I got a one-liner email today from the one-and-only Ken, who 3Gen readers know well:

“Miss your 3Gen writings …. :)”

My first thought: Wow, I do, too!
My second thought: Crap.
My third thought: Ken is so nice. Who else would say get-your-blogging-butt-in-gear in such a nice way…with a smiley face?!

So first, to take care of No. 2 and No. 3 – I’m very sorry to readers and The Boss for slacking. It will never happen again (well, until the next time I have jobs, classes, training, life, etc. all piled up on top of me…which will probably be soon…but I will try much harder next time to stick a hand out of the top of the pile and type out a post…I promise). :)

Now, No. 1. I love writing for 3Gen – and I hate letting it slip through the cracks. But with my crazy-busy life, I’ve found things slip a lot more often than I’d like. Which brings me to a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: BALANCE.

I’m most certainly a multi-tasker. And a go-getter. And a can’t-say-no-er. Which makes for a nasty combination when I’m trying to, like, relax. Or focus. Or just finish one darn thing without being distracted by another. Maybe because I’ve been living this way for years now – probably since middle or high school, constantly – I’m starting to feel the beginnings of burn out and, thus, am craving a little more balance up in here.

During my year “off” between college and grad school, I worked a 9-to-5 nonprofit office job though the AmeriCorps VISTA program – and having few other real commitments was a total shock to my system. Likewise, when I started two fulltime master’s programs, two jobs (one fulltime and one parttime), marathon training and the exciting role of dog-mom, my system was shocked again.

And although I’ve learned to juggle all of those things over the past year, I’m definitely an amateur juggler who can barely toss three scarves up and catch two. You won’t catch me with 10 flaming things in the air anytime soon – but I’ll probably try (and perhaps accidentally catch on fire).

So I’m trying to streamline.
To make connections between what I’m doing personally, academically and professionally so that my brain doesn’t have to switch gears 180 degrees many times a day.
To not bite off more than a hundred of me can chew.
To take a few minutes each day to breathe, practice yoga, watch some trashy TV, whatever.
And, of course, to blog religiously.

Are you pulled in a gazillion different directions daily? How do you cope? How do you take it down from a gazillion things to maybe just a million or two?
[Update: In the course of writing this post, I had a great phone conversation in which I turned down a fabulous professional opportunity in order to focus on the fabulous opportunities I'm already knee-deep in. I might be making progress!]

Thanks to NCinDC for the great photo -- I gotta learn me some moves!