ladysprite | Is There A Pause Button For Life?

I need to find a way to remember that, while I very much enjoy being busy, I do not, in fact, enjoy being overbooked, and that there is a difference between the two.

In particular, I need to remember that I like my job a heck of a lot more when I'm working 40 hours a week or less. I have enough outside-of-the-office work to do, being self-employed, that it adds up to at least half a day a week. Between that and the fact that I rarely get lunch breaks, and rarely get out of work on time, it's easy to wind up overwhelmed if I book myself heavily.

For the past month or so, I've been crazy-busy. Work was slow earlier in the year, so between that and worries about funds if

umbran doesn't find a job soon, I've been scheduling myself pretty heavily. I've had dance classes two nights a week, plus a third night of working until 8pm. Add to that working on weekends and pre-scheduled weekend events, and even though those events have been fun, life has been fairly frantic. And while I like picnics and barbecues and games, I've been at so many Big Social Events that I've missed out on chances for one-on-one or small-group hanging out instead.

I have a tendency to fall prey to the fear that if I'm not Doing Something I'm wasting time, or that if I have a day with no particular events scheduled that it's a sign that I'm unpopular or lazy. It's a trap, and it's not true. I'm a social, extraverted creature, true, but I also need to take time to relax, unwind, and get stuff done in my own house and my own life - everything from running to the bank to deposit paychecks and unpacking from last week's trip to catching up on reading this month's issue of Cooks Illustrated and getting more than 6 hours of sleep in a night.

Unfortunately, I tend to schedule far enough in advance that, while I'm realizing this now, it'll be October before I can implement it. And somewhere in there, between hang-gliding and SCA events and LARP and OVFF I need to figure out when we're going apple picking, and make plans for our anniversary....

I need an eighth day in the week. Though, knowing me, I'd just book myself to work. Or take up a new hobby....