Not Enough Time

A couple of nights ago, as I was getting the boys into bed, JSL began crying uncontrollably. At first, we were worried that he wasn’t feeling well.  When we confirmed that he was feeling fine physically, we asked him why he was crying.  He didn’t quite know at first, but after I asked a bit, I began to get a good sense of his problem: He was sad because there were a lot of things he wanted to do and not nearly enough time to do them.

Boy, can I sympathize.

While JSL is torn between crafting, watching TV, playing video games, and playing with his Imaginext toys, I find myself trying to find time for different pursuits.  During the time that I’m not in my day job, I have freelance work to complete. I also have to make dinner, help clean up, share my favorite geeky TV shows/movies with my boys, watch new shows/movies, craft, write blog posts, spend quality time with my wife, and read. Then there are new activities that I’d love to start like working on a novel (I’ve had a story idea for almost two decades), attending cons, learning how to solder, and traveling.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit everything in. I’d need at least a dozen of me to get everything done. Eleven more TechyDads would get everything done, though our house would be too crowded.

All I can do is do my best. I can focus on what I want to do the most, cut out time wasting activities that I don’t really need to do, and do my best. When JSL was in tears, I told him just this. It helped him to know that he wasn’t alone – that other people (even his father) suffered from this and could help him figure out how to get as much done as possible.

How do you juggle your list of things you’d like to do? What do you do when you find there’s not enough time for all of them?

NOTE: The image above is "sandglass" by jarda and is available from OpenClipArt.org.