In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been pretty busy lately. A lot of stuff has come up in the F/OSS arena that I’m excited to be working on. I’m very glad that I realized recently that my capacity to take on more projects had ceased and so I wasn’t tempted to volunteer for any LinuxChix related things that have come up lately (I’m sticking around the volunteers list and channel so I am kept aware of things and can pitch in for small things, but no more volunteering for giant projects!).
Unfortunately all this has taken a bit of a toll on me mentally and physically. I am taking plenty of time to relax (reading, watching movies and going out with Michael), and while important, it’s not working as an exclusive form of relaxation. I went to the sweat lodge Thursday night and it dawned on me that I haven’t taken much time alone to completely detach and meditate, journey or do a rune cast in months, I even slacked off on going to the gym until I joined the YMCA last week. Days have been flowing into each other, I’m feeling all disconnected and my stress level has risen when it should be falling. By work day Friday I’m so wiped out that my brain sometimes doesn’t want to work properly.
The solution is not drastically cutting back on volunteer work. I can probably continue at this pace now that I’ve found my limits, afterall – I love doing this stuff and it’s very rewarding, or else I wouldn’t be doing it! But I do need to take more time out of my day each day to detach and get grounded. Even if it’s just 30 minutes of meditation after work, or going outside to sit in the grass for a while. This would be a much better use of time than unwinding by going to silly internet links and laughing about them in IRC or on mailing lists. Getting far away from the computer and all my projects off my mind is important and relaxing in a whole different way. When all is said and done I’ll probably end up being more productive.
So now I have a plan! Must execute now.