Waning Whelm

[The Beauty of Lists]

I get overwhelmed sometimes, never mind that I don’t know the definition of whelmed… Whatever it is, I have too much of it. Maybe we need a new word… Wombawhelmed. How’s that? I’m wombawhelmed because there is too much to do and I can’t even seem to get started, so I am falling back on an old friend—namely, making a list.

The beauty of lists, in my book, is two-fold. First, I can CROSS OFF those pesky things that can be done quickly, and that helps my Whelm level ENORMOUSLY. Second, I can break GREAT BIG SUPERWOMBAWHELM items into mini-whelms… A mini-whelm is a manageable bite of a project that can be done in a reasonably period of time. I prefer to be able to cross several things off my list every day, so the mini-whelms would be something like this:

Instead of PROOFREAD LEGACY (something I’ve been in process of)

Write: Proofread: 28, 29, 30, 31

See? There I have 4 different mini-whelms to cross off, each feeling like an accomplishment. Last night I crossed of 26, 27 and 28, so now I only have three more little Xs and LEGACY has received it’s first proofreading.

You know what else I got to cross off? Last night I ENTERED changes for chapters 1-5—that is 5 Xs I got to cross off! Whelmy whelmy, go away!!!!

Having LEGACY about taken care of is definitely helping my writing whelm levels. I am slated to get back to ORIGINAL writing (as in finishing that blasted trilogy) very soon. You know what happens when the trilogy is done? WE CELEBRATE!!!!!


But alas, writing is not the only thing whelming me…

Work Whelm.

I have analyses to do, papers to write, IRB renewals to submit, patients to screen for recruitment, a blasted annoying webinteractivethingamabob for a committee I’m on, an annual report for a grant we have, supervising to do, a desk to clean…. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Definitely Wombawhelmed there… I have a list, but I suspect I need to break it down, as the bigger projects keep never making the top of the list… I think I will get father with mini-whelms…

And then the Whelm at Home!!!! [not my actual house]

Taxes. Taxes in not just a Wombawhelm, but a Mombawombawhelm. And I need to do them. I need to do them because they need to be done, but also because we REALLY need the money—I had to pay the balance on my daughter’s braces yesterday and did NOT have the $1500 to do it.

And then there is the Supermopmbawombawhelming task of getting our blasted house clean. It makes my husband nuts that I’m a stacker and a saver, and that most of our house has too much clutter. And you know what? He has gone 2 weeks without smoking, so anything inclined to make him nuts on a good day, has made him darned near unbearable in the last week.

The taxes I just need to pick a day and do. I hate it, but it is just a matter of giving in to being at the computer for a couple hours and doing it… any time I’ve EVER broken it into pieces (at least since the beginning of the eFiling age) I’ve regretted and had to redo… Maybe Friday night with a nice big glass of wine, so it is OVER by the time the weekend really starts… (kids seem to be often occupied then, too, and if hubby knows what I’m doing, he won’t bug me)

But the housecleaning needs to be broken into perhaps 3000 smaller tasks… even at 3000, I don’t think I can call them miniwhelms, but at least they should be marginally manageable at that point. The PROBLEM with home whelms is they multiply… whether you cross any off your list or NOT, there are ALWAYS new ones.

It can be hard to distinguish, but I’ve also learned some of them double… for instance, if you make your bed… just has to get made again then next day, but if you DON’T make it, then it will only need to be made the once… see, that is where my husband and I have so much trouble… bathrooms, catboxes, kitchens… you clean them, and the JUST need cleaning AGAIN. Something like laundry that can then be put away and ignored for a week is much more my kind of chore. Oh well…

Bring on the whelm… it’s time to start chipping away…