24 hours is just NOT enough!

Is it just me or  a 24 hour day cycle seems like a joke when one is trying to fit a "to do" list in it? And exactly how realistic is it to try and stick to the program?

I'm saying, It is a given that the "to do" lists always look better on paper since so many parameters can come into play and prevent from actually scratching one or two items off the list.

Everyone knows and accept that.

Well, not me. I would love to giddily move on and pile the leftover items on top of the "to do" list of the  next day, but, often find myself feeling  this wee tiny tinge of guilt.

Yep, guilt. Frustration, sure, but sense of  guilt? Yes;  short lived and senseless, but guilt nonetheless. The same kind of feeling I get when procrastinating and intentionally putting things off to say... indefinitely.

Being that, on average, three "to do" stuff don't get crossed out of my list each day, we can safely assume that the tinge of guilt sentiment is a rather recurrent one.

What kind of things are on my "to do" list anyway, you ask? I'll elaborate but first, let me just say that as a freelance contractor in my line of work, I do enjoy some flexibility in my day-to-day schedule.  While some of my contracts can be dealt with from home, a good part of my working time is spent meeting directly with the organizations or the people I contract with. This often means a lot of moving/running around the big apple; it also means hours of waiting around in between meetings. This is usually where I'll try and squeeze in a couple of other things to do what may or may not be directly work-related.

A typical to do list for me would, therefore, look a little something like this:

Drop off awesome-behaving kiddo (Brooklyn)

Drop by real estate agent  for application (Brooklyn)

Potential work networking event (SoHo)

1st scheduled work meeting of the day (Lower Manhattan)

2nd scheduled work meeting of the day  (Upper West)

3rd scheduled work meeting of the day ( Lower Manhattan)

4th and last scheduled work meeting of the day (Wall Street area)

Pick up seriously-despotic-acting kiddo, zoom straight to fun location (Brooklyn)

Be home at a decent bedtime for awesome-again kiddo

Catch up on emails, News (or headlines anyways...), family, friends, housework

Research on current work, line up prospective contracts.

It doesn't seem like much but things, more often than not, get awry along the way.

Things get postponed, like the real estate application process, due to poor customer service. Poor, as in agent endlessly blabbing on the phone while I'm standing there ignored.

Things get delayed, like my arriving late to the book launch and to meeting #2 due to zillion Yankees fans congesting subways . Yes, I taped the impossibility for me to access to the subway entrance, dammit!

Things get skipped, like meeting #3, housework and prospection due to a variety of reasons, not the least of which is getting some kind of sleep.

Last Friday, which is where the above mentioned schedule belong; instead of the usual mental kick in the head guilt ceremony,  I actually surprised myself with a mental pat in the back for putting a check mark in front of most items of that day's "to do" list. Guilt-free.

This feeling may well be the beginning of a brand new (24 hour) day.