Priorities? Which one is most important? Where does the path lie?

I have a lot of things to be done, from grading the last set of papers for final grades for Monday to doing a brochure for Southeastern Writers Association (which probably should have been done two weeks ago) to updating my other blog–which is lost somewhere in a database connection glitch, to finishing the laundry, cleaning off my kitchen table, to going to bed an hour ago.

That’s the snag of my life, not procrastination so much, but getting clear on priorities.  Getting down to the daily stuff, seeing what needs to be done next is the thing that is important to do, but not immediately urgent. For example, I checked my school email today, having not logged in since last week. I missed an opportunity for teaching a class becasuse I didn’t check it last week.   It would have been nice to have had more than one week’s notice that the class was starting, but then, if I checked that email every day like I do the main ones I use, I would have known about it.  Important, not urgent.

I can be philosophical and say, well, I guess I didn’t need anything else to do. It is easier to write articles when I’m not grading papers and replying to online posts from my students, but Stephen King managed to write novels while grading papers for high school students.  He’s a better man than I am, I guess.

My aweber account is finally set up on my other blog, the one that disappeared tonight, ironically after getting my first subscriber. That too seems to be a message. Leave well enough alone!  Set up the form on this site.
Maybe there are no messages, and things just happen.  But that’s not the way it feels.

I’ll be at a dividsion retreat tomorrow, with some new hires and the rest of the seasoned crew,  (hmmmm, brings up images of barbecue sauce and Mrs. Dash) which might be a good time to make connections. At least that’s a good intent to bring with me. Otherwise I’ll see it as a complete waste of time.  I’ll start visualizing having fun and getting to know people better right now before I go to bed.

So while I’m cleaning up my mess, both here at home and online, I’ll think about what my intent is. I know I’m scattered, and that being scattered is just not working.

Focus.

Direction.

ONE direction at a time.

That’s the ticket. If I have only one direction to go in, then the tasks ought to line themselves up clearly. Now to pick a direction.  I’ll always be an employee if I can’t learn to give myself direction. There’s a key to life. A compass.

But even a compass can’t tell you where to go if you don’t know where you are and you don’t know where you are going. Not even a Cheshire Cat can help you there.  I have to make that decsision for myself.

Hmmmm. Same answer every time. That’s a message.