To Do list vs. Social Life

Right now, I have a bulging To Do list and very little time in which to get it all done. I wanted to tell you about the interesting play The Mistress Contract that I went to see last week, but I haven’t had time. I was going to plan a blog post about bra brands that specialise in specific size ranges, but haven’t been able to put it together yet. Most of all, I was desperate to write a review of the brilliant Wowzers Festival, but have only managed to Storify some tweets from the weekend so far. Right now, all I’m focusing on is work and getting a 4,000 word essay ready to hand in on Friday, so apologies for neglecting you dear readers. In the meantime, here’s something I wrote for BitchBuzz back in in 2010 about being too busy. Some things never change, eh?

Have you ever had so many things in your diary that you have to start scheduling dinner and drinks with friends a couple of months in advance, just so that you can fit them in? I’m getting to that stage right now and, although it’s fun being busy, it’s also extremely hard work. My diary gets filled up surprisingly quickly with evenings and weekends of fun, but fitting everything in whilst also finding time for myself can be rather tricky. The first problem is that people you really do want to see start to assume that you’re avoiding meeting up, when actually you really don’t have much free time. The increasing lack of spontaneity can be a major concern for some people too, but I actually rather like a bit of anticipation and so prefer to plan ahead anyway. Just as well, really!

Another issue is that all this socialising leaves very little ‘me time’. When I have a bit of time at home and find myself trying to decide between going to bed at a reasonable time, doing laundry, and re-dying my hair to avoid having my roots showing in weekend party photos, that’s when things are pretty hectic. While I don’t especially need any ‘beauty sleep’ as I’m still managing at least six hours most week nights, it turns out that my brain often needs rather a lot more rest than that. Sadly a free evening in the diary isn’t often one that can be solely spent in front of the television watching semi-naked vampires and drinking Hendricks and tonic. Perhaps that’s why I often think ‘what the hell’ and end up with an entire week of booked up evenings? Sometimes it gets so bad that I don’t have enough time to keep up with all my friend’s tweets and Facebook updates which, again, makes people think that I don’t care about them.

How can having a social life be so damn tricky? I think that perhaps I need to ease off on the going out a little and ‘reconnect’ with the sofa, but that’s easier said than done. Especially when you haven’t seen someone in a while and they suggest meeting up for dinner. Especially when, like me, you have trouble saying no to things. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing the opposite of the famous ‘yes man’ Danny Wallace and starting to say no to things. Perhaps for a month… just to see what happens. If I left an entire week free of appointments in my diary, what would happen? Would I lose friends? I suspect I’d just end up missing out on a particularly awesome party. Small steps seem to be the best way to begin making changes and so, after next week, I think I shall simply vow to never go out on a Monday night. If I manage to keep just one night free of social engagements, I’ll have a bit of time to recharge my batteries and, at the very least, I know I’ll always have time to call my mother.

Image via flik‘s Flickr photostream.