Budgeting My Time

Usually, I’m pretty good at budgeting my time, but as of late, I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed.  Blog entries are getting written late and I still have to finish my Year in Review posts.  I can’t forget about the last half of 2009.  There were some pretty good days in there!

I know that I’m not alone in this.  I think that a lot of people find themselves overwhelmed with responsibilities and commitments and struggle to make everything work.  Right now, work is taking up a ton of my time, having to put in extra hours here and there.  While I don’t mind the extra hours (my work is good about compensating us for our time, which means I’ll have extra vacation time to use later), I do mind the total lack of schedule.  Last month, I was told “Don’t think about asking for leave during January and February, because you might have to work holidays.”  There is a holiday on Monday and I still don’t know whether or not I have to work.  If I have to work, I have to work, but I would like to know so I can plan ahead.  I’m also running a half marathon in less than two months.  That means I really need to stick to my training schedule.  It doesn’t take a ton of time, but I do need to be sure to set aside time for all of my training runs.  I’m trying to keep somewhat of a social life, even if it’s just drinks out one night a week with friends.  Then there are family responsibilities and blogging responsibilities (like a new book to review – watch for a giveaway soon!) and general household responsibilities, and oh yes, the need to relax every so often.

Writing it out, it doesn’t actually sound like that much, but it was getting overwhelming.  Yesterday, I decided to back out of my next choir concert.  It was only the second week of rehearsals for this concert series, and they are understanding that not every member can sing every concert, so it’s not a big deal, but I still felt guilty about backing out.  I knew it was the right decision – due to the unpredictability of work, I wasn’t sure when I would have to miss rehearsals and I didn’t know what kind of “homework time” I would be able to put in on the music.  But even though I felt guilty, after I sent the e-mail, I felt like a huge weight was lifted.  Somehow, just removing one little thing from my schedule made me feel so much less overwhelmed.

I need to get better about budgeting my time.  I don’t want to become one of those people who has a planner with every hour scheduled out, but I do need to sit down and say “Okay, Megan, on Monday you need to do this, and on Tuesday you need to do this, and if something falls by the wayside, you should have some free time to catch up over here on Thursday.”

Do you budget your time?  What do you do when things get overwhelming?  I’m willing to try anything.

Well, almost anything.