It’s very easy when taking on projects to have too many balls in the air. Between juggling writing(and revising) my novels, writing this blog, being a mum and making enough money with my part-time job I’m kept pretty busy. I prioritise with care, obviously Xander comes first in everything I do (even over sleep sometimes – such is the life of a mum).
I thought I was doing a good job. Okay maybe I wasn’t writing on this blog as often as I initially goaled to (my goal was every two to three days, but it more like every four) but I was keeping on track. Then I remembered my emails.
I – like some people – have several email addresses. There’s one for things I sign up to, newletters, forums, websites. I call that email my spam-mail because more often than not the emails aren’t all that important. That address has a silly name I made up when I was fourteen, you can tell, because it’s Sailor Moon themed. I check that email every few days, just when I have the time and tend to delete half of my messages without reading.
Next there’s my professional email, which I use for querying agents, sending emails related to my other job (not many of those now I’m part time though) and important writing things. I check that inbox multiple times each day.
Then there’s the email I was given when I paid for hosting this blog. The one in my ‘contact me’ section. I diligently checked it multiple times a day as well, but after three months of receiving absolutely no mail on that address I set up a re-direct to my professional email. At least I thought I had. Apparently I’m not as tech savvy as I thought because my redirect didn’t work and I missed an email letting me know I’d been nominated for an award and how to join the voting. The voting finished a month ago. I only discovered this because I accidentally clicked open Outlook instead of Notepad and it loaded.
When I looked a little closer my blog probably wouldn’t have won since the award was for blogs of a particular content on which I’ve only posted about once or twice, but it is not so much the award that matters as the opportunity.
When you have too many balls in the air sometimes you can miss an opportunity because you’re too busy juggling.
But how do you know if the ball you chose to put down to make the juggling easier wasn’t the one which had the opportunity?
Joining Picklebums for Real life Wednesday.
Oh yep, been there and felt the frustration of missed opportunities.
I try to tell myself that the universe was looking out for me and I’ve missed out for a reason, but sometimes even my positive thinking can’t get through.
Marita recently posted..Real Life Wednesday, Wordless Style
That’s a great way to look at a missed opportunity. Like you said, it may not help 100% of the hurt feelings, but it still sounds like a good approach. Thanks.
i seriously dont know how you do it! i’m juggling 2 majot things in my life – my home (including my daughter) and my work – and i am struggling!! I only work part time but i am the sole operations manager of a service that is currently going through a major upgrade with regulations, policies and practices – this is daunting for me and im finding it hard choosing a priority list! however i am trudging through with the help of my wonderful staff. Then theres being a mum – and dont forget that im a wife too – which believe it or not is becoming hard work too – when do u say “i need to stop and just “be” in my life and be there for my husband and daughter and “enjoy” my time with them instead of constantly thinking of all the things i still need to do!! and i have had the same problem with emails, i have my work email which is for “admin”direct to the service, my work also has a bigpond email which needs to be active for internet to work, then i have my perosnal work which is for “coordinator” specific discussions and management email, then i have my private home email – plus i have a work gmail that i had to set up as a buffer for when we were upgrading our computers etc. so to help juggle these i have forwarded on the bigpond email to the admin email, and my work gmail to my new work email, and i have kept my private one private. Then i have activate email on my phone for my provate and work email. and i check these on my phone or computers all multiple times a day, however it is reall ysimple because its all attached onto the one “mail” app on all devices! so i just open up the icon and down they all come!! so maybe activating all your emails on outlook will save time and ensure checking of all emails??? you just have to go through the “add account” for all your emails! 🙂
so now that that is sorted i have a better handle on things — but no solution yet as to time juggling! still working on that – will let you know if i find a solution! xxx
You’re job sounds a lot more hectic than mine. I used to work at the same place as a manager and now I do it as a part-timer, so I have all the knowledge and none of the stress. It sounds like you’re virtually doing a business start-up!
I know what you mean about having trouble finding the time to just be me. I get that for four hours the first Sunday of every month (my writer’s group) and the rest of the time I’m juggling. I think because I’m competitive I look at the whole thing as a challenge. I need to platinum this game ;p
I’m glad to see I’m not the only person with a thousand e-mails. A general email app sounds like a good idea. I always preferred checking my emails in webmail form (my spam mail and professional are both webmails) but the webmail for this site takes way too long to open and has a very basic (and unappealing) system, so I put it in Outlook, which wasn’t working right (mainly because I accidentally had it set up as IMAP not POP, I like my emails saved on my hard drive). It makes me feel so out of touch, I used to build my computers myself and now I have trouble configuring emails, so much shame.
The only reason I’m able to address the array of responsibilities and pursuits I have right now is because I have an excellent support structure in my husband, Scott, and my extended family. Without their willingness to juggle my three boys and all the household tasks that need regular attention, we’d live in a lot more chaos, that’s for sure. I do most of my writing after my children are in bed — typically from about 9 to 11:30 p.m. and for as long as I can justify during the weekends.