I’ve been doing okay with the life management stuff more or less making it up as I go along, but I think it might be time to start scheduling more. Case in point: I have to skip out on one of two board meetings tonight, or do a sitcom-style leave-one-meeting-to-race-to-the-other thing. Maybe I should get a wig or false moustache while I’m at it.

So I’m going to have to bail on some commitments. And this gets back to a problem I find myself having often. What’s leisure time, exactly? Because the volunteer work I do — more often than not, it’s work. It’s not fun. I guess the satisfaction I get from it is nice. But, I mean, a lot of what I do for fun is…. not fun.

What am I doing it for?

There’s a bunch of reasons, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say “guilt” is a reason for sticking with a chunk of the things I’m doing. Which isn’t a great motivator for doing anything, really.

I’m good at my volunteer stuff, is the other thing. I mean, it scratches a lot of the same itches as my day job, but without as much drama and/or oversight. It’s far preferable to the chunky, process-driven things I do as the day job. But there’s also a lot of overlap, which kind of means it doesn’t feel like an escape from work as much as… other work. 

Anyway. This scheduling conflict is a bit of a wake-up-call to start paying a bit more attention to my volunteerism again. And my motivations. Burning out in my spare time isn’t going to help anything at all.