Too Many Eggs, Too Many Baskets

I didn’t have a post ready for today, and now I only have an hour to write it before a 3pm teleseminar. Also…

• My resumé (still) needs updating for a nifty video tutorials gig
• That ebook ghostwriting project is calling
• I have four other websites that need attention
• My To Read and To Listen folders have ebooks and MP3s back to January
• My desk is so covered with papers that I can’t even work there anymore
  (which is why I gotta be on time for my decluttering teleseminar)

In short, I’m fucked. And I have no one to blame but myself. Here’s what happened—

The problem: I love projects

I love the smell of a new business idea, and then brainstorming out loud (even if only talking to myself) and mad scribbles on a notepad. I love setting up a new blog and peeling back the bubble wrap for those first ten posts. I love planning stuff and working on stuff and all that stuff. Love it. Loveitloveit.

But there are only 24 hours in a day, and a decent chunk of that needs to go to cooking, eating, sleeping, snuggling with the husband, cleaning the apartment, exercising away my fat ass, and sorting through detritus from my previous lives. And yet most of those don’t get done on any given day. A sure sign something is awry in my world.

The clincher was when my project manager (Buddha bless him) informed me the only way to complete and maintain my 2009 projects by myself was if  I pushed most of the projects out until next year…through to October 2010…

…and if I worked 8 productive hours every Monday through Friday—with no holidays or vacation—for the next 18 months.

As. If.

Too many eggs. Too many baskets.

The real problem: Plan B…and C, D & E

After many Havi-esque conversations with myself, I uncovered the flawed philosophy that led me to believe my interesting-but-overwhelming collection of projects—and their endless parade of tasks—is desirable, admirable, and even necessary:

Gotta have a Plan B

And just in case Plan B doesn’t work, there’s gotta be a Plan C. And D. And maybe E. Because every backup plan needs its own backup plan. Because trusting one business project to pay the bills scares the pee out of me.

Thing is, any one of my projects might yield sufficient income if it got all of my attention. Any one of them could fail, too, but at this pace I’ll never know. With so many things going on, I never put my full will behind any of them. Nothing gets far enough, fast enough to run under its own momentum and maybe give a glimpse of its actual potential.

I’ve worn myself out trying to sail a fleet of business projects on my insecurity…there’s just no way I can power and steer and maintain all of these ships at the same time.

Too many eggs. Too many baskets.

And too many metaphors ;)

The solution: A few eggs, one basket

It’s already gone too far. I dread getting out of bed because of the heap of work that’s waiting for me. I want to hide from my work. I want to hide from my life. So it’s all gotta go.

Well, not all of it. I’m keeping a few special eggs and my favorite basket.

This blog is the basket, and online business case studies are one of the eggs (thanks for the feedback on that). Video tutorials are an important part of that, so this new gig fits in nicely.

That means a strong finish to my projects-in-progress, and no new projects for a long while. It will take a month or two to get clear of it all, but it’s worth the effort (and the wait) for a simpler work+life.

First step: A clean desk. It’s 4:07pm, way late for clean-up class. But hey, better late than never…

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Et tu? How do you know when you’re doing too much? How do you get through (or over) it?

Photo credit: iStockPhoto