overextended

In undergrad and grad school, I thrived, or at least survived, in a continually overextended state. In all honesty, I'm sure I wasn't really thriving, but I found a way to fit an insane amount of things into my schedule and do most of them successfully. I was the queen of multitasking.

I'm happy to say that I've lost that crown. I have lost the ability to multitask and function when I'm overextended, and I have no desire to get any of that back.

Before I would plow on through, work ridiculous amounts each semester, and then crash as soon as I had a break longer than a weekend (read: Christmas and summer). I found after grad school that I really loved having time to myself so I could read or clean or catch up with friends or exercise or basically do whatever I wanted. It made me feel much saner, and I liked it.

Now I find myself starting to feel overextended once more, and I'm not happy with myself for letting that happen. This semester the following things are vying for my time:

1. Preparing for my 3-year review (part of the promotion and tenure process)
2. Writing a book
3. Indexing plays for a database of theatrical productions
4. Spending weekends with D. (half here, half there)
5. Tutoring Maysaa
6. Teaching an ESL class
7. Keeping in touch family and friends
8. Accomplishing daily life things (like cleaning and buying groceries)

And I just feel like it's all too much.

The work things are, well, work things, and as such, must stay. Diego, friends, and family are also essential although I'm finding it harder and harder to have time to keep in touch with friends and family. I made a personal commitment to work with Maysaa, and it's important to me to keep that. I need to keep up with daily life stuff or the results make me really stressed.

So that leaves one thing: the ESL class. It is the, um, low-hanging fruit of the semester, and I think it needs to go. It's also turning into a rather time-consuming venture this time around. It takes an entire evening to prep for the class and a second evening to teach. That's two evenings out of my week :(

The class just started last week, and I'm only teaching one of the two nights, but I can already tell that this is more than I can handle this semester. Although I feel bad dropping out this early in the game (I hate "quitting" things), I know it's the right thing to do this time. So I think I'll talk to the other teacher (who's a big ESL organizer in the area) and let her know that this isn't going to work out this year. I'm willing to stay on until a replacement can be found, but if I'm to stay sane and do well at the other things in my life, this just has to go.