Reaching critical mass...

It is that point in the semester where everything starts to really weigh you down. I have one class where it is nothing but group work. We have one weekly assignment that is hard to even start until after the Monday class, and it is due in two days. Then there is the term group project which is an ongoing thing, but the next phase is also due THIS WEDNESDAY. On top of that, I have another class where we are at the end and of course... group project. I would have loved to skip tonight, but it is the night we are going to do said project work so I can't. Let's top that off with a helping of two eight hour work days (no lunch thanks to school) and having to play a show tomorrow.

I have no doubts that I will be up until the wee hours of the morning. I will try my best to do it without the help of caffeine. I'm not sure if I will succeed or not, but I will try.

The whole timing will be fun. I made my list, I know what I need to do.

Class, drive home, make a quick dinner, eat while working on term group work, get gear for tomorrow ready, sleep (right!), wake up, shower, load gear, go to work, get work done, do some weekly group work at the office at 5pm, eat dinner, show, load gear, home, more weekly and term group work, sleep...

It never ends, but I'm getting things done.

How to Overcome Burnout When You’re a Superachiever

I ran across this today and felt it was relevant enough to share.

It's all about managing stress with work and how not to get burned out. Keep on putting things like this out there, Lifehacker. It's always a good read for me.

How to Overcome Burnout When You’re a Superachiever

Sometimes you just need to let it all out...

At work today, things got a little bit heated. There are specific things that just have not been happening and I had to make sure it was. Why? It's my job.

This place has been a challenge for me the last few months, and with school as well... crazy.

So, I stood up, called them all in to a conference room and just let it all out.

I have this passion to make sure that the people I am supposed to be helping are happy. This is the same thing I am trying to instill on the people here. Each person should be happy when you walk away. On top of that, it is pretty amazing to hear people say how much it is appreciated when all that is done is a simple phone call.

All they want is for you to call them back. I might not have the answer, but I will find the person who does and I will make sure they call you back and get it fixed to your satisfaction. I've always been about that. Call them, calm them, sympathize, fix, thank. That is how I handle issues at work. I don' toot my own horn going "look what I did." That's not me.

Tonight there I get to play on stage. It's been a couple months, and right about now, I need it.

Repost from today was a better day because....

This is a repost from my other blog Today was better because... I think it is relevant for here as well.



Today was better because... I am the best in the world at what I do.

I can haz halp button?

Ok, maybe not. Hopefully some people get the reference to this post... if not, well... here. Today at work, I realized that I do one thing VERY well. I get things done and I make people happy. I make the problems go away. I make sure that when someone hangs up the phone with me that I have taken care of everything humanly possible, or they know that I am going to track down whatever it is I can for them at that very second.

I have my moments where I slip, sure. But I have this ever growing passion to just help people. I don't care if I get recognized for it, praised in front of a group, I don't even care if I get a thank you. I just want to make sure the problem is solved and the department doesn't look like idiots.

Today we had an issue that came in with only 10 minutes left in the day. From there, an email came to me AFTER 5pm. I could have let it lie, but I made sure it got taken care of. This was a must. Deadline day. No way to really say no and I didn't. I tracked down someone and got it done and made sure that all was good before I went home.

I bust my ass on a daily basis for my job. I have to go in there with the attitude that I am the best in the world at what I do, but also know that I am human... and I make mistakes as well.

Sometimes "good enough" really is good enough.

Lately the student portion of my life has been interfering with my work/boyfriend/father portions of my life. It has been overtaking every aspect of it. I have been unable to concentrate on anything else other than school because that is what is needed from it. The bad part is that the other three here are suffering from it. I can't spend time with the kids, my girlfriend has noticed that I am cranky because of it, and at work I can not stay focused because of the sheer amount of focus the schoolwork is demanding from me. Work has spilled in to my home life, home life gets pushed to the side, and often times feels ignored and doesnt want to tell me they feel ignored.

This semester has been a real bear. It's almost over. In the meantime I'm going to have to figure out where to get sleep because on Friday, the musician also comes in to play.

What I
Ve Lea rend from all of this is to just not stress out as much. That maybe giving 85% really is enough...it's still a passing grade and something to not be sneezed at. I don't like giving less than 100% but for the next 5 weeks, it's going to have to do if I want to get things done.

Start realizing the little things are important.

It's the little things that are important in life. Friends, family, a smile, finishing something that you thought couldn't be done.

I would like to think we all need to look at those and realize it's the collection of all the little things that helps us through the day. It's how I keep moving. I try not to dwell on anything for too long and I move on. It seems to work for me. It's always the big things that make me stress, but once I step back and look at all the little things, I am happier.

...getting good news and getting to go to a hockey game tonight isn't half bad either.

Breaking everything up in to little chunks.

My lady has helped me out with getting things done around the house lately. No, she's not the one actually doing the work. I always tend to have "big picture" syndrome when looking at something like house cleaning. I know what I want the end product to look like, but I can't actually get anything going because it feels overwhelming and then I just don't start it at all.

She got me going on the whole "chunks of time" concept. I started using it in other places as well such as work and school. Basically, I set time aside. It could be fifteen minutes, or two hours. Just set that time, and go do what needs to be done. If the alarm goes off and I keep going, I keep going, but I set more time. At the end of the time I set, I can take a break or go do something else. But at least I did SOMETHING productive in the time I set aside.

Since I started this, I have been getting quite a bit done. I'm also going to finally start reading a book that I picked up quite a while ago. Getting Things Done by David Allen. I started it, but as per usual... "things" got in the way. So, now I am going to set aside time to actually read the book too.

I take everything that comes my way one day at a time.

No, I don't have multiple personality disorder or anything like that. But, I do pretty much live five lives that all intertwine with each other.

• Boyfriend
• Father
• Manager
• Student
• Musician

That's a lot of one person to handle. I like to think I do all aspects of it well. There are not too many other people I know that take on all of that at the same time and still have time for themselves. Right now, the student is trying to take over all other aspects of my life. There is so much to get done right now before the end of the semester it's about to kill me.

I have work from Monday through Friday, that's nothing new. I have been doing that for years. Being a father never stops. Being a decent boyfriend as well to my lady during all of this stress is not always the easiest, but she is the reason I am able to keep it all together. Then on top of that I am a musician. Music runs through my body all the time. I have probably written more songs in my head on the way home than I can even think and they are all lost because it happens during a 40 minute ride home form work.

I'll be posting some of the things I do to juggle everything I do on this blog. It won't be updated as much as my other one Today was better because... but I will be updating it on a normal (once a week or more?) basis. Some of the things that are there do help contribute to how I make things better in these five lives. If you've got things that help you out, feel free to comment on the posts. I'll pass them along in other postings as well.