Stage managing your life

[Tempest]

Are you OCD, or just a stage manager?  ;-)  I know we all utilize our SM skills in an attempt to make our day to day lives run as smoothly as our dream rehearsal.  What have you done lately that "normal" people would shake their head at, but just seems like common sense to you?

My mother is coming into town to celebrate her birthday later this week, and wants to do something fun.  I polled a local blog for ideas, sent her an e-mail with a list of suggestions, and then made a Google calendar with times of events, or times sites are open, addresses for each one, and how much they cost.  I printed this out.  Now, when my mom says, at 4:00 on Friday, "What should we do?" I can whip out the list and say, "Well, we can go here, here, here, or here, or see this show, or spend time at this museum, etc. and it will cost this much."
My husband thinks I'm OCD.  In my mind I'm saving an hour of "What do you want to do?"  "Well, what do you want to do?"  Followed by another half hour of, "Where is it?  Is it even open?  Can we afford it?"

[maximillionx]

I definitely have my moments of OCD behavior, especially when it comes to money.  Comparing and contrasting to try and get the best deal and learn the most is something I do constantly.  I plan out my finances and use calendars to plan when payments are due. Other than that, I think I am pretty laid back.  I try and be spontaneous and just try new things without thinking too much.

[missliz]

I'm very right-brained. SMing is sort of the only place I'm hyper-organized. I'm more of a "method to the madness" person in non-work life...everything's organized for me, but other people have a hard time with it. When I'm SMing, I keep everything organized and clearly labeled so that others can understand it, but in my life...forget it.

Though I'm ALWAYS the one organizing friends and plans when we go out. The running joke is "I'm a stage manager, not a life manager."

[chrrl]

I'm jealous - I wish I applied my Stage Managing skills better to my own life, but really I'm a bit of a disorganized mess at home.  All my planning and organization energies seem to go into work and I have none left for me!

[Lizzie]

I'm really bad for planning travel this way. "If I have to arrive in Reading by 3pm, I need to leave Paddington by 2.30pm, say 2.15pm, which means getting to Liverpool Street to catch the tube at 1.45pm, which means leaving home at 1pm". Then of course you have to add 50% again to the total time, to allow for the fact that transport within Greater London is utter rubbish. And then you end up being waaay too early !

[Thespi620]

I'm similarly OCD (although I agree that its not so much OCD as a time-saver) about trips and day-to-day things--I like to have times for my ideal train as well as the trains 2 or 3 before and after me in case anything goes wrong/runs late.  My friends will often say things like "we can go to museum X or Y and then eat someplace nearby, depending on when things are open we'll find a place" and I'm immediately on museum X and Y's websites checking out gallery times and nearby restaurants.  I don't think of it as a bad thing necessarily, but some of my more laid-back friends get irked by it.

The running joke is "I'm a stage manager, not a life manager."

Its funny you used the term "life manager" because I had an actor in my last show who called me just that.  (And continues to do so).  Ever since the day I bumped into him on my way to open the theater and he asked me if he should take a bath or a shower before call, the two of us have decided that I will manage his life for him someday.   Its a fun running gag, as a "life manager" text message never fails to make me smile.

[TechGal]

Its funny you used the term "life manager" because I had an actor in my last show who called me just that.  (And continues to do so).  Ever since the day I bumped into him on my way to open the theater and he asked me if he should take a bath or a shower before call, the two of us have decided that I will manage his life for him someday.   Its a fun running gag, as a "life manager" text message never fails to make me smile.

HA!  I had a similar experience with an actor in my last show as well.  He said that if he ever got a personal assistant he wanted it to be me.  So our running joke became that when he finally lands his sitcom out in in LA and becomes wildly famous I will move out there and manage his life. 

[gillyweet]

I'm jealous - I wish I applied my Stage Managing skills better to my own life, but really I'm a bit of a disorganized mess at home.  All my planning and organization energies seem to go into work and I have none left for me!

same here. my room seems to be in a perpetual mess. but everything in the theatre and at work is organised and neat beyond belief. my folks don't believe their eyes when they see me bring my show stuff home at the end of a show.

