As I type this, our troupe is in the middle of the busiest performance season we have had in of years. By mid-March, we will have had eight performances in three weeks, when in the previous months we had closer to one performance every eight weeks. And as I type this, my co-director Renee is about ready to bring her new daughter Rose into the world, and has been on maternity leave since the beginning of the year. One would think this was a recipe for head-exploding or rock-crawling-under or possibly both simultaneously.

But instead, I am feeling refreshed, challenged, rewarded. And it's a pretty exciting time for yours truly, to be honest.

In a previous post I talked about discipline and setting up structures in our life to support success, and then outlined my Game Plan in 2010. And I am already seeing the results of these structures, as they are helping me to handle a large volume of unexpected responsibilities with relative ease (yeah, I know I just jinxed it ;).

Last week our troupe participated in four performances alone, and each one was an incredible testament to my beautiful dance sisters' skills and professionalism. They really have been amazing, stepping up to the new challenges and delivering performances with grace, power, and beauty. They are the real reason these shows are a success. But as any director knows, each of those performances translated into a zillion little details that had to be discussed, tracked, and followed up on. And for those who don't know what role directors play in the life of a performance, here is a little breakdown.

A General Timeline of Organizing a Performance:
* Initial contact with host
* Discuss schedule with troupe and secure commitments
* Put on tentative schedule
* Contact host to confirm participation and determine:
- event time and location (and parking info as needed)
- number of performances and performance length
- venue details, including stage dimensions, entrance and
exit options, and dressing area info
- expected arrival time, where and with whom to check in
* Update online calendar with show info so far
* Discuss music options with troupe, considering venue and audience
* Edit music as needed, assemble set, make sure it hangs together,
& adjust as needed
* Plan staging and/or choreography
* Rehearse, revise set music as needed, possibly re-editing
and/or changing set order or content
* Rehearse final set beginning to end
* Discuss costuming and finalize details
* Mail out/upload any new music edits to group
* Update online calendar with new details

Of course there is a lot of follow-up communications in here, among multiple hosts sometimes and the six members of my troupe; and this doesn't include day-of preparation and planning, of course. But that's the "setting up the details" list off the top of my head.

As you may imagine, none of these steps are as linear as they appear on paper, nor does each step represent one meeting, one e-mail, one discussion or decision. And when there are multiple gigs coming up around the same time, the flurry of information, constantly shifting, can be rather daunting.

In February, we have been juggling the details of 12 performances over six weeks.

How did I not dissolve in a puddle of directorial freak-out? STRUCTURE!!

Ah, it isn't lost on me that I am right now singing the praises of something I felt pretty proud of operating without. I like working for myself because it means my schedule is incredibly flexible. I can (for the most part) decide the flow of my days and weeks, and let things unfold somewhat organically. But when it comes to Getting Shit Done, being too fluid can be your enemy. You develop habits of procrastination, laziness, and even get stubbornness against YOURSELF ("I know I should be doing my paper work, but I don't wanna." *harumph*), in the long term making your own life more cluttered, both literally and figuratively. Complacency leads to being overwhelmed, and then we are frozen.

But I have been spending the beginning of 2010 trying to establish better habits--better structure--in my daily life so that I won't get overwhelmed by the details. I am teaching myself how to take lots of small bites that add up to big results. It's WORK! It has not been easy, but it has been incredibly satisfying, and I can see how it is not only affecting me, but others in my life. I can see how my husband's attitude has shifted, and how supportive he is being was no surprise but very welcome. I see how my troupe-mates have stepped up to be more involved in the day-to-day of the troupe, really engaging me and each other on a level I honestly don't think we have ever experienced; and I see how that creates a feedback loop of pride and satisfaction which makes us all want to keep that positive momentum into the future. And the rest of my framily has been so incredibly helpful and positive, feeding me even more fuel to keep this going into the future.

Will it last? Of course I hope so, but part of this process is promising myself to stay here in the moment. Little bites. Little steps. Focus on what's in front of me, and really give it 100% and see it through. I feel like I am finding my footing at a time when I most needed to get my balance. Yeah.

A change in my diet, and getting healthier physically, is only one of my ambitious goals for 2010 and beyond. Another major one for me is getting my home in order. I have fallen into some incredibly slack habits when it comes to daily organization and plain old cleanliness.

