Can you help me please? Someone is stealing my time!

At this time of year I start to get a bit edgy and nervous. Christmas is only a few weeks away and my head is buzzing with all of the projects I have to complete. Also, at school we have Christmas shows to prepare and it's very stressful getting the little angels to memorise their parts and learn the songs.

My problem is time. I never seem to find the time to get everything done. And it's crazy! I have no children, I work only in the afternoons from 3 until 7.30pm, my mother-in-law does most of the cooking. Yet my work basket looks like this..........

(7 projects on the go and 0 finishes)

My washing basket is overflowing, the house is a mess, I have Christmas cards to make and send and I still haven't finished writing my thank-you letters from our wedding 4 months ago. I haven't done any work on our house renovation for weeks, I haven't read a book or watched t.v. I don't know where on earth my time disappears to.

So, I'm asking you my blogging friends for some help. How do you manage to get things done, raise families, craft, cook look after your homes, blog? What are your secrets of time management?

Have a productive week everyone x x

PS Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes last week. I had a lovely weekend with friends and family. I've now entered the last year of my twenties - only a year to go until the big 3 0!

Enneagram of personality

Last night I went to a very interesting seminar about Enneagrams. It's basically a system of defining personalities and behaviour patterns which can be used as a method of self-understanding and self-development. I'd never heard anything about this before and I was hugely sceptical, however, I was asked by a friend to go along so I thought I'd give it a try.

They started off by describing the first personality type "The Reformer" and I swear that they could have been talking about me - they described my personality so perfectly.

This is what the Enneagram Institute say about Type 1:

Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards, but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience. At their Best: wise, discerning, realistic, and noble. Can be morally heroic.

Everything else I've read about Type 1 seems to fit me just perfectly and I feel like I now have a better understanding of who I am, what my strengths and weakenesses are and what I can do to improve. My main fault is that I'm extremely critical of others. I want everyone and everything to be perfect and I get extremely nervous and uptight when things aren't done perfectly (which of course is all of the time!). I'm also really hard on myself and think that I should always do better or work harder. The seminar last night made me realise that I should relax a little bit more and not 'sweat the small stuff.'

So, now along with my spending hiatus and my 12 weekly goals I have a new set of challenges. I'm going to try to be less impatient and critical of others and of myself. I want to keep the positive side of being a type 1 but lose the negatives. The idea of the enneagram is not that it puts you in a box but that it helps you to get out of the box your behaviour has put you inside. I'm definatley on my way to getting out of my box.

Righthand (female):

free enneagram test