Anyone who's a sole trader; that's the tax man's description not mine, will tell you that there are days when they feel like there's a dog in their head chasing its own tail round and round, and round again in a mesmerized state of confusion as to which one of the many tasks they need to do, needs to be done first.
Hand Embroidery by Rowena Luke-King.
In my case, and let's take today as an example, I’ve wasted a considerable amount of time pondering on what to prioritise. Should I write this blog post, which is well overdue, or should I finalise the instructions for my quarter-scale tailor's dummy kit, which has been on the back burner for several years, has recently and successfully been tested by two of my smocking students, and once edited will be ready to sell?
Should I practice my picture smocking for the second run of Embroidered Smocking for Fashion Part 2 , or should I start to tackle my 2019/2020 accounts; a task that I hate doing but will need to be done soon if I want to stay on the right side of my accountant and, I hasten to add, if I want to lift that dark cloud of doubt that hovers over me every year at this time, about tackling anything of such importance with numbers.
And so it goes on, even after some forty years of being freelance and even on a Sunday which others would see as a day off. But I had a day off yesterday and if I don't pull something out of the hat today, I will end up starting the new working week with that bloody dog running around in my head again.
Writing a list always helps, as long as I can remember that I’ve written a list, ticked off what I’ve done when I've done it, moved everything that I didn't do onto the next days list, remembered to check that list and not cheated by including get up, get dressed and get off Facebook.
Spinning a row of plates on sticks like a magician also helps, in fact always helps. In my head of course, not for real. I get one plate spinning before I start on the next and try to keep the first plate spinning as the second plate takes off and the third one is started. All this with the dog either out of the picture completely, which is my preference, or snapping at the plates as they spin, which has the distinct possibility of making you think that I'm mad, which prompts me to say that I am a person who thinks in pictures not words.
So to cut to the chase, today after getting up, getting dressed and getting off Facebook which I haven’t ticked off my list because I didn’t write a list, I put my washing in the washing machine and sat down to write this post. It might be cheating but I'm gonna count the washing as my first spinning plate for the benefit of this exercise. With this new blog post almost concluded, that's a second plate almost spinning while I take a break to decide on an accompanying picture; my third plate. My fourth plate which was spinning well by the end of last week i.e. written and live on my website, is my new online course; An Introduction to Hand Embroidery which I think needs a boost in the form of a group email to announce its arrival.
With all my plates spinning at once and my tail chasing dog well out of the picture, I’m thinking that once I’ve finished writing my latest group email I will have achieved quite a lot today. And so, all that remains to be said is that I hope it helps to have this visual image to play with, especially if you're self-employed with no boss to tell you what to do, how to do it and when.