today, abbi zeliff was a guest blogger on one of my favorite blogs, swerve. she had a great post on simplifying. i know it has been a while since my “weekly installment” of attempts at simple and that is for a good reason…i have totally been sucking at it lately!
the last two weeks have been crazy: traveling to nashville last wednesday-saturday, recovering from a plane-borne cold on sunday and monday, about five zillion (yes, i exaggerate) phone calls regarding book things (which is GREAT, don’t get me wrong!), a bunch of meetings and a long phone call about another more personal thing, driving with some friends to athens to see shaun groves tonight, helping my boss out at the fusion conference tomorrow, and meeting with a literary agent who’s in town for breakfast saturday…not to mention i am on a HUGE fall cleaning kick and have been a tornado of swiffer and mr. clean at home the last couple of nights. then there’s preparing to speak three times next month (wooo!) in alabama and arkansas…i can’t wait!
oh, and then there’s this thing i have called a job which has a big magazine deadline of tomorrow (thank you to pinkhairedgirl for offering up some freelance skill and helping us out), and we have two big fall festivals next month for which i get the privilege of managing communications…a LOT of communications…oh, and some freelance here and there.
the good thing about all of this is i have realized something i’m actually good at – managing projects and time. it is a ton of stuff yet there is a place and time for it all and i’m confident in the people i have fortunately been able to delegate to and my own progress on these items.
the horrible thing about this i realized today when my friend/accountability girl called me and asked me if we were still doing lunch today.
sccreeechhh…halt….brake noises….wha?
i looked on my calendar on my computer and my phone (they sync)…nothing. i KNOW it was on there – i had sent her the invite and it’s reocurring…somehow all of our bi-weekly lunches were deleted and because i didn’t have it on my phone or computer, i TOTALLY forgot about it.
i am relying way too much on this piece of technology and not my own brain.
today, i realized…i need to just take five minutes…retreat…and BREATHE.
when i get in seasons like this i LOVE it. i love being busy and it’s sick, but i kind of get a rush from having an overwhelming amount of stuff to do…i love problem solving and figuring out how it’s going to get done, then seeing things getting done, and meeting new people…all of it is great.
but i need to step back…away from my starbucks and five zillion diet cokes (not exaggerating)…and breathe. slow down. smile.
and simplifying?
Comments
12 responses to “attempts at simple- tip 3 – BREATHE”
i totally get it….mad props to you though for actually making yourself step back. It is just a great idea for me…couldnt ever do it.
wow, that is one long pointer-finger.
Piano Fingers ;) I started young, so they probaby got unreasonably stretched in order to make my octave chords…
OR you could just smile and breathe more?? i’m going with that … :)
Well, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one reliant on my phone to tell me where I need to be and when. :-)
I had the same thing happen with my hair cut appointment last week – *poof!* – disappeared, so I accidentally double-booked myself.
So, I rescheduled it to next week & I now have:
~ cut
~ color
~ lunch with you
:-)
mine doesn’t sync anymore. it’s of the devil.
i can really relate to what you’re saying… i just took a little break myself. i needed to slow down, decompress and shuffle my priorities a little. we all need times like that. life’s too short.
good for you =)
you are really busy. really workin’ it. bad deal for you to love being so busy. what do you do to build the down times into your schedule? – you know how the church can eat you up and spit you out – you’ve had that experience and so have i.
(ditto on the loooong finger comment)
Wow! We have something in common. :) I LOVE being busy. I get a rush from having too much and getting it done. I AM SUPER WOMAN! Ok, reality check? I can’t do it all. I just read this great section in a Rob Bell book where he talks about partaking of a Sabbath. He doesn’t do anything on that day except enjoying God and his family. Hmmm… not working seven days a week. Can I really do that?
Most people at my office are converting over to the crackberry. With the additional $40 for a data plan….it’s just not that important….to me anyway. My whole thing is, I get one full day off per week. So, with the family, I gotta disconnect from work. Fortunately my boss respects family time pretty well. This comes down from the top. Craig is adamant about protecting his family time. So, that trickles down to the campus pastors and to us lowly worship pastors too!
I’ve found that I carry my yellow legal pad everywhere. Once I write it down, no amount of technical glitches can erase it. Apart from me tearing the page out, or someone switching my pen out with an erasable pen, everything stays put!
So….get ya a legal pad. I’ve got an extra one if you need it.
Oh my…can I relate to the “stupid phone” nightmares…mine hasn’t been in sync for two weeks and it is killing me…I have sticky notes everywhere to remind me where to go next….
I can also 100% completely relate to being SUPER busy and loving it…but, God has forced me to STOP and be still for a bit right now, and I love it, but it is killing me at the same time…argh!
Melissa
All you people without enough time in the day to do stuff like breathe. Here I am trying to find enough to do with all this time on my hands. I know! I’ll start my own Blog! And rule the world! Muah hah hah! Oh..nevermind. What’s the secret to having more time? Stop owning a cellphone or any other online gizmo including a laptop. Only get online on your own desktop PC. Heh heh..I’m so evil… (grin)