Time Management

So what's new? Well, today was not a day of big accomplishments. Last night, after I finished blogging, I went back to work and didn't get to bed until 3am- so this morning, I wasn't particularly productive. I feel like I'm in a difficult position- I've been working really hard on fundraising, particularly focusing on obtaining financial support for the date auction and I have let other things slide. I have a lot of other work that needs attention- program work, kicking our CT efforts up, calendar photos, grants, etc. and I haven't been spending enough time on any of those things because I am so caught up with trying to get more financial sponsors for the date auction. The worst part is that I'm spending all this time and I have so little to show for it. Every day, I start out with the best intentions- I'm going to spend time working on different areas that need attention, except the fundraising is so hard that I get caught up in it and I keep going until I get results- but the whole day will go by and I haven't much to show for it. Then the day is over and another day has gone by and my list of things that I didn't get to grows even longer.

The solution isn't to stop working on date auction sponsorship. The bottom line is that we need money and right now donations are down, so I do need to double up the efforts to bring in these dollars. However, I can't devote all this time to it at the expense of everything else that needs done. I need help- I need people in this office who can work on some of these things. I can't hire staff, that's out of the question, so I need to find more reliable volunteers who can actually spend some serious time helping out. I don't know where to find these volunteers- do they even exist?

I know that if we can get through this economic situation we can get through anything, and we will get through this. There is nothing in the world I'd rather be doing than running my business, so we will keep plugging along. It may not be pretty right now, we're going through some seriously difficult times, but it won't last. All that is good doesn't last and neither does all that is bad- we live in a world of cycles. We're on the downside right now, but we'll keep hanging on and soon enough we'll be on the upside again.

So, I'm going to write my list for tomorrow- except I will put date auction sponsors at the bottom of the list and I will spend time concentrating on the things that I've let slide. The date auction is super important, but it is not our only source funding and I need to focus on other things. I will still work on the sponsorship tomorrow, but I will give it an hour time limit. I do need to get better with time limits- I will start working on a topic and intend to only work for one hour, but I get so focused with what I'm doing that I'll keep going for 2 or 3 hours. I get results obsessed. There is a high that comes with getting a good result and so until you reach that high, it is very hard to stop working on something. Yikes- I sound like an addict!

Anyways, I'm glad that I blogged tonight. I was feeling pretty stressed today, but it helped writing about things tonight. Well, I'm off to write my list, then bed. Until tomorrow friends..