Ever just get overwhelmed???

[Joe Shinall]

So I started woodworking about 3 or so years ago and I filled up my 2 car garage with equipment and wood so I built a 2nd shop. Before I could finish the outside of my shop, I already started organizing the inside. I have a daughter on the way and so far my list before February's end is:

1. Finish the outside of the new shop
2. Wire the new shop
3. Move air compressor and planer to the new shop
4. Refinish a customer's antique dresser and table before Christmas
5. Refinish another customer's antique vanity and dresser before Christmas
6. Make a keepsake box for a friend's wedding gift before Dec 4th
7. Help my wife's grandparents move in to their new house when they close (living with us right now in what is going to be my daughter's room)
8. Put the crib together and refinish an old dresser to match it.
9. Put chair rail molding up in that room and make some shelves.
10. Build the bookcases for the sides of the entertainment center I never finished by December so the wife can use them for decorations.
11. Decorate for Christmas inside and out. 2 Christmas trees inside and about 40 sets of lights and 20 or so decorations with music and light show.
12. Make about 6 cutting boards for Christmas gifts.
13. Build mitre saw/RAS cabinet for old shop.
14. Organize old shop.
15. Coach a baseball camp this weekend.
16. Try and get as much sleep and work in before the baby gets here.

Have I left anything out??? Oh yeah, that's right. Work a full time 50 hour job every week!!!

Does anyone else ever just get overwhelmed like this???

[Jim Underwood]

Sounds about normal to me....:o

Except for the little children part. Mine are all grown up and moved out.:)

My "new" shop is years and years old, and I still need to finish wiring it....

And if I don't have a hundred projects in various stages of completion up there I'm a goat... Or maybe an OLD goat.:D

[Don Bullock]

Joe, until I retired my life was just about as busy. Sure, I had different things on my list but it was just as overwhelming at times. I wish I had some advice other than letting go and letting someone else do things for you. One day I realized that life is too short so when there was a task that someone else could do so I discovered it was cheaper to have them do the job so that I had more time with family and friends. BTW -- There are times even in retirement that things are just as hectic.

[Clint Olver]

Joe, I think that's just how life is. I have a week old son, and I'm still building the change table/dresser. There are a million things on the list. My lawn is so long rabbits are nesting in it, and I just got an e-mail about a bike shelf prototype that I'm supposed to have sent out by the end of the month that I completely forgot about. Since I haven't touched the wife's built in closet in a year and a half and it is still partially complete in the shop, I probably won't mention the e-mail to her.
That's just life I guess.:rolleyes:

C

[Joe Shinall]

Thanks guys, at least I know I'm not alone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to blow my head or anything. And I like to be busy. I hate sitting around doing nothing and playing on this website and acting like I'm getting work done because I'm talking about it on here :rolleyes:

I probably wouldn't have it any other way :D

[Dave MacArthur]

LOL, right there with you Joe! I actually sat down with the wife yesterday and we wrote a list of "We want to do D, but C must happen before D, and we have to do B to make C happen, and must do A first to be able to do B..."

I've got a list of woodworking projects 10 long that my wife is about ready to go out and buy, but I can't do them until I have a garage sale and CL all the extra crap filling my garage, erm I mean shop...
And on TOP of that, I'm 18 days away from retirement but suddenly on 1 Oct the mil budget just flat out chopped, and there's not a single "manday" available to me! So my 1 Dec military retirement is getting pushed back to maybe next MAY to get 18 more days, and I'm spending 10 hours a day trying to deploy to Iraq for 4 months just to get my dang 18 days to retire! You can imagine the list of tasks THAT plan is creating!

It's always something... My theory is this: If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, I'd spend every minute I have left with my wife and kids, without a thought towards ANYTHING else.

Since I MIGHT die tomorrow, it's probably a pretty good plan anyways...
;) Good luck!

[Jim Andrew]

My way of coping with a whole load of work is to get up an hour earlier and go right to work. And forget tv. Shops have lights. And you can listen to the radio.

[Joe Shinall]

Dave you sound like you are right there with me if not a bit further! Good luck with your retirement and everything else. Sounds like we both need luck.

Jim, I don't go to bed til about 3 am. I am not a sleeper. And I get up around 7. Don't think I can get up an hour earlier. And it's not like I can just go to bed an hour earlier. I have some sort of built in timing mechanism that says don't fall asleep til 3!!!

[Don Morris]

Joe,

I was there too until a friend who was in the same boat said we needed to simply our lives. Take that thought and run with it. I did and acted on it. I'm glad I did as it made my quality of life better when I cut out a few things I was doing. Yes I felt a little remorse that I wasn't doing them but the upside was I had more time for the real and most important things in life. A little explanation to people why you can't be all things to all people helps them understand why you just said NO to their request for you to make the church steeple or the box for your friend (buy one). "I just don't have the time right now" works wonders. Or, "I'm overextended at work right now so I don't have the time". "I have a drop-dead-line at work so I can't take on any extra projects right now". Makes people understand, even sympathetic and less demanding. I had to learn how to do it. An earnest talk to LOML is in order too. She has to help out.

Just survive till retirement. I'm still super busy, but sane.

