Good advice

Remember that you only have to take one step at a time.
Breathe, baby.
Have fun!

In one IM conversation, these were the bits of advice I offered to a friend. Trite? Perhaps. Easy to say? Definitely. Bad advice? Not even close. Those are the Big Three for not only coping with but enjoying what life throws at you.

Here's one more: When things get stressful, remember the Big Three.

I think that's the hardest part.

Time passages

I'm still marveling over this day. You know how you have those days where you wake up and then about two minutes later the day is over? Well, this wasn't one of those.

I got up at 8 and did my usual morning thing. Then I "made time" to trim my bangs. I was feeling rushed and like I ought to be leaving for work instead. But then it occurred to me that by spending five minutes trimming my own bangs I was saving about two hours, since the effort to first make and then keep an appointment at the salon would eat up at least that much.

So I went into my day feeling like I had two extra hours. And, boy howdy, did I use them. About five times!

I put air in the right rear tire of the MR2 (it has a slow leak and must be topped off regularly). Then I drove to work, 45 minutes down the freeway in traffic light enough to make the left-lane hogs really annoying. Then I worked for 10 hours, with only a 20-minute break to meditate in the sunshine. I worked really well, too. Then I drove home again. Then I had dinner with kids for company and a brief appearance by Frank. Then MJ and I went for a brisk walk in the dark neighborhood, chatting and lamenting the lack of stars in the city even on a clear night. Then I got on the Internet and got caught up enough on the doings of my friends and family. And now I'm listening to the Daily Show and blogging, with plans to get in a little reading time before I sleep.

Could it be that it is the mere perception of lack that drives my time stress?

Getting Things Done

For some time now, I've been applying some of the organizational principles found in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I moved the system into Excel using ideas from Dave Pollard, and then I moved the system into Outlook using ideas from both Allen's own GTD and Outlook whitepaper and The Zen of Zero Mail.

Anyway, my personal system has all its own quirks and, well, personalizations, so I decided to reread "GTD" to see how far I've strayed from the path. Pretty far, as it turns out, so I'm refining my system yet again.

But in the meantime, I found this quote. You know how you feel like you have way too much to do for the time you have to do it in? Maybe this is why.

[Your current action items make up] the accumulated list of all the actions you need to take—all the phone calls you have make, the e-mails you have to respond to, the errands you've got to run, and the agendas you want to communicate to your boss and your spouse. You'd probably have three hundred to five hundred hours' worth of these things to do if you stopped the world right now and got no more input from yourself or anyone else.

And most of us keep all those things in our head! No wonder we feel stressed out!

Counting down to everything

We have so much we're looking forward to!

• Christmas
• Annual Crazy Cousins NYE Bash
• Non-Con North
• Lynn's wedding
• Chloe's 14th birthday
• Alicen's wedding
• Frank's 60th birthday
• LIFE is Good and the "I can't believe how many unschoolers are Geminis" community birthday bash
• My next 100-day break
• Steph's visit
• NBTSC
• Live and Learn
• Visiting Chiara in Italy
• Finally getting to go to Ireland
• MJ's Sweet 16 and driver's license
• Christmas again
  ...