Snooze...

Oh time. There is never enough of it.

Yesterday I found one of those funny internet cards that said:

"I'm in love with my bed. We're perfect for each other, but my alarm clock doesn't want us together. That jealous whore."


Seems pretty fitting, right?

When I have taught a college transition class for first-year students in the past, we have them plot out their days for a whole week, showing exactly how they spend all of their time. We then have them analyze their major time wasters, things they should be spending more time doing (studying/sleeping, etc.), and the things that they forgot to put in, like calling their mom, doing their laundry, etc. It is usually a real eye opener. They have a set 168 hours to work with, and usually find that they have to make some serious adjustments to their plans.

I am seriously debating completing the exercise too, because I am really curious where my time is going.

• It seems like a significant amount is being lost attempting to sleep, but not getting any shut eye. Good old insomnia. My brain just can't shut off at the end of the night, because there just may be too many things on my plate. Which then means I'm probably not doing a great job with the time I do have throughout the rest of the day, when I'm basically a zombie in need of a nap.
• More and more time is going to running. As those miles get up there, the quick 30-minute run, now has become the quick hour run, which isn't so quick in my limited morning, especially when I am struggling to get out of bed. This morning I needed to get up and run by 5:30, but slept in until 6:30, which means that my run will have to wait until tonight when it is significantly warmer out.  And of course, you have those long runs are now several hours of my Saturday.
• I have set aside two hours a day for dissertation work, but probably need to be doing even more.
• I have several major projects on my plate at work, all of which are new things, which always takes more time to get done than one would think. They are projects I'm really excited about, but when the day fills up with meetings, I am always wishing for more "get ish done" time. Because I want them to be perfect (or as close as they can get), which takes time. 
• Plus add in those other life things, like laundry night, dinner with my mom/sister, social/relaxing time, prepping for a friend's wedding events, blogging, crossing things off my 30B430 list....it goes on and on. 

Time management is always articulated as one of those life skills that we need to make sure students learn while in college. I'll speak only for myself, but I cannot say that I am always doing a great job of role modeling that, as a professional. It's a constant struggle.

When my alarm goes off in the morning, all I can think right now is, "Crap, how the heck am I going to get all of this done today?"and more often lately, "Is it really time to go running?!"

I know it is something that I have to keep working on. I just want to stay sane while doing so...

What are you doing to stay sane and manage the craziness around you?