Too much stuff, too little day..  

It does seem a little crazy though that at the end of the day we are all marveling at how we got so tired..  So busy.. So overwhelmed.. Yet we keep doing the same things over and again and expect that something might change.  For many years I joked that I was either very far behind, or well ahead for the next round.  It almost always got a laugh, but it really wasn't very funny..   

A wise woman once told me that if something bothered me that I needed to do something about it, but if it didn't bother me, that it was ok to let it slide.  Of course I'm paraphrasing -- and at the time we were talking as a new stepmom and new wife and I was sure I was going crazy.  Working on that same principal, I've begun the process over the last several months to turn things around.  Some days are up, and some days are still crazy.. But at the end of the day I'm still here plodding along.

Do you have a time management tip?  Are you a fabulous juggler?  I'd love to hear from you!