How do grown-ups do it? How do they get everything done?

I mean, I’m going to be 56 in about a month and a half, you’d think I’d have my shit together by now, right?!

I certainly don’t need yet another blog post or magazine article or TedTalk on “how to get it all done.” I get it. You wake up, you work out, you have breakfast, you shower and get ready for work, you go to work (where you get everything done because dayplanners) and then on the way home you go to the grocery store and pick up something to make for dinner and then you get home and throw some laundry in while you’re cooking dinner, toss it into the dryer when dinner is over and you’re about to sit down and watch TV or read a book for an hour or two, and then you go to bed and get a good night’s sleep.

Right?

That’s what’s supposed to happen? When you have all your shit together?

If that’s true, what do you do about doctor’s appointments? Dentists? Chiropractors? Therapy? Vet appointments? Kids? Thank god I don’t have kids. What do you do about vacations? Sick relatives? Friends in the hospital or at the end of their lives? What do you do if your car needs to be worked on? Scheduling home repairs? When do you fit in hobbies? Walks in the park? Writing posts for your blog? Writing a novel? Fucking RELAXING, for gawd’s sake???

None of the things that tell you “how to get it all done” work in real-world, real-life situations.

Real life is messy. It’s unschedulable. It’s unpredictable. Every single day can’t be the same – it’s not possible. There’s too much to be done. Which is why I’m juggling caring for my friends when they’re in the end stages of cancer, why I have so much unfolded laundry, why every day is like pulling the short straw for do I want to write fiction, write a personal blog post, write a blog post for work, make some ceramics, dye some yarn, make some soap, meet my family for lunch or dinner, finally work on updating Quickbooks, clean my house, clean my studio, mow the lawn, clean the cat boxes, go shopping, weed my vegetable garden, finally paint the kitchen or the bathroom or finish painting the dollhouse room, write listings for new products (which also involves taking/editing product photography), freshing up my online shop making sure pictures are current and none of the links are broken, checking my policies and shipping abilities to make sure all of that is current and correct (don’t even get me started on shipping to the EU right now), or actually hang out in real time with a real live friend.

Someone please, PLEASE tell me I’m not the only one in the world not getting everything done that I want to get done. I mean, I’m getting everything done that I *NEED* to get done – feeding myself, showering, feeding all the pets, getting some sleep… and of course the MOST IMPORTANT thing which is taking time out to rest and lay about on the couch snuggling the dogs and not doing jack shit (honestly I think that keeps me sane). But in everything else I feel slowly falling behind. It’s not just me, right? Other “grown-ups” out there sometimes feel like there are just never enough hours in the day?

PS. Do I even have to say I’m not asking for advice here? I’m not looking for someone to tell me the magic formula that will allow everything to fall into place. I’m just looking to (a) vent and (b) ask if anyone else ever feels like this.