Overscheduled?

Last night my wife made a comment that I was overscheduled. My first reaction was: Me? Can’t be. I’m retired. 

Then I got to thinking. I retired into fiction writing, so I have a lot going on in my writing life, and, yes, I’ve added quite a few commitments recently. The good news is I’m doing things I want to do.

This morning I sat down and listed all my activities. First, was writing itself, which entails research, writing a manuscript, editing and critique groups. Second were the promotional activities: signings, presentations, selling manuscripts, blogging, social networking, followed by the administrative activities around writing. Then I moved on to my volunteer activities, including becoming president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and serving on the national MWA Board, co-chair of the Boulder County Aging Advisory Council, vice president of the Boulder Citizens’ Police Academy Alumni Association. a respite volunteer, assisting with the Left Coast Crime Conference and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference, and serving as a teaching assistant in the Educurious program. Finally, was time spent exercising every day. I didn’t include time cooking or food shopping. To my amazement when I put hours to each of these, it added up to sixty-five hours a week. My wife was absolutely correct. I’m overscheduled. So my resolution is to not add more activities or if I add something, I need to cut back somewhere else. But I'm not giving up exercising.