I can't do all the things

The last few weeks I'd slowly been feeling more and more overwhelmed with life, the sheer number of work, personal, family, and life admin tasks have been stacking up. When I set all my goals in January, the kids hadn't yet started school or activities, work was quiet, and everything seemed do-able.

Over the past couple of months, the calender has gotten more and more full. This is definitely a busy time of year, but over the past week, I've spent a number of early morning hours unable to sleep, thinking through problems and strategising solutions. Yesterday I found myself, as I planned our Easter break, feeling stressed by the idea that I would lose some work days next week, and fall "even more behind". And THAT made me feel resentful that I couldn't enjoy and relax during my time off the way I'd like to.

And then at 3.40am last night, as I lay awake thinking about it all yet again, it came to me. Something so obvious, and yet somehow it always takes me a while to work it out - I can't do all the things. I have to adjust my plans.

The great thing about my work is that I have a lot of discretion over the goals I choose. Overall, of course, as a researcher and university lecturer, I need to make progress in some key domains - publish high quality papers, undertake research, apply for research grants, supervise students, update and teach my courses, and contribute to committees, and other roles. However, within these general guidelines, the SCALE of what I achieve in a timeframe is up to me to decide what is ambitious but feasible. And often, my choice of goals for myself tends to fall more on the ambitious side rather than the feasible side of the equation. I've realized that my choice of goals for this particular period of time was much too ambitious. In addition to my work goals, my personal goals can also be adjusted.

Here are my existing goals, adjusted as needed.

Work Goal 1: Completely overhaul my two courses I teach - new content, references, recorded videos and assessments. Due by June.

Revised Work Goal 1: Smaller update of references, a few sections of new content, a few new videos. Basically halves my time commitment on this while still delivering a quality learning experience.

Work Goal 2: Write two major research papers, as well as multiple co-authored papers.

Revised Work Goal 2: This one stays as is, as its important, but other things can be cut from my schedule to make room for this goal. For example, I've been doing a lot of media appearances lately (mostly radio to answer science type questions), which I enjoy, but I could decide to stay away from it for a few months.

Personal Goal: Spend 5-6 mornings a week writing my fiction, 3 in a cafe.

Revised Personal Goal: Continue to do some regular writing as is feasible each week, and attend the Commercial Fiction Masterclass for a week in May. Then decide where to go with my writing after that.

With these adjustments, everything I want to achieve should fit a lot better in the available time, improving my mindset, mood and general enjoyment of life. And, of course, my sleep! As soon as I realised the problem last night, and its solution, I was able to fall back asleep until after 6am! Its funny, I've read books like Oliver Burkeman's 4000 weeks, and Cal Newport's Slow Productivity, and LOVED them, and yet its so easy to fall back into the old habit of trying to do too much. If anyone reading this is trying to do too much, or feeling chronically stressed or tired, perhaps this is a little reminder to do an audit of your own life and see if anything can be adjusted!

Anyone else facing a very busy time of year right now? Any strategies to improve life during this time?

*Photo by Wix