Are You Over Committed? (Blog)
 

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

Are You Over Committed?

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When I attempt to go to your blog site using the link I get this message:
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However when I go to the blog and read the article is visible. Perhaps the hyper link is incorrect?

Same here.

I changed the title slug, forgot it would affect things here. All fixed now. Thanks for letting me know :)

Fantastic article! I've only recently began saying 'no' to people and while it's come as a big shock to some of them, it's helped me tremendously. Hopefully they'll get used to it!

This is a good post. I just recently posted on stress; I tend to post on the things that are affecting me the most at that moment, and after reading your post I realized that I am overcommitted as well. I think it's hard to balance life and it's soooo easy to get overrun by all the little things.

Paul McCartney new single starts...

"I've got too much on my plate
Don't have no time to be a decent lover
I hope it isn't too late
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past

I've got too much on my mind
I think of everything to be discovered
I hope there's something to find
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past"...

Macca the PD expert of the world. As always.

Good post. It is similar to what Steve said earlier. You are also someone who values your time immensely and want to be able to give to the most people in the most beneficial way possible. As we all know, triage is something that is a necessary evil if you will, but at least you won't get burnt out from doing things that will not allow you to optimize your value production. Good post and a great explanation for why you need to do this. I totally understand.

Good post, but I'm afraid I'm actually undercommitted at the moment. I really only have 3 main goals that will take me until I'm in college to complete, and they don't take that much daily time to work on. Think I need more variety, maybe I should learn to say Yes. ;)

If I was undercommitted I would start working on stuff that was important but not urgent, like learning a new language, or becoming a better cook, or picking up a new hobby.

I haven't had a moment of undercommittmentness since giving birth. :)

lol

I know what you mean! Two little boys is enough to make sure that I will never be undercommitted again. ;)

I have a question for people... I am highly overcommitted. I know it based on my stress level. Pretty much all my commitments are related to trying to earn enough money to pay the bills. As a single Mom, I don't have much flexibility and I'm wondering how do other people decide what commitments stay and what go? I know I need to let some things go, but I can't figure out where to start.

I know I haven't been very specific... just hoping for some general "guidelines".

THanks;)

For me it was about getting clear on where I want to be 5 years from now. Then I look at my list and see which items on my current plate will get me to that vision 5 years from now. I slough off the ones that have no long term benefit for me and keep the ones that do.

OK... that's a good place to start. The one thing I would love, love, love to let go of is my day job.;) Uninspiring and just a paycheck. Hopefully soon I'll be able to do that, but I am at this point in my life too scared to walk away from it before I have other things in place. I'm gettin' there though!

Thanks Erin! That was just in time :)

Have you seen enough white on your plate recently to buy some plants or adopt a pet? ;) :D

I'm so over-committed I will soon need to be committed!
My plate is so full, I can hardly keep up. The faster I "eat stuff up" to make more room, it's just gets filled with more. I really do try to make some time out for myself, but that's not helping. It feels like procrastinating. My committments are just that. Things I have committed to (this includes responsibilities like finances, family, job) I have stopped and re-assessed many times. I looked at my plate and really have only the essentials on there, just no time. Life is way too busy anymore. It is a shame.

Most of my commitments are also connected to needing to earn enough money to pay the bills, and hammer away at significant inherited (no fault of my own) debt. At nearly 40, these debts will easily take 20 more years of maximum employment to pay down, even with my good professional income. I work probably 40 hours a week. My husband works 50-60 hours a week at a blue collar job.

We have a financial planner, yadda yadda. We still live paycheck to paycheck, and hope to start saving more than the bare minimum in 4-5 years.

We also have a commitment to a volunteer organization, and a commitment to weekly family gatherings with my parents and sister. Those help keep me/us sane and connected to people outside of work.

We just got married, and we want to try to have a baby. Are we crazy? Will we be able to handle the huge, immense increase in responsibilities and time needed to raise a child, if we are lucky enough to conceive?

I feel almost overcommitted now, and that's primarily work. I just negotiated the biggest raise of my life with my clients (I have my own business), so raising my rates again soon is not likely to succeed. How am I ever going to meet all these debts with a baby?

Just venting. I know "everything will be fine." At times, however, it is stressful to think about the vagaries of life that could set back our plans at any moment. We are happy with what little we have, and don't aspire to home ownership or any such nonessential traps.

I've been doing the PD stuff for about 4-5 years now. Acquiring this massive debt last year was a huge setback (not everyone's family provides an inheritance for their younger members). But, we plod along.

This was my first post on this forum.