Stuff, Stuf, Stuph, Stough

Ever have that day where you are running the to do list through your head and what started out as 8 items turns into 22 items each with 3 to 7 sub-items attached to 1 or 2 ancillary items each? I've had one of those years.

Remember the time management tips - Deflect, Dump, Delegate, Delay, Do.

The problem is I Deflect an item and it ricochets off the Dump pile and hits me square in the guilt, so I shuffle it straight off to the Dump pile instead. On the way over to the Dump, it gets snagged on my blasted sense of responsibility - you know that character trait that says if it has to be done it has to be done no matter the cost. Okay, so it has to be done, so let's Delegate (Like that first person plural there? "Let us" , like I'm God or something). So the attempt to Delegate is made and I quickly discover that I am not God and the people I work with (all volunteer) are better than I am at deflecting and dumping. Finally I tag one of them in their sense of guilt, responsibility, or indebtedness and they agree to do it, but their guilt and responsibility are not the highly refined shackles that mine are and somehow they manage to slip out of them. And as for indebtedness, apparently inflation has seriously diminished it's buying power! So seeing the task flounder and having lost enough time in the process (Delay is almost never a viable option for me since it assumes if it can be delayed long enough someone else will do it or it will be deemed unnecessary and experience shows that no one else is going to do it and if it was unnecessary in my eyes it would never have hit my to do list in the first place so it has to be done and no one else is going to do it, Guilt and Responsibility bring me back to it's time to act and it's time to act now and I'm the one who is going to have to do it (I wax Pauline)), it is now time to Do. Now in the process of Deflect, Dump and Delegate, enough energy has been spent to Do three times over, but if I never Deflect, Dump and Delegate my to Do list will always be out of control. So there is no choice but to continue the cycle in vain hope that someday all this management stuff I've been taught will actually work, I will be more productive and more effective and my volunteers will feel empowered.

Is this nuts or what?

Ever had a day like that?

Oh, crud ... this isn't even on the to do list!