Today I feel like I have too many things coming up in the near future on my plate and it's scattering and overwhelming. I use reminders in my email client (since I'm online every day any way) to keep track of what needs to be done when, but I still can't shake this nagging worry that I'll forget a deadline on something or make a mistake. I'm not sure if this is my old issues with anxiety rearing their ugly head again, or if it's just the stress of the season, but I feel like I'm waiting for too many important dates to arrive and wish they would just get here so I can do what needs to be done and take things off my plate.
For example: I have an exam due tomorrow which I am going to complete today during my lunch break and submit tonight as soon as the upload forum opens instead of waiting until tomorrow. I have another exam due on Friday that I am going to complete and submit tomorrow, and yet another exam due Sunday that I am going to try to complete tomorrow and submit on Saturday. I also have a blood drive appointment on Saturday; I am donating my blood in exchange for free tax preparation which is how I had my $500 prep done for free last year so that my entire return wasn't gobbled up by prep fees. I was going to take a tax class this last fall so I could do them myself but I missed the sign-up date for it. I used to do my own taxes when they were just a simple W-2 and I could e-file but now I have a W-2 and a 1099 plus home office and work-related travel expenses, plus student loan interest payment deductions, plus savings account interest income, plus medical bill payment deductions, plus PELL income to deal with this year.
At work I have 6 or 7 cancellations that need to be processed, sitting in the cue, all with different dates on them. I can't process any of them yet but I've never actually had that many sitting in the cue all at once and the OCD in me is going insane. I'm trying to remember the meals for the week too so that I take the right meats out of the freezer early enough that they'll thaw in time to make the dinners for which they are intended. Friday I will probably have to chase my boss down to make sure I get paid and then I will have to go through the finances for the month and pay all the bills. I mean it's all just a lot of little, normal stuff that everyone deals with on a daily basis but, for some reason, it feels overwhelming to me right now. I know one thing for sure, I will feel a lot better once my taxes are done and I can take that giant whale off my plate. I feel like I'm forgetting something and I'm going to go in there Saturday and they're going to say "Oh, we need this piece of paperwork" and I'm going to say "ooops, I totally forgot about that one".
I'd consider getting a day-planner if I thought I would actually use it but I've had them before and they've ended up just collecting dust on a shelf so it's kind of a pointless waste of money. I do have some good news though, I checked out my Sophomore schedule and discovered that after the classes I'm in and one more 9 week block consisting of two classes, I will finally begin my programming credits! YAY! 15 weeks from now my world is going to be systems management, web design, programming, and more programming for the next year. WOOHOO!
Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 string cheese
1 serving home made hummus
1 cup garlic noodles
1 serving bloody mary steak
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1017
Activity:
Basketball: Played around the world, then 1-on-1, then horse with Snack Monkey. Then after all of that we did a lap around the court, I did some dribble practice up and down the court and then we just practiced trick shots and shagged the ball for each other. It was fun and I broke a sweat and got my heart rate up several times. I wouldn't let him go easy on me just because I'm a fat girl so we were pushing and shoving and trying to bat the ball away from each other. I lost, of course, but it was fun!
I get like this too -- probably from the same genetic-OCD as you. ;)
ReplyDeleteA little tip when this happens that helps me: I just blow stuff off that can be blown off; or I deal with it differently in a way that I feel less stress.
For example, the diet. I'm not saying blow it off -- and I'm super proud of you for home-cooking and hope you stick with it. But maybe you should lighten-up a bit a choose a few meals that you don't have to prep so much in advance for. Salads, sandwiches, soups, that sort of thing. Maybe eat out (but choose a healthier option) a few times.
Another example is the work tasks you have pending. You really need to deal with that in a way that you feel more secure you won't forget about them -- but still get them out of your visible-range throughout the day. I don't know your setup and routines so I can't give you a good suggestion but work will kill you if you stress about it after-hours. Put some real effort into making sure you'll be reminded to do those tasks when the time comes, get them completely out of your view in the meantime(like in a cabinet you don't normally use a lot), and really convince yourself that you don't need to worry about them after-hours.
If there's one thing that will stress you out beyond overload, it's thinking about work after-hours. Forget it, the boss can never pay you enough to make it worth working 24x7. I believe the saying that applies here is "out of sight, out of mind" -- you need to figure out a way to adopt that.
You are handling your exams exactly as I would, and (IMNSHO) in the best way possible. Nothing wrong with working ahead (so long as the work is quality) and feeling relieved after it's done early.
Taxes. Wow, that's the *LAST* thing you should be stressing about! First of all, $500 is nothing to sneeze at for tax-prep -- office-expense aside, we have all of the same factors you do and we only pay ~$125. That's not the point I'm trying to make, other than you are paying a professional a pretty sizeable sum of money -- EXPECT them to hold your hand through the process, that's what you pay them for. Go in with what you happen to remember to take, but don't stress you'll forget something. A good tax guy will take that into account, work up a ballpark-guess with you on whatever info. your missing, and keep rolling. Later you can fax the forgotten paperwork to him and he'll finish the work, file it, and fax/mail you your copies. If your tax guy won't hold your hand like this, he's not worth a whopping $500. Trust the professionals you pay to hold your hand -- that's what they're there for.
Congrats on the good news re:programming classes! That's exciting! Some day soon we can actually hold conversations about linked lists, algorithms, race-conditions, and REST. :P
I didn't see anything in your article that sounded like it was something you could truly "blow off" for a while -- but I'm betting there are those sorts of things that you just didn't talk about. Look for them and blow them off for a month until you get some more stability back in life.
I'm just neurotic. Technically I can "blow off" my worry over taxes until at least Saturday because I spent three hours on Monday prepping my deductions and making this beautiful excel sheet for them. I can blow off the cancellations for work until the day comes to process them though I can't stuff them in a cupboard, they're in an electronic cue in our account management software so every time I log in or go back to the main screen to navigate the software there's this red 8 staring at me. I need to just stop glancing at it. I can "blow off" bills until after I get paid because A)I know that my check will be more than enough to pay them thanks to the fact that you taught me how to budget years ago and B) I can't do crap with them until after I get paid so there's really no point in fussing over them now. I agree that $500 for taxes is absurd but the blood drive is the best thing ever. 1 pint of my blood for free tax prep ... YOU BETCHYA! lol This may sound especially stupid but I'm actually worrying about exercising on Saturday after the blood drive. I'll speak with the nurses about it and get their professional opinions before I just go all willy-nilly to the gym.
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