Today has been one of those detail days where I’ve had to work on several major projects with looming deadlines. One was the upcoming Board of Directors meeting for Story Circle Network, the international women’s writing organization for which I have the pleasure to serve as president. I had to write the president’s letter and then complete several reports about various areas within SCN that I coordinate. These I decided would take three hours total. Instead, I’d say it was more like five. (I started over the weekend.)

Then there was the Online Classes program I coordinate for SCN. The deadline for getting all the winter term classes up was no later than today. I decided it would take about three hours. Again, it was more like five. (I started yesterday.)

Finally, I had personal essays to submit for my students to the Scholastic Artists and Writers contest. I allotted an hour for this; I spent a bit over two.

The bottom line is that my time estimates are generally way off. Ray pointed out today that my “This’ll take five minutes ” really means more like two hours. He has grown accustomed to me disappearing with my computer somewhere in the house and emerging long after those promised “five minutes.”

My goal for 2022 (at least one of them) is to look time more squarely in the face and plan my days and evenings based more on reality. I have been practicing over the past week since my family did a mini-intervention after I had a few too many days of looking haggard. Now I’m planning my bedtime (so I can get eight hours of sleep) and deciding when my day’s work can stop and I can simply enjoy my evenings. So far, so good. (It helps that my busy season with evening students is drawing to a close.) But, I am determined to create more balance in my life.

So, that’s New Year’s resolution number one. I’ve already started, so that’s good. Maybe I can actually make this one resolution happen. I am finishing early tonight, it’s only 6:01. I have a phone call with the parent of one of my students at 7:15. Normally, I’d think to myself, “That’ll just take ten minutes,” but I’ll be realistic. This will probably take 20.

Until that brief phone call, I’m calling it a day. I’ve finished all my board business, my online classes business, and my Scholastic business and had a few student interactions in between. That’s good enough for today.

I’ll be checking with you all again tomorrow. Until then, have a restful and pleasant evening and do your best not to over-plan.