Work Less, Quilt More

As crazy as it may sound, I have indeed skipped work in order to sew. In my defense, I was trying to finish a bridesmaid’s dress for a wedding I was in…. which pales in contrast to what the bride did. She didn’t finish her dress in time for her destination wedding, so she brought the sewing machine to the hotel the night before the wedding in order to finish the dress. Fortunately, there are simpler ways to make more time for sewing.

• Cut Down on Cooking – No, I’m not talking about skipping meals or getting expensive takeout. Try making twice as much food as you normally would for one or two meals per week. Then you’ll have an entire meal ready to go for later in the week! No food prep, just heat and eat. Hours saved.
• Go on a Social Media Diet – We all think we have “no time”, but have you ever really taken a look at how much time you waste online, especially on social media? One quick peek and before you know it, you are down the rabbit hole. Same thing with email. When I was a software manager in a previous life, I often advised my harried and overworked teams that they could get more of their day back by only checking their emails first thing on the morning and before they left for the day. This significantly cut down on the running around all day trying to answer every little thing. Note that if it’s really important, they will call you.
• Judicious Punting – When I was a freshman at MIT, the first week I was on campus I was advised by an upper classman that the key to survival at The Institute was “judicious punting”. Not “punting” like on the Thames, “punting” as in football: just kick it away. Decide what is really important, and just don’t do the rest. Do you REALLY need to make something homemade for the bake sale or could you just buy something? Do you REALLY need to answer that work email after hours that was CC’d to forty people? Nothing copied to a huge recipient list is ever legitimately urgent.

With a bit of practice and a little bit of prudence, you can cut your to-do list down to what’s really necessary. And THAT leaves more time for quilting!

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