Craft management strategy

Do I actually have one?  Well I did start with a spreadsheet of each project that is either in process or planned (meaning pattern and/or supplies have been bought)

I categorized them by craft bead/knit/sew and  then color coded for deadline projects, ongoing projects, in process projects, and planned projects.

There are 28!  

Then I worked on establishing some rules.  

• 1/2 day must be spent on deadline projects.  
• No new projects can have work started until a deadline project is complete.  
• 1/2 day can be spent on an on -going project of my choice.   
• You can see 4  on-going here but when I begin my beaded object class and then my compass rose class, there will be 6.  
• 2 knitting, 1 sewing and 2 beading.  
• Knitting will be reserved for early morning or evenings because they are comfort projects and also reasonably mindless.  Note the reasonably, we'll come back to that.
• A planned project may be added but no supplies can be bought until 1 on-going project is complete.

It's beginning to sound like too many rules and in the end what it comes back to is focus and finish, so that's what I'll be working towards.  So maybe the bottom line, is work on these in order of need for 1/2 day and desire for 1/2 day and don't add anything new until the list is reduced.  

Of all the projects I've only put one on time out so I guess that means I have the desire to complete the rest.

Do I need to be more discerning in future project selection?  What should the criteria be?  Gift knitting (there's at least a little here) home decor?  I do want to have a more artistic home.  Learned skill?  I'm not sure I want to learn anything new right now.  I think I will contemplate that next time I think about adding something to this list.  

Now for just a minute let's talk technical knitting talk.  Because I thought Ranunculus was mostly mindless.  There's a little bit of lace work in the  yoke and I've already made it once.  Who needs lifelines?  But it turns out I missed one little yarn over and then I proceeded to carry on with the next row and of course the entire row was off and I failed to see it.  I tinked one row back and picked up a yarn over and tried to convince myself it looked ok and carried on but then I was somehow 3 stitches short and so the next pattern row was off.  I decided to take it back 7 rows before the first mistake by using an after  thought lifeline.  I'm never any good at those, I can't seem to consistently pick up the stitches in the same row, but  it's done now, very fiddly at the end.  So that project is back in rotation ready to carry on.  I can't leave a mistake in a project or I find it very hard to go back to.  

This does bring up the consideration that my concentration is not what it used to be and I am more prone to making mistakes.  Another reason to work on my craft management strategy.

I'll let you know how it's going.    Right now I'm off to work on a couple of deadline projects while the day is young.