Since Owl finished I’ve been pretty overwhelmed. I’ve let things slide and even the work I have completed well was done in a state of anxiety. I’ve been staring at the pages and pages of To Do lists and feeling my guts knot. I don’t think it’s unique to theatre people – this problem of too many pots too watch – because really it’s a problem of managing time. I wanted to balance the administration projects (Cape Town Edge, 2 Godfrey shows for the NAF, Owl, Inspiring a Generation, and self promotion) with my creative projects and ‘workouts’ – time spent sketching, free writing, etc. So I took inspiration from a Lifehacker article on Jerry Seinfeld. No really. Basically you work by breaking the problem into units, generally of time but they could be discrete tasks that are roughly equivalent. So instead of Spring Cleaning and spending an entire day putting your home in order, everyday you’d do 3 chores like tidy 1 room, sweep another and scrub the bath. Instead of solving the problem you’re managing it.

I’ve been trying it this week and it is gold. There is a satisfaction in working toward the final goal where before there was only satisfaction in completing a task.