December 21, 2025

I skipped a week! Honestly, I dropped all attempts at balance over the past few weeks. I knew that the time between Thanksgiving and winter break would be packed and an absolute rush, and it has been.

I've been doing my little daily puzzles and advent calendar crafts. I read a few books and kept up with my offline planning. I postponed other reading that was too dense for the moment – I wasn't winding down with these texts, and I didn't have the capacity to engage them as I'd like. I'm still working at being less attached to tech devices. So I didn't drop everything but I haven't been good about scheduling real breaks or time blocking work.

For the most part, I've been overloading each day and jumping into everything all at once and then realizing this partway through the day. Then, every day, I'd do an emergency triage and pick one thing to finish. Really, I should've started each day with those one or two things, especially because I had to switch between types of work, and it really isn't possible to do deep, focused writing while also attempting to project manage. The good news is that I am making my way through that list. I haven't finished everything I'd hoped to do before the end of the year, but most things are in reasonable shape.

I have two more days of work and a lot of gifts to wrap. But shopping is done, food has been acquired, and come Wednesday, I'm going to let go of work and volunteer commitments until the new year. Instead, I'll focus on rest and play. I'm looking forward to it.