The past couple of weeks have been a real whirlwind. My team at work has been simultaneously short-staffed and over-tasked, which has resulted in stress, long hours, stress, frustration, stress, missed workouts, stress, not cleaning the house, and stress. On top of that, I’ve got two websites to write for–Semi-Charmed Wife, which as you all know, has been woefully neglected of late, and the Examiner.

My husband and I have obligations/plans for the next four weekends, which gives me little time to recuperate/catch up/regain a tenuous relationship with my sanity and means that I have to squeeze all of my writing into the few hours between the time I get home from work and the time I go to sleep. As you can probably imagine, sitting at the computer is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO after a long, stressful day at work of sitting at the computer.

(Note: It is exactly THE OPPOSITE of what I want to do, which is de-stress and/or sleep.)

Then there’s that whole pregnant thing. Yeah. Apparently, it makes me a wee bit emotional/hormonal, not to mention that I could easily sleep 16 hours a day if I were allowed to do so. And I’m a bit worried. I’ve lost some weight over the past few weeks (not much–just a few pounds), which my doctor assures me is totally normal for the first trimester, but I can’t help but wonder if the constant stress of the pressure cooker that is my life might have something to do with it.

My husband and I talked, and I’ve come to the conclusion that–contrary to what I want to believe–I can’t keep going at this breakneck pace right now. It’s not good for me, and I can’t imagine it’s good for the baby.

I’m going to talk to my editor at the Examiner and see if I can cut back to posting 1-2 times per week. Seeing as she just emailed me to request that I start posting every day (I’ve been posting 4x/week and am only obligated to post 3x/week), I have serious doubts as to whether she’ll agree to my request. If she doesn’t, as much as I’d hate to, I think I’ll have to resign. The alternative would be giving up Semi-Charmed Wife, and I get too much joy/inspiration from it to even contemplate doing that.

Though I know that this decision is in my best interests, I hate being in this position. It’s hard to admit that I can’t do something, and I’m struggling not to feel like a quitter. Again, I know intellectually that I’m doing the right thing, but emotionally, it’s a different story.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? How did you handle it? I need advice!

Welcome back to my Wednesday feature, the Question of the Week. Please feel free to use this question as the topic of a blog post, for personal journaling, or simply for self-discovery.

This week’s question is What are the biggest distractions in my life, and how can I minimize or eliminate them?

The biggest distractions for me are definitely watching television and surfing the Internet. Those are my go-to time-wasters when my brain feels overloaded or I don’t want to do what I “should” be doing. I’ve tried a number of different strategies over the years to limit these distractions but (sigh) they always seem to resurface.

The most effective method I’ve found so far is keeping a detailed time log. I think I’ll reintegrate that practice into my life (I may or may not post my logs here occasionally–I don’t want to overwhelm [ahem, bore] you with the minutiae of my life).

What are your major distractions? What can you do to minimize or eliminate them?

Do you ever look at your calendar or day planner and cringe at the number of appointments, chores, and other obligations? I’m doing it right now. For the past week (and for the next two), I’ve been feeling completely overbooked and overwhelmed. I have travel for work, travel for “fun” (nothing’s fun when you’re this stressed), family in town, going to visit family, and work/social evening engagements planned for pretty much three solid weeks.

When will I clean? Get groceries? Cook? Do some writing for a project I started with a friend? Work on my website overhaul? Exercise? Meditate? Rest?

I was doing some inner whining about this (Why am I so busy? I just wish I had more time!) when it occurred to me that I created this reality. Yep. With a very few exceptions, I’m the one who stuck all this stuff on my calendar. Why would I do that? Maybe it’s because I don’t like saying no so I agree to everything I’m asked to do.

Well… I’m sure there’s some truth to that, but looking at my calendar, I see quite a number of events that I initiated. That’s right. I actually suggested most of these commitments.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

I have a theory. Over the past few weeks, I’ve cut waaaay back on my typical unhealthy ways of coping with life and avoiding things I don’t want to think about. I haven’t been using alcohol to “relax”. I haven’t been able to use shopping as a source of distraction. I’ve been (with one notable exception) monitoring my food intake to make sure I’m not engaging in emotional eating. Could it be that I’m using overbooking myself as a replacement avoidance and coping mechanism?

If I’m too busy, I have an excuse not to complete the website renovation I want to do to align this website more fully with my message.

If I’m too busy, I have an excuse not to work on the writing project and risk failing or feeling “not good enough”.

If I’m too busy, I have an excuse not to put more time into meditation and cultivating awareness.

If I’m too busy, I have an excuse to come home and plop down on the catch–I need to relax, don’t I?

If I’m too busy, I never have to be alone with myself and my thoughts and feelings.

What do you think?

My typical Saturday goes something like this… (Lord, this is embarrassing.) Wake up around 7:30am and make breakfast. Surf the internet and catch up on blogs for a few hours (I know, I know). Go for a run. Come back and shower. Grab some lunch–eat while surfing the internet again. Write for an hour or two. Straighten up the house. Watch some TiVo’d programs (Battlestar Galactica, House, Law & Order SVU, The Office). Make dinner. Watch TV or movies until bed. Repeat on Sunday.

