Change of Plans

Isn't it funny how sometimes when you put words to something you're thinking about, the answer will suddenly present itself?  That's what happened last week after I wrote my post about simplifying my life.  I'd been stressing about work.  One of the biggest things I had on my plate was my site relaunch, which I had been planning on doing at the beginning of July.  As I was getting ready for bed that night, it occurred to me that this was largely a self-imposed deadline.  July was the earliest that I could relaunch my site, so that's when I had planned to do it.  But it didn't even really make sense to do it then.

I decided right then that I needed to push back my relaunch to the end of August.  My plans had been made out of impatience rather than strategic planning.  I immediately felt much more relaxed.

The day after I posted about simplifying, Jess of Makeunder My Life posted a list of things that she is going to cut to relieve some of her stress.  I thought this was an awesome idea, and made my own list of things that I am not going to worry about:

• Relaunch in July. It just makes more sense to do it at the end of August, and patience is a virtue.
• Swap ads in July. One of my first thoughts after deciding to delay my relaunch was "that means that I need to find swappers in July!" The stress came back almost immediately. The thing is, I don't need to. So I'm not.
• Reply to every comment. This one is hardest for me, because some of my best blogger interactions have been through email, so I really want to reply to each and every comment.  But what happens is I let comments sit in my inbox and I stress over things to say in response. The thing is, some comments just don't require a response. So I'm letting myself off the hook. If I get too behind, I'm giving myself permission to archive all those emails, and start from scratch if I have to.

There's still a lot that I need to do even without worrying about these things, but I definitely feel like my workload is more manageable.

On a lighter note, how was your weekend?  With a wedding on Saturday and Father's Day on Sunday, mine was fun but a little crazy.  I got to hang with my dad yesterday, which is always fun (I may or may not have been in a food coma, but I think he was cool with it.)  Happy Father's Day, Dad!  And today is my parents' anniversary, so Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!  I love you guys!