I’m going to keep this short. I’m overwhelmed. 

It’s Thursday, and I like REMAN U articles to go out around 2pm. My team and I have been in a groove getting articles to me BEFORE THURSDAY sometimes allowing me to schedule them and watch ’em roll out to the world at the pre-arranged time. Not so this week. Not only was everyone else busy, but I got sick. I got sick, my child got sick, and my spouse got sick – all at the same time. It was the worst. 

When I looked for a stock photography image of “overwhelmed”, I was comforted (and slightly depressed) by how many women there were, heads down, piles of laundry before them. I have laundry (4, 5 loads to fold, now?), I have dishes, I have cleaning, I have work! When I came into the office this morning, I had the work-equivalent of stacks of laundry: unopened boxes piled on my desk, papers with post-it notes for follow-up, and the work I had intended to breeze through last time I had been there, dust settled atop it. There’s REMAN U, there’s an ad deadline, there’s figuring out that one thing, there’s getting to everything that was on my to-do list for what was supposed to have been a pretty quiet week. 

So, what to do? 

First, I’m going to do what I have to do first. Is REMAN U a “must do”? I suppose it is. Here I am. I am also going to meet that ad deadline. I’m going to drop off the documents I need to drop off. I’m going to fold some amount of laundry.

Then, I’m going to re-prioritize. What tasks were asked for specifically with this week in mind as opposed to “sometime”? Sometime is future Andee’s problem. This week is today and tomorrow. 

Finally, I’m going to be kind to myself. I haven’t eaten a full meal in 3 days, my schedule is all confused, and I’m here now. Breathe. Do what you can. Drink water (*literally gets up to get water based on my own advice as I write it*). 

And that’s it, folks. Is this the most interesting article I’ve written? No. But I’ve got stuff to do, and you know what, so do you. When you get in the weeds because it’s flu season or life happens, just get $h!% done and remember to hydrate.