How am I busy, let me count the ways…

I’ve always valued variety in life, never being one who does well with the monotony of repetitive tasks. But there is threshold where eclectic multi-tasking transforms into an insanity that one can only feel when frantically trying to grasp a thousand loose ends, only to realize their mind has wandered off in the process… As I sit here blithely assessing my coming week, let me share with you the multitude of responsibilities facing me:

• 33 job applications to review
• 17 phone interviews to conduction – one in Ethiopia
• Multiply 17 interviews by 6 references each and you have 102 reference calls
• Did I mention I need to create the interview and reference question sheets?
• Ongoing negotiations with a TV network for an episode spot in Ghana
• Since no drilling partner for BWM yet exists in Ghana I have to find one – by June
• Initiate first steps with 3 potential partners, all who are calling me this week
• Receipt out 2 upcoming funding disbursements for 2 ongoing proposals
• Create a Rapid Assessment Sheet to use as a baseline for all potential partnerships
• Write an evaluation of a recently declined partnership
• Draft a dashboard report layout for the project management database I’m overseeing
• Provide ongoing feedback for the final draft of a proposal I’ve been collaborating on for the last 5 months with our Zambia partner
• Write a brief concept paper outlining expectations and desires for a multi-year initiative with a partner in Kenya
• Answer like 50 emails of subjects ranging from “what do I think of play-pumps” to “should we sign a petition for the reauthorization of PEPFAR.”
• I have a box of receipts from the last 5 weeks that needs filed asap
• I desperately need to develop a press kit, but good luck finding time
• I have 2 AIDS projects to research and present recommendations to the Board for funding
• Crap, and I need to write my Quarterly Board Summary Report for the board meeting next Saturday
• Araella’s birthday is in 3 weeks and Tara is roping me into the insanity of planning a Fairy Birthday Party for a small army of pink-sheer-clad ankle biters
• I’m leading a rock climbing group out of my church for which I have to plan events
• Tara’s garden obsession requires my ongoing muscular input, from building planter boxes to shoveling manure from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’
• The burden of being a mac genius generally necessitates my services for one emergency or another (this last week I solved one issue for a person in NC and another one for a friend calling from Kenya!)
• I exercise at least 4 days a week
• There is the inescapable daily daddy time required by one with an energetic 3, soon-to-be 4, year old daughter
• In my spare time I’m trying to figure out how to wire a “minty amp” and home-made harmonica mic
• And just for fun, the two 50 foot oak trees in our back yard need a significant hair cut b/c they are shading the particular patch of lawn where Tara wants to grow her garden

Sheesh… I’m tired just reading that list; and those are just the urgent to-do item. I think I’ll go take a nap.