Tag: stress

More signs that I am too damn busy

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Two more signs that I am just too damn busy these days. First, I was up at 4:30 AM this morning, as usual, and into the office by 5:40 AM. However, once I got up here, I hesitated to go to the gym for my cardio workout because I thought I might be able to make use of the extra hour and a half to try and get caught up. So I did not go to the gym this morning, and instead opted to try and get caught up. I barely put a dent in things, and I did not feel good about it. I decided then and there that I would not sacrifice my morning workout for work again.

Second is email. I am very efficient with my email. At work, I use my inbox as my “to-do” list and refile everything else that I have read and/or taken action on immediately. This means that, unlike most people I work with who have thousands of messages in their inbox. I typically have 10-20 messages at any given time–namely those things that remind me of tasks I have to do. But I have been so busy that my normally efficient email practices have gone out the window. As of this moment, I have 171 items in my inbox and I am so hopelessly behind, that I am going to wholesale refile them later on today. If I forget to do something because of it, oh well. Someone will remind me.

Overwhelmed!

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Busy, busy, busy! It’s been busy at work the last few days with no immediate end in sight, although my meeting schedule is a bit more forgiving tomorrow, with only 3 hours of meetings, and then, finally! a long weekend!

I was beat when I headed home last night, and when I turned into my driveway, I got my car stuck in the snow, which I figured was soft and which I could ignore. I then had to spent 10 minutes digging around my tires so I could back out. I parked on the street. I’ll probably do the same. There is no way I am going to try and shovel what is essentially a several inch thick block of ice. It’ll warm up and melt eventually. In the meantime, there is always the street.

Tired as I was, I was also incredibly embarrassed by this, but fortunately none of my neighbors saw what was essentially a rookie mistake on my part. I blame it on being tired, but I could just as easily blame it on being lazy since I know better. But I got my desserts. I don’t like leaving my car on the street and last night my dreams were filled with anxiety because of it. I dreamed that I took a bus trip and after getting of the bus, realized I forgot my suitcase on the bus, but the bus was nowhere to be found. Arrgh!

Some would say I’m juggling at work; others might describe it as treading water. I’m working on no less than 5 projects, three of which I have fairly substantial involvement in. I’m barely staying afloat. It’s not as bad as it used to be. It used to be that I would work all night and all weekend and every waking moment to try and stay ahead. Now I just think about doing it, but eventually come to my senses. Work is still work. I try not to think about it when I leave the office.

Feeling better

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I am feeling somewhat better than I did in the middle of the night, although I am still home and taking it easy today. I suspect that this is somewhat stress-related. I have gotten very good at minimizing my work-related stress by keeping reasonable work hours (7 AM – 4 PM) and sticking to them. The workouts help too. But there is a lot going on at work and I am juggling more than I am used to and so the stress levels have started to creep up. I suppose I just need to take a deep breath and not worry about it so much. Easier said than done.

I was hungry when I finally got out of bed this morning (well after 9 AM) and I treated myself to a big breakfast at IHOP. I watched last night’s episode of House, which TiVo dutifully recorded for me as part of my season pass. I’ll probably get some reading done today, and maybe even some writing later on in the day. I have a number of errands that I could catch up on as well, but I’ll see how I feel. Mostly, I plan on taking it easy.