time management

Some days no chart exists to diagram all the ways each minute must be doubly spent in order to accomplish all that must be done. Today was like this: like the whir left hanging in the air a nanosecond after the hummingbird flown away; like the thrumming silence between the beats of a drum; like the tumble of mud upon rock in a landslide.

It was also Bean’s 1.5 birthday today, and he was so precious and independent and sweet, watching him nearly took my breath away at least a hundred times. He came to my classroom with me, and spent hours playing without direction or fussing: climbing chairs, investigating keyboards and reading books. Tomorrow a Bean letter for sure. Tonight, let it suffice to say that I love him exponentially each day, and that those moments with him curled against my chest, just after he’s gone to sleep, are like bright garnets in a handful of gravel.

The rest of my day was a pmsy, moody, blur of productivity. Hence the run on sentences. I’ve been meaning to post all night, but haven’t been able to dig myself out from under everything else I’ve been trying to do (I missed a call to my sister, planned my class schedule, developed literacy curriculum for the beginning of the year, and mourned the loss of Allison on Project Runway, fast-forwarded on Tivo, among other things.) I suck at time management.

Seriously, I want to know your strategies. How do you manage your time? What tools do you use? How do you plan for rest and play and productivity? How do you avoid over scheduling/exhaustion?