I’ve never understood why my calendar is such a mess. Physically it’s a cute calendar, all hot pink and black (my favorite colors). I’m talking about the schedule of things that fill my calendar. It’s either feast or famine with my obligations and social events, with too much to do or nothing at all. At least that’s the way it seems.
The problem is not so much that I have plans but that my calendar seems to fill up at the last minute. This is particularly true of weekends. Plans come at me rapid fire, faster than I can really think about them. Before you know it, I’m running from one event to the next and the weekend is over before I know it. Fun, yes, but not very relaxing. By Sunday night I’m exhausted, and frustrated that I didn’t accomplish much on my to-do list.
Take last weekend, for example. With no family plans or other obligations except for regular stuff like grocery shopping and my weekly manicure, Hubby and I had a completely free weekend. My mind raced with how to spend the time.
Writing was on top of the list. Organize my craft room. Prep for an upcoming presentation. Sit by the pool with a good book. Watch a movie – or two. Hubby’s list was growing too, including organizing his work bench in the garage and heading to the driving range to try out his new golf club. We both had visions of a date on Saturday night, maybe dinner at a nice restaurant.
This plan was still in place as late as noon on Friday. With a free weekend in mind, I was in no hurry to get started on my list of “want to-dos” because the whole weekend was free. So off I went Friday afternoon for a quick visit with a colleague, figuring I could continue with my fun to-do list Friday night or Saturday. It’s just an hour, I thought as I headed out the door.
First, I should know better than saying I’m going to visit with anyone for only an hour. I simply don’t know how to do that. Two hours later and I was on my way home. In the car, I could hear my phone pinging with new emails and texts. Checking the computer as soon as I got home, I saw the first email was an invitation to network with a new acquaintance, asking if I could meet during the weekend. I picked up the phone to check weekend plans with Hubby – after all, I never know what super-awesome surprise plans he may have waiting for me. While it wasn’t exactly a super-awesome surprise, he did remind me that my alma mater was playing the first football game of the season Saturday afternoon, and of course I was not going to miss watching the big game. No problem, I can network on Sunday since watching the game can’t possibly take that much time.
Then the phone rang. Our wonderful next door neighbors offered us tickets to the high school football game – that started in 2 hours. Primo seats on the fifty yard line. Of course we couldn’t let good football tickets go to waste! Any work or projects would have to wait until Saturday.
Saturday morning I overslept. That’s okay, I thought, aside from my manicure, the only other activity for the day is watching the game, and that’s only a couple hours, right? After my manicure I figured I had time to spare – no obligations, right? – so I lazily walked through a shop or two (or three) before heading home. Hubby was on the computer researching places to watch the game, which I thought was on TV. Augh! It’s on cable – and since we don’t have cable that means we have to find a sports bar or restaurant to watch the game. Still not quite grasping the time suck that this would be, Hubby tells me we need to leave an hour before the game starts to make sure we can get a seat. Sigh. There goes my afternoon, I thought, but figured I would have time after the game for things on my list.
Wrong! The game took for-ev-er, with all the commercial breaks. My butt became permanently attached to the barstool I was sitting on. Before we knew what hit us, we were eating dinner while still watching the game. By the time we got home, walked the dog and ran a quick errand, I realized the day was gone.
That meant Sunday was crunch time. All the things on my to-do list from Friday were still there, with nothing crossed off. Nope, hadn’t gotten around to any of the fun things, and we certainly hadn’t made it to the gym or the grocery store. And we totally forgot about the neighborhood party we agreed to attend Sunday night which meant the day was a whirlwind as we tried to get at least a few things accomplished. By 10 pm Sunday, we were both exhausted and realized that our lists would have to wait.
I know, I know. It’s my own fault. Yes, I could learn to say no to some or all of the activities that pop up. Yes, it’s my choice to either stick to the list or jump on the last-minute opportunities. The responsible thing would be to decline the last-minute invitations in favor of the original plan, so I would have everything accomplished by the end of the weekend.
But that wouldn’t be much fun now, would it?
© Tami Cannizzaro 2012 All Rights Reserved
Like Tami, I was terminated once (By my best friend, BTW – he is now on the board of the agency I lead, so I got him back – ha!), but you don’t have to be unemployed to learn something from this book. 
