Time Management Tuesday: Living With Chaos

I recently finished watching a multi-season TV show from another country. Both the show and the country will remain nameless in order to preserve your viewing experience. It was a very decent show, and I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone.

However, the series finale was very interesting. In America, at least, a series finale usually involves breaking up the gang, boo-hoo, everyone is going forth in some different way. It's as if since the viewers aren't going to be there, anymore, the writers feel the characters can't be there, in their TV world, either.

In this foreign show, though, everyone does remain together. What makes it a finale, is that the main character experienced an epiphany. Her epiphany was "I am chaos." She accepted that about herself. And that is how we know she will go forth, with that self-knowledge.

My Chaos Epiphany

I experienced an epiphany when I watched that show. I am chaos, too. I am surrounded with disorder, some of it external (I am looking at you pandemic, elderly parents, illness, child-rearing, tropical storms, power outages, family-member's-cat-that-landed-here-for-two-months). Some of it internal (too many interests, too easily overwhelmed).

I am chaos. That would certainly explain why all my work sites become...chaotic. My spot on the couch with my multiple reading starts and drawing and card writing and other tasks...chaotic. My kitchen counters, in spite of my best efforts,...chaotic.

My own epiphany continued. What I'm trying to do with time management, I thought, is control the chaos. Then came a second thought. No, I am not trying to control chaos. Chaos--disorder, confusion, unpredictability--can't be controlled or it wouldn't be chaos. I am trying to live with it. I'm trying to manage it, here and there, so I can get things done.

Are Some Of Us More Sensitive To Chaos Than Others?

Supposedly, there are people out there who are capable of just sitting down and writing, though I'm not sure anyone knows how they're able to do it. Do these people not notice chaos? Are they able to live with it? Does it just roll off their backs?

The rest of us, who are sensitive to external and internal chaos, still have valuable work to produce. We just have to manage our chaos--both external and internal--for periods of time so we can do it.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be reworking some Time Management Tuesday material, thinking about it in terms of managing chaos.