[Writing Post] In Search of Whelmed

It’s Wednesday and suddenly I thought, “Holy Cow! Blog day! EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!” Because not I have to be pithy, well, maybe not pithy. Coherent maybe. Coherent is a good goal.

Today I want to talk about “whelmedness”. That’s currently my goal. I’m trying to reach a point of “whelm”. I’ve been UNDERwhelmed by amount of output because of reasons I’ve already talked WAY too much about. But I’m also OVERwhelmed by the amount of STUFF currently on my “to do” list – both Day Job and Writing. The Shoulda/Coulda/Woulda/Oughtas (the Brain Weasel Brothers) have set up shop in my head and here we are.

I look at the List of Things and don’t even know where to start. I look at the length of the List of Things and the To Be Read pile and I don’t know what to pick up first. The Time Management Monkey is sitting on the shoulder saying, “hey, you can always set timers and work on one thing at a time for X-number of minutes” – which for some things might work really well, for other things? No.

So then there’s time spent trying to figure out if there’s something small that can be accomplished to chip away at that list. My Monday calendar at work starts with “Water Lucky” (Lucky is my bamboo plant. He’s called that because 1) he came with a tag that said lucky bamboo and 2) he’s lucky to still be alive – I have a brown thumb.) Why? So I can mark it off the list and start my week with a sense of accomplishment. How sad is that?

The rest? I have to admit there are days I “ostrich” and don’t deal. There are others I try to muddle through on one thing or another. By golly, I’m going to get steps or get to yoga, or something that helps chip away at that wall of “EEEEKKKKK! TOO MUCH STUFF!”

Yesterday, that wall of “Overwhelmed” chipped just a little. I managed to make progress on things in small steps. Today maybe a little bit more until the “over” part erodes down to a state of “whelmed”. I live for the state of “whelmed”. A nice, even-keeled “whelmed”. Let’s get it done.

Tags: brain weasels, getting stuff done, reading, time management, to do lists, Writing