[Peter Quinn]

Is this your first child? If so, that's going to change a few things in terms of your priorities. If not, you already know what I mean. Life gets crazy, but we do it to our selves! Learn to set realistic deadlines and not take on work you cannot reasonably handle in the time you have. I find at some point the pressure of meeting insane deadlines can sap the joy taken from doing the work in the first place and makes every act in life feel like a burden.

First step? No new commissions until that list of yours is knocked out. Shop finished, nursery finished, parents relocated, etc. New clients? The expression "Sorry, I am fully committed for the forseable future" is worth learning. I used to be a chef, and there I found it's true that if you put too many pans on the fire, you are sure to start burning things up....possibly your self.

[Tom Rick]

Yep.

Been a dream for 20 years: nothing on the plate and being able to look out and decide "what's next?"

Maybe after I get a few of these projects done.......

My approach has been to

1) Cull out some of the dead projects that I will never get to and don't really need to do.
2) Get all the materials, tools and projects into the shop and out of the house.
3) Throw things away that I am just holding onto to reduce the clutter and maintainance load of keeping so much stuff.
4) Get much more selfish about being the guy who can get it done for every one, and every project that comes down the pike.
5) I am trying to focus on the bigger projects that need to get done so I can move forward.

Thankfully the large projects on my plate right now are will only take months to complete. A family member took a farm house to pieces and started a decades long rebuild/renovation while living in a trailer on site. Having only weekends to do the work, they couldn't get it done. DECADES of a life dominated by a overwhelming project that could never get done.... A clear warning to project folks to use some caution when taking on extra curricular activities..

[Gene Waara]

I feel your pain, Joe. That was me several years ago. Now, kids are gone and I'm a grampa three years or so from retirement. Here's my advice: Make a list (see, you have already completed step 1!), prioritize it, parallel path it where possible, and eat the elephant one bite at a time. When I say prioritize, be reasonable. If the bookshelves don't get done your wife can display things elsewhere; if the cutting boards don't get done you can buy Xmas gifts, etc. Your customers come first so while the refinished dresser finish is drying, move to the chair rail (parallel path), etc. And as someone else says, be reasonable with promises/expectations. I started making some Xmas gifts last month and LOML has been growing the list. I told her what the priorities are and if some don't get done before Xmas, have a plan B. She understands and we'll see what I can get done without it becoming a chore. She knows this is a hobby for me and there are days I just don't feel like going to the shop after working all day. When WW gets to be a chore, my tools will be on CL. Remember, eat the elephant one bite at a time!

[Charlie Stone]

Joe & All,
To me, its not an unmanageable list, and some of it can be taken care of via a proper "to-do list".
The following video is roughly an hour and 15 mins very well spent. If you are really pressed for time, jump to 0:21:00 and watch 2 minutes, and that's the part which is relevant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0
This is Randy Paush's lecture on Time Management. For those not familiar with him, he was a professor at CMU who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He did a few lectures before he died and imparted some of the deepest wisdom on the best ways to spend your time, coming from someone who knew he was just about out of it.

[Tom Walz]

Joe,

Thanks for the post. I was feeling the same way. Helps to know I'm not alone.

If this is your first child leave lots of time for them. It is important for the child and kids are just a whole lot of fun.

Congratulations,
Tom

[jackie gates]

JOE: I will just say AMEN to all of the good advice in the posts above, take part of your limited time to read them again and apply them to your lifestyle. Perhaps part of your lack of sleep is caused by your worry about all of the overwhelling unfinished projects. I know how you feel because I can run into the same rut. God bless. Jackie

[Joshua Culp]

Don't forget the old Waylon Jennings song:

"I've always been crazy, but its kept me from going insane."

[Joe Shinall]

That is some great advice everybody. This is our first kid, however I do have a real consensus of what is going to happen. I have been an uncle since I was 6. And have 2 nieces and a nephew. I also have about 10+ best friends with small children. I have seen it first hand and know what to expect for the most part. I know it's a lot different when it's yours, but I also have had a huge part in raising all those kids.

It's a manageable list if you have the time and now that it gets dark at 5:30, it's just killing my time on projects. I could tell people no and I do all the time. If I said yes, I'd have 18 refinishing projects sitting in my shop right now :rolleyes:

Just glad to know I'm not alone!:o

[Ted Wong]

You forgot an important task on that list, Give wife attention.
With a list that long and a baby on the way it'll be easy for your wife to begin feeling neglected, and then who knows what'll happen.

[David Helm]

You forgot an important task on that list, Give wife attention.
With a list that long and a baby on the way it'll be easy for your wife to begin feeling neglected, and then who knows what'll happen.

A big + 1 on that one. Slow down, life goes by very fast. I know that because just yesterday I was 18 and now I'm about to turn 68.

[Joe Shinall]

You forgot an important task on that list, Give wife attention.
With a list that long and a baby on the way it'll be easy for your wife to begin feeling neglected, and then who knows what'll happen.

Yeah she gets plenty of attention. Between work and her school, I work on stuff while she's not home or while she's studying. So it works out where I can spend plenty of time with her when she's not doing those things. Plus we actually work pretty well together on projects. Until she got pregnant of course and don't want her around all the hazardous stuff.