How Come it Always Gets Busier?

Life seems to get busier every month. Discouraging, because I’m not even hanging on sometimes when something new comes along and demands another segment of my time.

It is often GOOD stuff. But what I struggle with most is balancing the need for now against the need for the future. I have a class coming up, and I have client contracts due. I have to prepare curriculum, and I have to work for my clients. Then I have requests from clients that come in sporadically (usually 5-6 per day), that I have to prioritize and work in around the other stuff.

Sometimes it is a delegation issue – I sometimes forget to delegate some of those niddly little things that I could just forward to Kevin. I’m getting better about that though, as he would assure you!

Sometimes it is just knowing which of the ten top priority items is the MOST important item. Do I do something that will earn us in the future, or do I speed up what will earn now? It isn’t as simple as it seems, because if I focus too much on now, I’ll be left with nothing then. So I have to keep up with now, but I also have to get some things done that will ensure that I still have work and income when the immediate work is done.

Somehow I have to balance family needs here too, and some of them affect income and sustainability. I have to take time from work to plant the garden. I have to take time from work to cut up the half of a beef that we bought so we could have the higher quality meat that I require, at a more affordable price. It affects our income now, but we have to do it to have what we need. A different way of supplying some of the needs more affordably.

So all of this has got me swamped until I get over the hump. I’m working on strategies to do that, and some are having an effect which is good. My blogs have suffered though – the few hours a week I need for them have been swallowed up in class prep, garden prep, and meat processing.

Meanwhile, I have clients contacting me saying, “I have to put this on hold, my life just exploded on me.” And I can only say, “I understand!” After telling one client that, and adding, “If I cloned myself, I’d just be twice as far behind.”, she responded, “You really DO understand!”.

I’ve come to understand that busy is good. It helps us figure out what is really important. But it is also an opportunity for growth that we should learn from. And I am making the attempt to do that!