Most of the time I find myself flying by the seat of my pants juggling three plates at once. I need to learn #6 and #7…

It sounds like you have your life mostly in control. It’s almost impossible to have complete control when you have kids… always the unknown variable. But we can keep it manageable.

I know some people who do better writing late at night, but they also sleep late to ensure they get their rest. It’s not about what time you go to bed, but how much sleep you get.

Drives me nuts when the first kid comes home from school and turns the TV on. Has it loud. I turn it down, he turns it back up. Luckily, afternoon is reserved for other work. Plus, I can turn off my cochlear implant to get quiet, if needed… but I prefer room quiet to deaf quiet.

So far I don’t have to manage the kids part of the balance, but I know way too many people whose lives are out of control, and they are the ones making it worse. Either they’re not even seeing how they let things get out of balance (and thus out of control), or they refuse to accept that humans don’t scale, and refuse to reschedule or drop anything.

As a result, all parts and people suffer for it, which ain’t doin’ anybody any good.

Re. writing advice, I would also add that, like different people needing different amounts of sleep, different people need different conditions for getting the juices flowing/writing.

If you need to be left alone with quiet – make sure you can arrange that. If you need to be in public with background white noise (like a coffee shop) – make sure you can arrange that.

Demanding that your brain get with the program when you KNOW you’re in the wrong circumstances is an exercise in nothing but frustration.

Melle’s last blog post..Dear kid in line in front of me at Zellers?