I'm at my limit

[cjsmith]

I'm at or very close to my limit on the amount of things I can handle, remember, do, follow up on, remind people about, keep track of, or live up to. I'm starting to drop things.

So far nothing bad has happened. So far I have been reminded of semi-forgotten things in plenty of time to do them, or I've had good alternatives at hand. However, depending on luck is not a wise long-term strategy.

Obviously the right answer is to drop or to delegate. ("Drop" can include "postpone.") I wish I knew what to drop.

• Car accident stuff: insurance claim phone tag, evaluating what to buy, occasional chiropractor visits
• My job, which has way too many sub-items
• Calling engagements: tonight, this entire weekend, next entire weekend
• Caring for Duchess
• Sleep

Obviously I could have and perhaps should have dropped some social life over the past week. Almost certainly I should scale back on LJ. The rest of this doesn't seem very droppable. I've already dropped the entire concept of exercise and of seeing anyone about my feet.

Maybe I just gotta get through it. If so, I need a better system. Keep the Palm more up to date? Try to build a habit of looking at it? Make my calendar at work pop reminders up on my screen? Try to build a habit of setting aside an hour or three each week to look ahead to (and make sure I'll be ready for) anything happening in the next couple weeks?

Bleah.

Comments

Palmless habits

[airporter.livejournal.com]

I tend to review each morning the items for the week. On Monday it's a long-ish list, and yeah, some things stay on for several weeks at a time, but it does pare down a bit. The reminder for myself can be as little as 'bank, friday noon' to give me what I need to go on with.

I suspect you're at a 'must work through it' point; I'd note that the accident related items will die down in frequency as you settle things, so one of the items will expire naturally. Luck!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Keep the Palm more up to date? Try to build a habit of looking at it? Make my calendar at work pop reminders up on my screen?

All those help me stay organized.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

All those suggestions seem good, and they all depend on building habits. Which means they'd all be a pain at first, and you'd be tempted to avoid them. IF you can avoid that avoidance, by all means - do those things.

Otoh, have you heard about the hipster pda? Sometimes more really is too much, and less is really all we need. Sometimes "systems" are really "barriers"....

Okay, here'z some linkz:
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda/
http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Hipster_PDA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_PDA

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

This sounds way too familiar!!!!

[layer.livejournal.com]

i so feel your pain.

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

I took the Franklin Covey time management system years ago, and while I've never practiced all of it, I did have their desktop software (previously was the calendar binder thing everyone carried around), and I had the To-do list always active on my calendar desktop. It had my appointments for that day in time blocks, and I always included both work and non-work stuff on the to-do list.

So when my calendar was up, my list was up in front of me. I also used the desktop calendar for recording phone calls and conversations (it had a "Daily Record of Events" section where you could record these things), and that ended up being an important documentation tool for me in my professional and personal life ("yes, I did call you at such and such a time on such and such a date, and here's what we discussed").

Having all the to-do's on a single list, where I could easily prioritize, really worked well for me.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

The car one will go away eventually. It's a temporary suckage, so that one doesn't count.

And Duchess told Spike that she would do her own injections, but you don't trust cats with needles. I think that's a very smart attitude. If we gave cats needles they would wreak havoc and try to take over the world. Or they would figure out how to shoot up catnip.

did you want suggestions?

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Hey CJ -- I've been tending to give you suggestions,
but I think I got a bit ahead of myself at times.
So, starting at the beginning this time: Did you
want suggestions on this?

I definately empathize. I can go from thinking I'm
just a bit stressed to real crisis level really
easily. I think that means I'm *used to* being
time stressed.... and *used to* taking on significantly
too much.