{"id":1715,"date":"2011-12-05T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T18:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2011-12-05T13:03:35","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T18:03:35","slug":"flunking-deadlines-setting-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/12\/flunking-deadlines-setting-limits.html","title":{"rendered":"Flunking Deadlines, Setting Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
My assignment to myself<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Someone told me recently, “I don’t know how you do it all.” I’ve heard this before and it’s nice that I fooled that person, but here is the truth: I am going a bit barmy with overcommitment.<\/p>\n

This weekend I sat down to my gnawing to-do list and felt entirely overwhelmed. In part that’s because what’s really kicking my ass right now isn’t even on<\/em> the list for this crowded week: an article that was due in the middle of November. I haven’t been able to see my way through to any solid, sustained writing time. And looking at the calendar for December, I don’t see how when article is going to happen. Especially since the underlying issue is that I have writer’s block and am still not sure how to approach the ginormous topic in question. (I did, however, find time to see the Muppet Movie<\/a> over the weekend, which was very clarifying.)<\/p>\n

Why do I let myself get into these situations? I hate disappointing other people.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe what I need to do is compare how disappointed they will feel if I tell them no immediately versus how disappointed they will be if I delay my follow-through come crunch time.<\/p>\n

The blessing of being at this point in my career is that I have more than enough stimulating work to do. The challenge is that I got here by saying yes to almost everything for years and hoping that “way leads on to way,” which it did in a rather fantastic manner. I am so grateful. But how do I unlearn the behavior that got me to this place?<\/p>\n

I have Greg Cootsona’s helpful book Say Yes to No<\/em><\/a> on my shelf and it’s pretty clear I need to re-read it. Just as soon as I finish this article. And that other thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone told me recently, “I don’t know how you do it all.” I’ve heard this before and it’s nice that I fooled that person, but here is the truth: I am going a bit barmy with overcommitment. This weekend I sat down to my gnawing to-do list and felt entirely overwhelmed. In part that’s because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14,239],"tags":[1021,22,1019,21,1022,1020,1018,1023],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-commentary","category-mental-health","category-spirituality","tag-deadlines","tag-flunking-sainthood","tag-greg-cootsona","tag-jana-riess","tag-overcommitted","tag-procrastination","tag-say-yes-to-know","tag-to-do-list"],"yoast_head":"\nFlunking Deadlines, Setting Limits - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/12\/flunking-deadlines-setting-limits.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flunking Deadlines, Setting Limits - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Someone told me recently, “I don’t know how you do it all.” I’ve heard this before and it’s nice that I fooled that person, but here is the truth: I am going a bit barmy with overcommitment. 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