Today’s questions: “How much is too much to accomplish in a given day? How much “down time” do we need?

It’s barely noon on a Sunday as I write this, and I’ve already read the paper, worked out, edited and printed agendas for two meetings I have tomorrow, written an article about a seminar I attended, printed off and prepared to mail a copy of a 350+ page manuscript for my agent, caught up on e-mail and talked to a friend. Still on the list are: finishing another article, preparing for an online writing workshop I’m giving starting next week (with an author who has sold more than seventy books. We’ll be reprising and adding to the workshop we did at a national writing conference about persistence at different stages of your career), and researching what I’ll want and who can design my soon to be created acting and freelance writing Web sites. Plus laundry and a couple of other household and home organization chores.

I could choose to be distracted by pursuits such as Web surfing, TV watching, reading. I could choose to procrastinate. But then I’ll just have all the more to do tomorrow.

So much of our life is spent planning for the future, both short and long term. When a friend wants to have lunch, when we’re scheduling a meeting, doctor or other appointment, we whip out our calendars (mine is still a print Day-Timer) and plan around all the things we’ve already entered. How many times a day do you think or say, “This weekend I’m going to (fill in the blank)? Or “Next week I’ve got to…”

When do we live in the moment, and appreciate what we are doing here and now, instead of always looking toward what’s coming next? I think many days we’re so busy rushing from one scheduled event to the next we create our own stress. And we also create a false sense of urgency because there are so many things we think we HAVE to do. Don’t we also have to make time to decide what we really want to do with our time?

Time is our most valuable commodity. We owe it to ourselves to do the best we can to choose and control how we use it, rather than allowing it to control us.

Do you ever worry too much? I’m familiar with most of the platitudes designed to keep one from worrying: “don’t worry about things you cannot change,” “do the best you can, it’s all anyone can do,” etc.

But sometimes, niggling thoughts burrow into your mind and stay there. If they dig deep enough, they can distract your concentration from the tasks at hand. My worry of the moment has to do with possible (perhaps not probable) scheduling conflicts from auditions I have today and tomorrow and the vagaries of how to prepare for events that might or might not arise. What is “the right thing?”

Who said, “When it rains, it pours?”

Have you ever used a TelePrompTer, the thing that displays scripts so that news anchors can read them while looking into the TV camera? It’s not as easy as it looks.

First of all, there’s usually a person scrolling the text and trying to keep up with you (there is an automatic setting but that can be tricky). Talk too fast, and you may run out of words before the new ones scroll into view. Talk too slow, or take too long a pause, and a new sentence may appear before you can finish the one you’re saying.

Second, you have to read in a smooth flow and without moving your eyeballs too much (up/down/side to side), while maintaining a pleasant expression (not looking like you’re trying to read) and sounding friendly, not stiff.

Fortunately, it’s a skill somewhat like riding a bike, and I learned how to do it in college.

Today I auditioned to be the co-host of a new health TV show, and had to read the introduction from a TelePrompTer. Apparently, plenty of other people in Chicago say they can use TelePrompTers, because the woman who ran the audition told me they’re auditioning all week. That’s showbiz.

Though I’ve been on more than 50 movie sets, I didn’t know what a process trailer was until last night, when I went to shoot my second day as a noxious cab passenger for an independent feature film. It’s used to film car scenes and make it look like the driver is actually driving.

The cab was mounted on a trailerbed attached to a truck, with spotlights all around. The director and crew rode outside the taxi, on the trailer. We made our way up and down Michigan Avenue until 2:00am. The “taxi driver”, my “date” and I were toasty inside the cab, leaving the crew exposed to frosty late night lake winds. As you might expect, passers-by and other cars slowed to check out our brightly lit setup.

One of the things I had to do was smoke. It took me a while to get the hang of deftly using the cigarette lighter and lighting the cigarette…the things we do for our art!

While a participant in corporate America, I didn’t think I had enough Time to do everything I wanted, from hanging out with friends to writing to dating to reading all the books on my To Be Read shelf or catching up on movies. But even then I believed that, in most cases, people choose how they use their Time.

Often, we get so caught up in the self-perpetuating swirl of busy-ness we forget we have some control over our schedules. We run around, overbook ourselves and our families and relinquish our powers of choice. How many times a day does someone you encounter complain about lack of Time or being too busy?

Almost everyone should be able to find 15 minutes a day to do something she/he has been meaning to do, such as 1) call a friend or relative and stay in touch 2) work out 3) pursue a favorite hobby/activity 4) any other thing she/he has wanted to do but has put off.

