How do you manage to fit it all in? Options

[Impressionist]

For the last week or so I've not been able to do any constructive practice. I am a little frustrated. :-(

To give an example, at the moment I am burning CDs for my early years music classes, plus printing off CD inserts and labels. I have baked four trays of shortbread as one of my children has a fund raising day at school, I have to see child 2's teacher after school about maths, then parents evening at child 1's school tonight. In between this I also have to sort out the washing, meals, general tidying (and I would say my house generally resembles the site of a small, but pretty nasty nuclear explosion) and keeping things ticking over at home.

I have lesson plans for next year to sort out, confirmations for the new term to send out, banking and other financial stuff to finalise as well as the dreaded tax return for January!

On top of that I've got two fairly large commissions for music production for other early years groups of which one is needed end of year/early next year and the other by March.

And I've not even thought about Christmas shopping yet.

How do you get any practice done? I need to spend around 2 hours a day to achieve my goal of grade 8 by the summer, or at least by the end of next year (which I really want to do so that I can change career direction away from the under five classes and return to private teaching). I just can't see it happening. Or perhaps it's just a difficult time of year?

[Lemontree]

Although I have no children, I do work 2 or so jobs. In addition to housework, financials, redecorating my home, - I wish I could buy xmas presents, but since I want a new very expensive flute, I have to make all xmas presents myself, which takes a lot of time! I am preparing to become a flute teacher one day, already teaching two flute students myself, plus studying music theory, whenever I can, and I lead a full social life (friends, family, chess club, tap dance class). I restore furniture along the way, or built it myself, do art works in preparation for exhibitions, sew the better part of my clothes myself. BUT I do practice 2 hours each day.

The only thing this is possible, that I really carefully plan my day and what to achieve. I hava a FIXED two hour window for practice. No emergencies, no appointments, no distractions. In case friends or my parents give me a call: Sorry, I am practicing, I'll call you back! This is MY time. And whatever else I need to do gets done before or after, but at precisely 10 am, I start playing. And I finally stop when the church bells outside chimes noon.

I guess, the secret is to get nothing, absolutely nothing at all, into the way for the time fixed for practice, and second to be very well organized. The latter of which I really worked hard for. I am a very chaotic person, or at least used to be.