Juggling Too Much?
On a review of 2023 notes there was a quote that caught in the disorganized side of my brain that I really liked. The only indication of where it came from was a scribble NPR END OF YEAR REVIEW -
“Figure out which balls being juggled are glass and which are rubber. Feeling overwhelmed? Drop the rubber ones.”
That is probably a paraphrase though my note has it in quotes. Unfortunately the exact source was not annotated. After a twenty minute internet search, without finding the exact quote, several online articles and numerous people associated with something similar, I decided that information was rubber for me.
The glass part of that quote stuck and has been useful. The balls in my routine are beginning to be sorted by their make up. The criteria determining whether glass or rubber has and is something of a unique choice of priorities.
Breaking down more than the obvious physical life/death sort, there are financial, emotional, mental and relationship priorities. Sometimes it is who it is for, while others it is the time of day or date that decides not only if it is rubber, or glass, but exactly how much it will bounce or how thin the glass is. Oops almost forget the mysterious want criteria that sometimes sends me into a deep dive of why, my failsafe last resort benchmark.
It has led me to let go of more things than I thought was possible. More have been tossed in the category of ‘eh, might not ever do that.’ or move to the category of ‘if I have the time, energy, and it has merit when it can get done’ has grown exponentially. (Might have to put a note on the calendar to read through that list it at the end of the year before tossing it.)
A dent in the over-planning habit that broke me more often than I could break it has been made. And the year is almost half way through. Will it hold out? Who knows. Think this has become a actual habit for me.
More often I consider the tasks themselves, my own expectations, the use of lists, and being reasonable, instead of putting everything on a list in the calendar somewhere. This perspective shift has been very good. That and naps. Naps are great. About time for one, don’t you think?