How do you juggle your interests/talents?

I always find it challenging to juggle all of my interests and talents. Because of money issues, I can generally only take one or two classes at a time. So my habit seems to be to focus on one thing at a time, try to get really good at that - but in the meantime I find myself slacking on my other talents or interests.

How do you deal with this? Do you make a schedule and plan out set amounts of time to focus on each individual thing or do you just do whatever you're in the mood for...or what?

I go on moods and times. I play piano, violin, draw, make hats, and do other crafts as well as school.
Everyday i do a little school work.
I play piano twice I week at least for 15 minutes each time. More if i feel like it.
Violin for 30 everyother day, 15 on lesson days.
Make one hat every two weeks.
Do at least one new craft each month.

It's all about decideing what's most important and setting general times. Don't expect to follow a schedule exactly but give yourself guidelines instead.

That's a good idea, but that's also how I seem to "forget" to do one thing or another. I'm one of those people that needs to write reminders and lists and notes all over the place..."if my head wasn't screwed on I'd lose that too" kinda thing.

Someone on another forum said they set days to do certain things, which is a good idea for me I think. Something like mixing your idea with theirs would probably do me good...

i.e.,

Mondays - Belly dance
Tuesdays - Hooping
Wednesdays - Burlesque
Thursdays - Doumbek
Fridays - Poi
Saturdays - workout
Sundays - yoga

And then like, once every other week try to focus on doing improv rather than just drills & combos on my dancing & hooping days.

That might just work for me! I will have to figure out where trapeze classes will fall into that but I have time for that.

I'm the same way. I have a dry erase board I have my guidelines written on and as I go through the week I cross things off.
Every Sunday I write them down again and start over.
You also may want to mix up your routine so it doesn't become monotonous and you get bored. I have that problem a lot.

Dry erase board...that's a great idea! And yeah, I'm sure this schedule could get a little blah after a while...thanks!!

katitious wrote:

Mondays - Belly dance
Tuesdays - Hooping
Wednesdays - Burlesque
Thursdays - Doumbek
Fridays - Poi
Saturdays - workout
Sundays - yoga

This would never work for me as I wouldn't get better in anything at all. I have to keep doing things every day to get better at it. I try to combine things with other things, for example: Rachel Brice's Bellydance video has yoga in it. and whenever I watch a movie I have my pois in hand and I practise in front of the tv while watching the movie. (I think this actually improves my technique as my arms get so used to the movements while my focus is elsewhere). Same goes for practising Bodhran and Bouzouki: in front of the tv(don't have much of a social life )

At the moment since I am unemployed I tend to do a little bit of everything throughout the day. However, once I am employed I shall have to sit down and draw up a schedule to make sure I have time for practicing and spend more time on each art on days I have off. Also, I tend to practice my isolations as I move around the house (it's become sort of a running joke with my roommates).

See my issue is my "working stiff" schedule. Since performance is sadly not currently my only time consumer, most classes happen DURING my shifts. Since I don't work a day job. I work early evenings. On weekdays only. And then I perform on the weekends.

I'd love to do the one class a night thing. It'd keep me busy.