Too busy

According to the Wisdom of the Internet I am either too self-centered to be a good friend, or I'm powerfully purpose-driven. Either way, I'm too busy.

Sorry, Mandy, I disagree. This concept that being "too busy" is a myth can be a really toxic idea. It belittles the struggles of those whose lives sometimes become overwhelming. If being too busy were a myth, then no one would ever need to set boundaries, or "'make time' for the things that are really important." (Quote from LiveLifeHappy)

This. Yes. This is how I feel too often, lately. (Quote from BrainScape)

What's the problem?

These last few weeks have been packed, for me. Sometimes urgencies that are not under my control elbowed their way in. I was pulled away from work that took longer than expected, by planned things that "needed doing."

I've missed normal schedules for blog posts (such as this one, for instance!). Stayed up too late, even for me (the graveyard shift is my most productive time). Been forced to drop some things half-done.

And there you have the nub of it. I have a lot of unfinished business. Pulled away too often. Too many things dropped half-done.

David Allen makes a really good point. It's true I have a whole bunch of stuff to do in a short period. But the picking-it-up-then-having-to-put-it-down-and-shift-focus routine is what makes me truly frazzled. (Quote image from TooMuchOnHerPlate).

Now, it's not as if I'm running in place. I can see that incremental progress is indeed happening on several long-term goals. All that effort does appear to be having an effect. But I still feel I'm a long way from finishing several big priorities that mean a lot to me.

Why so busy?

It's a busy season for me, for several reasons. It's the turn of the year. That means it's the end of a fiscal year for my personal business, Artdog Studio, as well as for my new LLC, Weird Sisters Publishing. Reports, wrapping up bookkeeping, and strategic planning for the year to come are all part of that.

My own personal blogging has been disrupted more than I expected by the need to prepare a post every week for The Weird Blog. I'd gotten to the point where I was regularly producing three posts per week for Artdog Adventures, so I figured it'd be easy enough to add just one more, especially with my sister writing approximately half of them.

Well, guess what? Not as easy as it looked.

On the personal front, there's my 95-year-old father needing more care and attention (thank God the whole family's pitching in on that), and my daughter's chronic illness has flared up twice since the end of 2019.

But don't forget the fun stuff

Oh, yeah, and there's also making art, writing another book, shepherding the cover design process for two different books (more on those in future posts), and figuring out how to market everything.

Kangngaudaube Irang thinks more the way I do. I don't like to be idle. It's empty and It's also boring. Being busy is better, as long as one doesn't get too busy. It's a difficult balance to walk. (Quote from YourQuote)

So, no. I'm not unhappy about my currently too busy life. To a certain extent I'm apologizing for my irregular blog-posting schedule. I also hope to offer a glimpse of what's been going on with me. Next week, things should smooth out. Several major hurdles should be in the rearview.

And when I finally get to roll out some of those creative projects I've been working on, I dearly hope you'll be pleased.

Here's hoping I'm making the right ones, Eleanor!  (Quote image from TooMuchOnHerPlate).

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to LiveLifeHappy for the quote from Mandy Hale, even though I respectfully disagree. I also want to thank BrainScape for the "too many tabs" image,  and TooMuchOnHerPlate for the quotes from David Allen and Eleanor Roosevelt. Finally, thanks also to Kangngaudaube Irang and YourQuote for the "stay busy" sentiment.