Creativity and flexibility

I'm entering an interesting period in my life. After being on sabbatical for a number of months, my calendar is filling back up. I have volunteer commitments, some teaching at MCBA, free-lance writing jobs and am continuing to look for the next and right full-time work for myself. But the sale last weekend feels a little like a dam has come down and a flood released. I have more ideas than I know what to do with and more obligations that take me away from my studio than I've had in awhile.
These are very rich commitments... ones that I love, so no one needs to feel any sympathy for me, btw. (Oh how I dislike conversations that include the standard "I've been so busy." It always feels like a competition to me. Is anyone not busy these days? Even my older, retired parents have full schedules!)
In previous years, I would get an idea for a book or box I wanted to do, run out and buy the supplies (always new supplies) which would make me feel like I was serious about the project. Then I'd lay everything out on the dining room table and stare at it for days. I couldn't actually get started and I'd feel worse and worse about it, until I just packed it away in the basement.
But something clicked over in my head in the process of getting ready for the sale. For two weeks, I worked non-stop in the dining room. While I was essentially in production on two similar box designs, I could see the next step clearly in my mind: boxes and books that were much more risky with my own visual and concrete poetry.
After the sale, I had to clear the table (I have a dinner party there tonight), but I've been very aware that I can't let this new stage get away from me. Part of the answer, I think, is to keep the work integrated into my life, like any other routine task. Like buying leaf bags in the fall in preparation for the day you rake the yard or buying groceries for the week. So yesterday, I spent another hour at the book arts center cutting board for new boxes, then came home and put the cut pieces in a storage box. I don't have time for the next step until mid-week, but then I can pull them out and glue up the board into boxes. The pieces are ready and waiting for me. And somehow that reassures me that I'll be back to that work very soon.