Priorities

I guess a week and a half is long enough to have left the blog lie dormant. It's been that long since I've done any real writing too - the curse of NaNoWriMo: Writing so consistently and intensely for 30 consecutive days entails a necessary break. Last year though, that break lasted six months. I didn't intend for it to turn out that way; I took a week off, then another week, then there was Christmas preparation, and Christmas, and New Year's, and the beginning of the new semester at school, and school work, and on and on and on until six months had passed.

It's a question of time, and priorities. We're forever complaining about time - the lack of it, or the 'speed' at which it travels forward (either too fast or too slow). We prioritize to ensure that we're making the best use of our time. Most often, things like work or school and family (or the equivalent) top the list, followed by socializing and hobbies. But for many of us, the number of things to be done far exceeds the amount of time available. So certain 'priorities' slowly drop down the list until they fall off entirely. Like my writing last year.

I don't mean to say that I completely forgot about writing; there have been few days in recent years that I haven't thought about writing in some form. But writing did take a back seat to all the other things that needed to be done. I've never been one for making use of organizational techniques - like using a calendar to keep track of my schedule (although there are times when I probably should have...), or making 'to do' lists. I do keep a constantly fluctuating priority list in my head, but it's a fairly high level, major project kind of list including things like writing.

So how do I define priorities for that list in my head? Is it interest? If I'm feeling more excited about one of those items on my list it is more likely that I'll try to check it off. Or is it serendipity? If it is convenient to check an item off the list then I'll do so. More often though, it comes down to deadlines. I don't know that there has ever been a time that I've sat down to assign a numerical value to the items in my list. What does that say about my priorities? It seems to me that they're very 'Heiesnberg-ian' in nature; the very act of thinking about the list seems to change the priorities in some way. I guess that's not entirely unreasonable, as long as all those 'necessities' are completed.