Life? Crazy. Work? Totally nuts. House hunting? Frustrating. Blog? Not even on the list.

So busy. Can’t really even form sentences. Summer is that time for me when it’s like, I want to do everything that I can, but also work is so totally nuts that sitting down to log it all is basically the last thing on my mind.

SO! MANY! THINGS!

I read this post on holding yourself accountable, and I really took it to heart. And then I still didn’t post for months. I am so upset with myself. I am not holding myself accountable in so many places. I feel lost in the busy-ness and the stress.

But this blog is important to me. Becoming a better writer is important to me. Being here, showing up, living life and holding myself accountable for my own damn life. It’s important to me.

STRESS.

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Disclaimer: if you’re here looking for a #BiSC recap, this is not that. Apologies.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was talking with my supervisor/mentor/superwoman, Jerri and I said to her, “It’s like I’m energized by my own life.” She told me I should blog that. I think there’s an unfinished draft in there … somewhere.

There are SO! MANY! amazing things going on in my life. House shopping! Mentoring! Ad2 Reno reorganizing! Writing! Bike rides! Live tweeting the raddest blogger event! Hanging out with my superawesome family! Not to mention all of the growing, learning and amazing work* I do at my job.

But at some point, the law of diminishing returns comes into play and the energy I put in to the awesome starts taking away from the energy that comes out. And that = tired Becca.

So um, that’s it I guess. Because, right now I can’t and/or really don’t want to put any of it down. So tell me, friends. How do you balance it all? How do you make room for everything in your live that’s important to you?

* Amazing, as in the work is awesome and fun. NOT amazing, as in I produce amazing work. I mean I do – but that’s not what I mean here. Just, shhhhh.

My whole life, I’ve been a procrastinator. I’ve been a down-to-the-wire, “I-swear-I-work-best-under-pressure,” wait-til-the-last-minute person. I studied journalism and work in a world full of short deadlines.

I’m starting to realize though, that I don’t have to be a procrastinator all the time. I always thought that procrastination was one of those things that you either do or you don’t. There are people who do everything ahead of time and leave buffers, and there are people that wait until the last possible hour to even start that paper.

I spent the weekend getting ahead in two important areas of my life: this blog, and the Web class I’m taking for work. These are two things that I don’t generally have time for on the Monday-Friday, but I need them in my life, and they’re not things I can put off.

So, while I may work well under pressure and on a deadline [hey, I still need to for my job], I can also be someone who plans ahead, does next week’s homework this week and writes/schedules future blog posts.

i could never use a planner

This week, I also learned about prioritization. Remember in school, how they always supplied you with those daily planners that had your school’s mascot on the cover, and the first five minutes of every class period was spent writing down that day’s homework? I was terrible at those. I always wrote it down, because I had to. But I never looked at it again until I had to write in it at the beginning of the class. I always just kept things in my head. And when I couldn’t? My hand was a better place for assignments than a planner [oh shuttup, I know you did it too].

But since school, that doesn’t work for me anymore. Maybe it’s my memory failing me in my old age [hah]. But really, there are just too many things to do. Sometimes, far more I can even think about doing in one day. Last week, I came to a point where a to-do list wasn’t enough. Because I could look at this list [which spanned more than one page], and feel my heart start to beat out of my chest with nerves.

so, i prioritized

I organized my list by client or project and then color-coded them by priority. Red has to get done today, yellow needs to be done this week and green is for next week. Call it OCD, but it helps me on those days where I have so much to do and ZERO ability to determine what should get done first.

Different things work for different people, and I’ve had to adapt my own personal habits to fit my workload. It’s definitely been an adjustment, but my sanity is appreciating the change.

what works for you?

Do you keep it all in your head? Do you write everything down? Does list-making and using a calendar help you?

photo credit: weheartit

I blogged earlier today about change. (with a cheesy picture of some coins, and I’m really sorry for that. I’m trying to get better about including images with my posts, but when you have no photographer instinct, that gets hard–forgive me?)

I wrote about how easy it is to change when it’s something you want, and what the heck should I do when some unexpected change happens that throws my whole life out of whack and I want to crawl in a hole?

Then I had a meeting at work about my new role at work and then my brain started to swell, and then I got all twitchy, and then I couldn’t find my breath. I mean, I only sort of wanted to crawl in a hole, but just thinking about what it means to pitch to national media, being THE go-to person for something, how to keep track of every detail … it took my breath away.

even good change is terribly scary and hard

But it’s growth. And that’s what I’m after, right?

so. bring. it. on.

