(no subject)

Friday's meltdown has left a few new commandments in its wake. They are good rules, and hopefully I will keep to them, as I think they have become utterly necessary:

#1:
I am my absolute top priority. John can be second, and it's a fairly close second, but in my world I still come first. Anyone who wants to make demands on my time is cordially invited to go fuck themselves. [Note that "demand" and "politely request" are very different. Making myself top priority does not automatically indicate complete selfishness; supporting those I care about is a fundamental piece of being me. I am merely refusing to drop my own life to deal with someone else's, as well as refusing to re-arrange my schedule to help someone with a non-emergency.]

#2:
I am no longer going to sit patiently and wait for one project to be completed before asking for the next project from those I employ or contract with. I will also be demanding regular progress reports (and thus, progress) on projects. [This does not mean that I will be unreasonable; it is counter-productive to give five major projects without clear instructions and expectations, or without indicating which projects have higher priority, or to include unreasonable deadlines-- if one project takes 6 months, I will not be demanding that all five projects be finished in the same 6 months. However, I will no longer maintain my "wish list" in my head and manage the projects' priorities by only giving out the highest-priority item; it will be up to the people charged with completing the projects to pay attention to the priorities given and manage appropriately.]

#3:
I will spend a minimum of 25% of my working time on projects that will either automate or streamline routine processes, or improve our tracking and/or internal communication. If this means that other tasks fall by the wayside, I will *not* put the automation projects on the back burner to catch up, but will instead pass those tasks off to someone else. If I run out of people to pass tasks off to, I will spend the money to employ another lackey or a professional, as appropriate.

Thus far, I'm concentrating on #1, primarily because I'd already taken this week off when I felt myself approaching the edge of the cliff. So far I've spent time working on my gardens (weeding early means weeding less, but this is the first year I've really gotten to do much early weeding), set up a regular time to spend online with cross-country friends pusifoot and _counterculture, and had lunch with my sister-in-law and saw my nieces and nephew. There was various bits of productivity mixed into the last couple of days, in which I scratched off a good half-dozen things from my work to-do list (considering that I'm "not working" this week, that's pretty decent), but they were worked in around the rest of my life, instead of working life in around my to-do list.

And then on my way home from my sister-in-law's, John called and asked if I wanted to have dinner with Chris, who gave me a massage after dinner. All in all, today was a pretty good day.

(no subject)

Friday's meltdown has left a few new commandments in its wake. They are good rules, and hopefully I will keep to them, as I think they have become utterly necessary:

#1:
I am my absolute top priority. John can be second, and it's a fairly close second, but in my world I still come first. Anyone who wants to make demands on my time is cordially invited to go fuck themselves. [Note that "demand" and "politely request" are very different. Making myself top priority does not automatically indicate complete selfishness; supporting those I care about is a fundamental piece of being me. I am merely refusing to drop my own life to deal with someone else's, as well as refusing to re-arrange my schedule to help someone with a non-emergency.]

#2:
I am no longer going to sit patiently and wait for one project to be completed before asking for the next project from those I employ or contract with. I will also be demanding regular progress reports (and thus, progress) on projects. [This does not mean that I will be unreasonable; it is counter-productive to give five major projects without clear instructions and expectations, or without indicating which projects have higher priority, or to include unreasonable deadlines-- if one project takes 6 months, I will not be demanding that all five projects be finished in the same 6 months. However, I will no longer maintain my "wish list" in my head and manage the projects' priorities by only giving out the highest-priority item; it will be up to the people charged with completing the projects to pay attention to the priorities given and manage appropriately.]

#3:
I will spend a minimum of 25% of my working time on projects that will either automate or streamline routine processes, or improve our tracking and/or internal communication. If this means that other tasks fall by the wayside, I will *not* put the automation projects on the back burner to catch up, but will instead pass those tasks off to someone else. If I run out of people to pass tasks off to, I will spend the money to employ another lackey or a professional, as appropriate.

Thus far, I'm concentrating on #1, primarily because I'd already taken this week off when I felt myself approaching the edge of the cliff. So far I've spent time working on my gardens (weeding early means weeding less, but this is the first year I've really gotten to do much early weeding), set up a regular time to spend online with cross-country friends pusifoot and _counterculture, and had lunch with my sister-in-law and saw my nieces and nephew. There was various bits of productivity mixed into the last couple of days, in which I scratched off a good half-dozen things from my work to-do list (considering that I'm "not working" this week, that's pretty decent), but they were worked in around the rest of my life, instead of working life in around my to-do list.

And then on my way home from my sister-in-law's, John called and asked if I wanted to have dinner with Chris, who gave me a massage after dinner. All in all, today was a pretty good day.