Books To Help Me Manage Myself

I have just finished "Manage your day-to-day: Build your routine, find your focus & sharpen your creative mind", which is a collaboration of a bunch of people, edited by Jocelyn K Glei. It is published by Behance, in a project they call 99U (a reference to the quote by Edison about the 99% perspiration you have to put in to get anything done), trying to provide help for making creative ideas happen. I have another one in this series that I haven´t yet started, "Maximize your potential: Grow your expertise, take bold risks & build an incredible career". At the moment, however, I am reading "Daily rituals - How great minds make time, find inspiration, and get to work", by Mason Currey. All really long titles, you practically don´t need more introduction than that.

Personally, I have tried for thirteen years to put my writing first, and I can´t say I have succeeded very well. At all. I could say that Life has come between my pen and I, but it would be more honest to say that other people´s needs and wishes have been prioritized, by me. The thing is, writing is such a long-term commitment, with unsure rewards far into the future (yes, why even do it? my best answer is: because it is hard, and because literature is the best thing ever), that it usually makes sense on a day-to-day basis to prioritize the short-term. Almost everyone I know fall into this trap.

Sometimes one has no choice, there really are times when friends and family must come first. These times are dangerous, because you loose any momentum you have built up, and getting back in the saddle, as it were, is not easy. So, you must have a good routine, but you must also have a method of getting back to that routine You will use this method a lot. A lot, I tell you. It is a constant struggle, and books like these do two things: they remind you that you are not alone, and offer some good advice. Even if you have heard it all before, it is not a bad thing to be reminded now and then.

I have been looking very critically lately at how I actually spend my time, and toyed with this pyramid shape as I was trying to get my priorities straight. It occured to me that for the longest time, it has been upside down. I also get depressed every once in a while thinking that I am getting so old - I´ll be fifty within an eyeblink. On the other hand, many people I know and know of, haven´t gotten this far even, or are still struggling with stuff I have actually gotten through. I suppose everyone has their own path, right? And their own timetable. Another consolation is that if I ever get anything finished, it will probably be a bit more mature and interesting. He who lives will see. Or as the mum-in-law said once: pain and wrinkles is the price you pay for surviving; the alternative is worse.