I’m usually quite good at juggling a lot of different things, but sometimes as I juggle, I come to the sudden realization that I have too many balls in the air.
And on that realization, I have to systematically start decreasing them, or else everything starts crashing down around me.
That’s where I am at the moment. At the beginning of the month, I thought that setting the July 31 date would be more than enough time to do the final preparations for publishing. It wasn’t (and still isn’t) like I have a lot of editing rounds left or anything like that.
But this month is almost done and I’m still not feeling like I’m getting to the things I need to get to while still doing everything else.
Which means that I’ve decided to cut back. At the moment, my priorities are my business and my writing career. Anything else that puts a fixed obligation or deadline on me has to go. Anything else that doesn’t put a fixed obligation or deadline on me has to be evaluated and put into a priority list.
Which means that today, I’ve written two resignation letters and in the past week, I’ve been thinking about what I want my social networking to do for me.
The general idea here is that I want to work smarter while making more of an impact. So far, it does seem to be working.
In the meantime, though, I’m trying not to feel bad about the things I’ve had to quit. I don’t like quitting things I enjoyed. But sometimes, it just has to be done in order to further my ambitions.
And that’s okay.
What do you do when you feel like you’ve got too much going on at one time?
5 comments:
Working smarter sounds really great, best wishes!
Exactly what you're doing, decide what I need to do vs what I want to do. Decide how much time things take, decide what I can not to without feeling bad or making myself unhappy. Sometimes rather than trying to do everything each day, I tell myself, today...I'm not going to worry with X...I'm going to focus on Y and then tomorrow I'll think about other things.
Sometimes I do things in depth to feel I'm accomplishing something, sometimes I do things in 20 minute increments to feel like I got lots of things done. Hope it all works out for you. Keep us posted.
Sandy at Bridge and Beyond
When I start feeling overwhelmed I start saying no. I start making sure I allocate time for me, to refresh and recharge. Lots of empathy going out to you at this time. You'll get it chipped down to a level that's right for you.
Life & Faith in Caneyhead.
Thanks, Blogoratti!
Sandy, I think it's good to occasionally spring clean our schedules. Even if we don't just say yes to everything, stuff to keep piling on and we're the only ones who can give ourselves that much-needed break.
I like the way you look at it, Barbara. Sometimes, refreshing and recharging is just necessary.
Sounds like a great plan! It is difficult to let go of things, but it's so important to create room for what we need to focus on most. I'm finally learning this. Good luck with your deadline! :)
Post a Comment