Sure, I get some things done (a little bit of writing, a run, cleaning), but the bulk of my weekend is frittered away on mindless entertainment. I didn’t truly realize the impact this was having on my life until recently.

A few weekends ago, my husband and I actually got out of the house. We woke up on Saturday morning, went running together, and came back and made breakfast. We walked downtown to go the DC Chili Cookoff. We met some friends and hung out there for a few hours. It wasn’t really our scene, so we left and walked to the movie theater in Chinatown, where we saw “Forgetting Sara Marshall” (off-color, but hilarious!). We had dinner at a sushi-go-round place and then went out for a beer. It was an incredibly fun day.

I woke up the next morning totally convinced that it was Monday. Why? Because we’d gotten out and done so much that Saturday felt like an entire weekend by itself. Sunday was like a bonus gift–we slept in, made waffles (with PB&J for me!), and had a lazy morning. Then we went out to run errands for a while. When we got home, I went over to a friend’s house and we cooked together. It was AWESOME! The weekend felt like it lasted forever.

The moral of the story: Don’t let time-suckers like TV and the Internet steal away your leisure time. You will get so much more life in your life if you’re out doing something than if you’re home sitting on the couch. My excuse is always, “I had a hard week–I’m tired and I need some rest.” But I’m here to tell you that my excuse is total BS. I felt far more energized after my action-packed weekend than I would’ve after a 6-hour TV marathon.

What are your biggest time-suckers and what are some things you can do to defeat them?

6WBMO Update: I’m still sticking to the exercise portion of the plan and doing my modified eating plan. Overall, I’ve lost two pounds since Day 1, BUT I’ve lost a total of 2 inches, so I’m guessing that I’ve put on some muscle!

Daily Routine Update: Can I tell you how much I love my routines? I LOVE my routines!!! They are really improving my quality of life. I highly recommend this for anyone who has a set of recurring tasks that need to be done every day and struggles with time management. It makes a huge difference!

For one of my 101 Things, I have to read three literary classics. I’m currently reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and it just prompted a jarring realization. (If you haven’t read it and don’t want the ending spoiled, don’t click the hyperlink in the previous sentence. And don’t worry–I won’t give away any more than I have to in this post.)

If you’re not familiar with the book, I’ll give enough background for this post to make sense. An amateur inventor creates a time machine and takes a trip to the future. Humans have apparently evolved into small, frail, androgynous creatures (called the Eloi) who live a peaceful, leisurely existence. These creatures are childlike–they lack intelligence, curiosity, and creativity. The Time Traveller (he is never named) develops a theory as to why humans seem to have mentally devolved instead of advanced:

What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigor? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall… [In the Time Traveller’s own time, h]umanity had been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived… Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security, that restless energy that with us is strength [had] become weakness.

So the Time Traveller is saying that the reason that modern humans are intelligent, strong, inventive, and adaptable is that we have to be in order to improve our lives. We use technology, politics, art, science, philosophy, agriculture, etc. to alter our world and enable us to thrive. The Time Traveller postulates that, once humanity had achieved the pinnacle of technological advancement and social development, there was no further need for smart, creative, hardy humans, so they became soft and weak.

Makes sense, right? What’s so earth-shattering about that? Let me try to explain. Lately, I’ve been struggling with my writing. I find it too taxing after a long day of performing mental gymnastics at work to come home and be creative. Sounds reasonable enough.

BUT when I got out of the Navy at 22, I was waaaaay in debt from bad decisions and a messy divorce, I was uneducated (high school diploma), and I was really depressed. I refused to take money from my parents, so it was up to me to make my own way. I worked THREE jobs–a legal secretary during the day, a cocktail waitress at night, and a salesgirl on Saturdays & Sundays–to make ends meet. I ate peanut butter for weeks at a time. I worked my ass off (literally–I lost about 20 pounds in 2 months) and started taking classes at community college. How did I manage to do all that? I had no choice–that’s how.

After I got my Bachelor’s, I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I didn’t want to take out as many student loans as I had for undergrad, so I wanted to work full-time. I wanted to finish in two years, so I had to go to school full-time. So I worked 45 hours a week at a government agency, worked at a coffee shop on the weekends, and took a full load of classes. For two miserable years. Why? Because I had to.

Now, I’m totally financially secure (thanks mostly to my husband). I have a very comfortable life, and I don’t have to struggle for anything. I can pretty much have whatever I want with a minimum of effort (outside of the effort of working full-time). Much like Wells’ Eloi, comfort and security seem to have dulled my edge. I’ve lost the willingness to strive. Does that make sense? Achieving success has diminished some of the very qualities that made me successful.

I’m asking for your help now. What can I do to change this? How (short of quitting my job, which my husband and I agreed I won’t do right now) can I create an environment that requires enough struggle to inspire me to give my all without throwing away everything I’ve worked for?

Have you noticed this in your life? How do you combat the complacency that comes with success?