Peace of Mind Organizing

Trying to catch up

14 July 2015

I am so behind in my work. And I hate that feeling!

My mother passed away suddenly on June 17. I had to leave town with no notice to fly to Walla Walla, Washington, to be by her bedside and then stayed for a week after her passing. That meant I had to reschedule a bunch of client appointments. So when I returned, I spent the first couple of weeks working with clients, with little energy for anything else.

Then my brother, Larry, who lives in Australia, arrived for a (wonderful) week-long visit since he was in the country for our mother’s memorial service. He leaves in a couple of days. I’ve had to do some client work while he’s here (and lead a NAPO-St. Louis board and membership meeting). When I’m not doing essential work, I’m spending time with him. As it should be.

So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’ve done no admin work for almost a month, my email is piling up and who knows how many balls I’ve let drop. Thank goodness I don’t get much snail mail, so I don’t have a daunting pile of mail to deal with.

I feel so behind. And I feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of catching up, though I’m really anxious to be caught up. That, of course (once again), puts me firmly in my shoes of my clients.

I know that I need to formulate a plan to get caught up after Larry leaves and I need to bear in mind that I’m still grieving and I need to be kind to myself.

So here’s what I think I’ll do:

• Make list of the various areas of my work life that need attention (email, paperwork, financial, client relations, etc.)
• Set a goal for each area, so I know where the finish line is
• Prioritize
• Schedule time to work daily on the backlog, starting with the priority areas
• Try to stay on top of the incoming work so the backlog can shrink more quickly

I think I’ll use Evernote to capture the information. And I’m going to try to let this be easy and not get hung up on doing things exactly right.

I’m also going to not over schedule myself, because I know that down time right now is really important. If I run myself ragged, I risk getting sick and that doesn’t help anyone.

One thing that’s working in my favor is that I have had a great evening routine that keeps me on track, even though at the moment it’s fallen by the wayside. When I’m back to doing my evening routine, I’ll feel under control again. I miss that feeling!

Tagged with: backlog, habit, planning, routines, self-care, task list

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