[LCSM]

One of my favorite things as a SM is the paperwork, knowing I've done that well gives me the most satisfied feeling. Likewise, I'm always very concerned about keeping the paper from my day to day life in order. When I finnish a course in school I take all the notes I  want to keep and sort them into subjects and put them all in safely labeled duotangs. Even though most of them go in boxes never to be looked at again, I feel secure in the knowledge that I would be able to whip it all out in an instant. I'm a bit of a packrat.

[Tempest]

That's really not a bad idea, to keep all your school notes.  Even though it's something that I'm quite good at, I kept all the notes from all my design/tech classes.  They're in a big binder called "design resources", in clear protective sheets, and I actually pull them out to look something up, about once or twice a month.  Hey, I paid for that knowledge, why not keep it!?

[LCSM]

I just had to ask for a reference from one of my favorite teachers and was (understandably, but irrationally) terrified. To get myself to actually walk into the room I had to stand there with my watch and call "Standby Lucia for possible-refernce-letter entrance....Lucia's possible-reference-letter-entrance...go!" It worked surprisingly well.

[Tempest]

I know it's an oldish topic, but I have a perfect SMing my life exmple, this week.  Tomorrow, my husband, my best friend, and I are leaving for a much anticipated, long weekend, trip to a Masquerade ball in L.A.  Over my last vacation, I got really sick, and spent two days miserable with stomach cramps and fever.  No one wants to be that sick, but I NEVER want to be that sick on my rare vacation/fun days, ever again.
So, for this trip, I've made a "No One Will Have A Bad Day" kit, which I've just now realized is a mini SM kit.  Medicines for most of the gastro-intestinal ailments, pain killers, cough drops, fever reducers, Sleepy-time tea, safety pins, glasses repair kit, sewing kit, band aids, 5-hour energy drinks, rum and chocolate!
Besides that, don't even ask me about the binder with to-do lists, packing lists, place tickets, event tickets, hotel reservations, etc.!

[loebtmc]

are you coming to the labyrinth of jareth (she said, two days into too late) - darn I have friends who were working/performing, would'a been fun to connect you all

if so please share! and if not, ah well, best guesses are sometimes wrong.

sorry we won't get to hook up and have SM drink nite while you are here!

[ReyYaySM]

So, for this trip, I've made a "No One Will Have A Bad Day" kit, which I've just now realized is a mini SM kit.  Medicines for most of the gastro-intestinal ailments, pain killers, cough drops, fever reducers, Sleepy-time tea, safety pins, glasses repair kit, sewing kit, band aids, 5-hour energy drinks, rum and chocolate!

I had the same sort of realization when I put together the emergency kit for my sister's wedding this summer.  She didn't think she needed one and I insisted; we ended up using about 90% of the contents, all of which are items typically in my SM kit.  My favorite moment was when she came in with her petticoat and the hook of the hook and eye and said, "so remember that sewing kit you made me buy; can you fix this?" 

[BayAreaSM]

Right now as I'm unemployed, I'm enjoying the relaxed life and letting things get a little slack. This morning was the San Francisco Aids Walk, and AEA had a group present. I ended up being the only SM to show up for the walk in a Sea of Actors. They all kept prodding me once the walk officially started to let them know when it was time for a break. Everyone took a turn with it. When the time actually came, I did announce "Actors on a 10, Actors on a 10!" They all turned to me and giggled. Then I told them they could waive their break in lieu of a 15 when we actually hit the porta-potties further up the road.

I had also made a point to not carry a backpack or purse, since this was a 10k walk. Though I did manage to stick some essentials into my pockets of my "springy cammo-style capris." Around the 5k point, we were all given strawberry ice cream treats. When one actor finished his, he complained that they didn't give free napkins with the free ice-cream. I reached into my pocket and offered him a clean tissue, which he accepted. Yes, always prepared - even when I'm off-duty (and even for those actors that I hadn't met before today!).

Even if we're not in a show, our minds are always in the game.