I used to have a good excuse: I have had years of back problems where I couldn't even walk sometimes, so housecleaning and tidying up wasn't close to on my radar. But as I am strengthening and healing, I truly have no excuses for letting this drag on as it has. I mean, seriously, I work 3-4 days a week, several hours in the evening. My days I have flexible hours for working on my web design work, so I can be taking some of that time to get to it! So I am forming some new habits and here is how I am doing it:

Each day I am assigning a room to myself. On that day, I can do anything I think needs to be done in there, big or small. So for instance, Mondays are Living Room days. We spend most of our time in there during a given week, and it is the first thing people see when they enter our home. So I put it right there at the top of the week so the rest of my week is spent pleasantly enjoying a clean space.

Now as I said, I can do anything big or small. So some days I will maybe do a little light dusting and fluff the throw pillows. Other days I will vacuum, sweep, mop, and organize my bins (where I keep knitting projects, current reading material, etc). This past week I finally put some holes in the walls--hanging some pretty hooks I had been meaning to install behind the door for oft-used coats to be hung. And I also went through our media cabinet, dusted, and thinned out all the clutter that had accumulated in and on it. How liberating!

Tuesdays are paperwork/home office days. Filing, banking, admin stuff for my business, cleaning my desk, refilling the printer paper trays, vacuuming, etc. Thursdays are the bathroom (ick! But someone has to do it!) or bedroom (changing sheets, vacuuming, putting away laundry, cleaning the dog's beds, etc).

There are a few special circumstances. Wednesday is "do something" and Friday is "do nothing". Wednesday is a day that I can choose anything I want to accomplish. So that could be gardening, leftover paperwork from Tuesday, etc--little things that didn't make it into the other days. And Friday is "do nothing", where I give myself permission to do nothing at all if I don't want to. But for instance, today I am pulling everything out of the coat closet and reorganizing it. Because I WANT to, not because I have to.

My other side rule is that EVERY day is kitchen day. Chris and I have gotten more into cooking in recent months, and nothing discourages cooking more than having to clean the kitchen, or clean pots and pans, BEFORE you can get to the fun stuff! Then what happens? Ordering pizza or eating crap that is quick and doesn't require much prep becomes the likely option; and when trying to eat better is your top priority, you want to empower yourself to make good meal choices.

So what I do is every morning when I get up, I go straight to the kitchen and put the kettle on to get some water going for my tea. While it is heating, I load the dishwasher (or unload it and then load it, as needed). In the meantime, the water heats, I drop my teabag into some hot water, and by the time I am done with dishes and wiping down the stove and counters, my tea is ready to go! I then go do some morning pages writing (Artist Way holdover) and drink my tea, look at my schedule/plans for the day, all before I let myself wake up the computer to check mail/FB etc. The day has barely begun and I already feel accomplished!

If I did all the dishes the night before, and there is no kitchen cleaning to do, then I do the same thing but with a load of laundry. Hit the hot water, go to the basement and fold a load, transfer, start a new load, and when I come back up I am ready to steep my tea and start my day.

That was all a longhand way of saying that I have adopted a "baby steps" attitude with my organization. I never look at a room and say "Oh my gawd, how am I ever going to get this place tidied up?" Instead I look at one or two things that I can do right now, today, in usually as little as 15-30 minutes, and in the long term it adds up to one very lovely and clean room, and in turn a clean and welcoming home. Removing the clutter and chaos is having an invigorating effect on me, and it makes me want to do more because it feels so rewarding! I just keep reminding myself: I don't have to do it all. Just *something*. And more often than not it snowballs into getting more done than I even planned in the first place.

I still have a long way to go, but in the month or so since I started, I have been sticking to my plan and even going at it with gusto, and am feeling really motivated to keep it up! And frankly I can't wait for spring when I can tune even more of this energy onto our yard projects that have been on hold over the winter, and looking forward to our season of parties and entertaining that Chris and I so love.

Anyway, wanted to share what this girl is doing with her 2010 energy (Tenergy!)! What about you guys? What are you manifesting in your world right now? Any inspirations? Frustrations?

POSTSCRIPT
The image I used at the top of this page ended up being on a blog where the author was writing about nearly the exact same subject as me! Coincidence! FATE! Here is her list of plans for her week:
Thyme at Home

She also includes links to several other sites on the same topic:
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/cleaninglists.htm <---this one is INTENSE. Not my style, but maybe inspiring for someone.
http://www.housecleaning-tips.com/house-cleaning-schedule.html
http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/blog/images/queen_of_clean.jpg