It’s ironic that because I’m waiting to hear from so many people–literary and acting agents, editors, whether or not I’ll get this or that audition or part, etc…some days Time seems to pass too slowly. Because I don’t have a day job or kids to fill my days, I’m no longer sure how to prioritize projects. Lately I’ve been spending more Time than I’d like considering all of my options instead of simply doing. Instead of moving forward.

How well do you use Time? Here’s to a New Year’s resolution to improve, whatever that means to you.

Why are my closets so organized? Why is my condo so tidy? One reason is because the state of my belongings is one of the few things I can control in my life as a Gainfully Unemployed. In my world where a large chunk of my success is determined by others approving of my work.

I can remind my various agents of my existence, but I can’t ensure that they’ll submit me for any auditions. I can send mailings to casting directors, but I can’t make them choose me for an audition after the agent submits my headshot. And, no matter how well I say the copy, I certainly can’t make the client choose me from the videotaped auditions…especially if they had a tall blonde in mind.
Nor can I control:
1) scheduling. Shooting on the independent feature film I was originally asked to save two days this week for…has now been postponed until early next year.
2) timing. I can write award winning manuscripts, but I can’t make the editors who’ve requested them respond. I will sell, but when?

As you might imagine, all this can be extremely frustrating. Last night I attended a Winter Solstice yoga class. We were asked to write down something we wanted to let go of and throw the piece of paper into the fire. I chose to rid myself of frustration. As my second effort caught fire (the first fell to the bottom of the fireplace. Hmmm. I needed to see the thing burn.), I did feel calmer.

Can I control how long the feeling lasts?

Newsflash: I got not one, but TWO parts in an independent feature film. I found out less than 24 hours before I had to report to set, and was told only that I’d be a bitchy passenger with a date in one of the lead’s taxi and another day, a pharmacist.

My ‘date’ informed me that we’ll have to make out. Hmmm. 1) The only time I’ve ever had to kiss a fellow actor was in high school while attending Northwestern’s Cherub program doing the love scene from Romeo & Juliet. 2) This guy, though nice and interesting, is a smoker. With smoker’s breath. Note to self: bring Altoids.

Last night we shot the end of the taxi scene, where I pay and we get out of the cab. To get what they wanted: Me and my date were crammed into the right half of the back seat. On the floor at our feet: the sound guy and his fuzzy microphone. Later, for a different angle, we had to maintain our positions as best we could despite the addition of a hot, bright, spotlight on the seat next to my date…

Because I’m so short, I sat on two sandbags, filled not with sand but lumpy beans. Beans are not comfortable.

The shoot went from 7PM to 1:50AM.

Also, copy and paste this address
http://chicagocritic.com/html/the_bar_show.html
for a review and picture of the recently completed 2006 Chicago Bar Association musical revue.

How do you know when you’ve prepared for something, as the littlest bear would say, “just right?” When are you exerting too much effort, or not enough?

I had to play piano for an audition last week. For the past couple of years, the only piano playing I’ve done is to pound out my notes for various singing performances. I hadn’t played any of the pieces I used to play semi-well.

The day I found out about the audition, I decided to work on a Brahms waltz. I practiced. Then the script arrived, and it looked like I’d have to play and talk at the same time. I practiced. And practiced.

The audition coincided with the worst December snowstorm here in years. That morning, I watched the weather reports. I practiced. And practiced. I left an hour and a half early for the suburban studio. Fortunately, hardly anyone was on the roads which had just been cleared, and I got there in record time.

Upon arrival, I learned:
1) Playing and talking were separate.
2) I only needed to play a few chords, not a whole piece.
3) Tho I’d pretty much memorized all 3 paragraphs of copy, they only wanted me to do the first two (the last was the longest, and rather technical).
4) Many people had cancelled their auditions and were rescheduling for another day.

Could I have allocated my time more effectively? Do you think it’s better to be too prepared?

Will I get the part? Stay tuned…

My first animated voiceover role is now available! Visit
www.pressstartmovie.com/bonuslevels, choose Strategy Games, and click START!.

I recorded my lines using my home equipment, and via the magic of editing and art…voila.

What do you think?

Ever heard the phrase “cattle call?” Recently an agent sent me on one. The audition was from 10-3 at a photographer’s home studio, and people could stop by anytime.

I arrived around 10:30. Fellow actors of all ages and types lined the stairway up to the photog’s apartment. Everyone who came down said “Wow” upon seeing how many of us waited. As we inched our way up the stairs, a clipboard with a short registration form made its way down the line.

I was #43. All we had to do was give the photographer several warm expressions. I left around 11:00. Yesterday I ran into a woman who said she had gotten there around 2:00 and was #271!

Hope you’re not wondering if either of us got the gig.