June is for dabbling

Some people change things up in the summer because their schedules change. Teachers, for example, or the millions of households with children. They sleep late, do more things just for fun, have a more flexible schedule than during the school year. Since I'm not a teacher and don't have kids, that doesn't really apply to me. We go to baseball games instead of hockey. I lower the living room shades in the morning to keep out the heat. I don't have to take note of the time as I pull out of my driveway into the school zone. Other than that, there's not really much difference.

But this year I had an idea: I could change my schedule, like all those summer people do. I could let my time flow in a more fluid, less rigid way. I could dabble.

I do realize that saying I'm going to make my schedule more flexible is kind of a joke to most people. I've been self employed since 1992 and, apart from a few regular meetings, I pretty much decide what to do and when. (That includes housework, except for cooking dinner, which is constrained by needing to be ready at about dinnertime, and laundry, the priority of which is pretty much determined by one of us running out of underwear.) But the thing is, I tend to think of work, and cleaning, and hobbies, and many of the things that fill my time, in big chunks. I'll schedule a whole day or week to work on one project and nothing else. I'll start reading a novel whenever I have enough free time to finish the whole thing. And I'm embarrassed to admit that I put off chores, like mending, for example, because I somehow can't stop and take five minutes to do it right then. I'll put all the mending in one place and then, I think grandly, I'll set aside a few hours and get it all done.

I'm not just talking about the things I procrastinate on, but also about the things I regularly accomplish. These things take up big blocks on my calendar, and therefore become big and burdensome in my mind. Somewhere along the line I developed this ant mentality (that's ant as opposed to grasshopper) that forces me to keep at things. Flitting from task to task is bad; stay focused, keep your nose to the grindstone, slow and steady wins the race. To do otherwise is…well, it's just wrong.

But last week, on May 30th, to be exact, it occurred to me that what I longed to do that day was dabble. I wanted to spend my time at different things, not one thing, perhaps even in rapid succession. Work at my desk for a hour or two, then go vacuum. Flip through one magazine, then send some emails and make some appointments. Reconcile one bank statement, then go repair a torn pocket (there's that mending again).

I'm not talking about goofing off. This dabbling will involve all the things I should be getting done. It's not that I won't be working, or won't be working hard. I'll just be doing it grasshopper-style, carefree and breezy, even the stuff I take very seriously.

Maybe I'm reacting to trying to be over-organized. Whatever. In any case, June is for dabbling. And we'll see how it goes after that.

And how's your summer shaping up?