This morning I decided that from now on, unless I *really* can’t, I will ride my bike to work every day.  No more of this I’m too tired or it’s too hot or I feel like wearing a skirt today.  From now on (or at least until it’s no longer bike-riding weather–i.e. til it’s real, real cold) only the following reasons are acceptable for not riding to work:

• I have a legitimate meeting to go to that I can’t ride to, or hitch a ride with someone else going to that same meeting.
• I am injured (insert requisite “poo-poo” for Annie).  Not sore knees or other various muscles, either.  Riding tends to help the pain in those cases and I know it.
• I’m [really] sick.  And if I’m too sick to be riding to work, I probably shouldn’t be going to work anyway.
• Bad weather.  Not it’s too hot or it might rain, but real bad weather.  Acceptable forms of bad weather include: thunder/lightning storms, hail, extreme wind and (if I’m still riding this late in the year) snow.

That said, it was hotter than hades this morning.  It’s hot here in the summer, that’s a given, but typically it’s not THAT HOT at 8 a.m.  Well, today on my ride (I even left early) it was THAT HOT.  But as I said last week, I did it anyway.  Not such a fan of arriving to work as a sweaty pig, though.  May need to start wearing different clothing and packing work clothes to change into.  Whatever I need to do to make sure I ride to work.  Because there’s no reason (except for the above bullets) that I shouldn’t be riding to work every day. 

So, we never ended up going for our Sunday ride.  I know, we suck.  Not sure how but Sunday screamed by so fast even though we barely did anything.  Had Sunday brunch at Voila! with my dad and his new girlfriend.  And you know how much I heart Voila!

my faja and his girlfriend, karen

Oh right, and Brad graduated from UNR on Saturday, which was nice.  It’s graduation, y’know.  REALLY hot day, forever long ceremony.  It was crazy how hot it was this weekend, actually!  Luckily we were in the shade, but it was way too hot for May.  I’m glad it’s back to 83 today   Anyway, he just happened to be like 10th from the last person called.  Out of almost 2,000 people.  We barbecued, drank beer, got a little sunburned in the backyard.  Good times.

So anyway, for some reason, we just did not make it out to ride our bikes.  We did however make it to the hardware store to buy supplies for my new planter box (!!)  We are very excited to start growing stuff   Brad figures we’ll start with some herbs and then plant some onions, garlic, shallots, etc. in the fall.

My dad had my car Monday morning so I was forced to ride to work.  Which is definitely a good thing because I am confident I would not have done so otherwise.  Definitely also contributed to my riding this morning as well.  Today, I VOLUNTARILY went a different way which involved two very large hills.  Okay, not “very large” but pretty big for me.  In the morning.  Before food.  And coffee.  Go me.

Dad and Karen come back from Calif. tonight, so probably no ride, but hopefully we’ll do our “long” ride one day soon.    Brad, if you are reading this, note the sad face!  Kidding!

I tried uploading a blog post from my phone, but it sure did not work.  Ah well.

So, basically, I sucked this week and hardly rode at all.  I rode to work both Monday and Tuesday, but ended up having Brad come get both me and my bike each day.  Riding home after a 13-hour day just wasn’t appealing enough.  I gave up for the week because 1) I was just too busy and 2) I had places that needed to be driven to.  Boo, I was a lame, excuse-making slacker.

But, by Friday, I was itching to ride, so the boyfriend and I took a ride to check out the Reno River Festival.

pre-ride. in the sun. cute expression.

It was alright.  Mostly just a bunch of people.  We ended up going down to the West Street Market for some gyros at Niko’s and shared a yummy beer at the wine bar.  We rode home and thought we’d stay in for the night, but ended up going back out (on our bikes) to have some drinks at Jungle Vino with my BFF Annie and her boyfriend.  Fun times.  Was the first time I’ve really ridden in the dark.  That was interesting.  I need a much better headlight though, if I’m going to keep doing that.

Even though they’re usually short and not nearly frequent enough, I really love going for bike rides with that boy of mine.  I probably never would have gotten the bike if it weren’t for him.

Yesterday started off rough, but ended with a nice ride to Starbucks and then down to pick up dinner from Jimmy John’s.  Yep, I rode all the way to the University and back!  Sierra at dusk was a little scary though.

Goal for next week: ride to work (and back!!) every day.  Or at least four days.  It’s just TOO pretty out to be driving to work!

For the second day in a row, I have convinced myself out of biking to work and was somehow able to convince myself back into it!  The only thing I can come up with is that I must really, really like it!  Because I have paid a lot more money for an unused gym membership, than I paid for this bike, so I know it’s not that.  Perhaps it’s because I’m doing something good for the environment as well as myself?  Pretty sure the novelty has worn off by now, so I don’t think it’s that. Who knows, but I’m gonna stop questioning it.

Biked to work today–first time on my bike since Thurs.  It felt good.  Not biking for three days = suck.