I have a habit of taking on more than I can reasonably handle.

See, I get all of these grand/grandiose ideas, and throw myself into them whole-hog. This is what I thrive on! But… while I work best under pressure, it isn’t too long before I figure out that I’ve over-extended myself, and I don’t have the time to devote to my newest “great idea”, and it either dies off, or I let something else go. Or I work myself into such a state of exhaustion that other really important things start to crumble around me.

I’ve got this great idea for a new meme, but given that I often can’t find the time to even visit the 25 or so participants in our beloved Sensational Haiku meme, I at least know that starting a new one would be a bad idea. Too bad, though, because it’s a fun one…

Same thing happens to me with craft or recreational projects, actually. I never do anything half way, so I usually end up completely outfitting myself with everything I’d need to be a master at whatever it is that strikes my fancy, do it for a while, figure out I don’t have time, and then it sits there and eventually gets packed up and put in the storage room. Sometimes it’s years before I even look at it again! Ask my knitting machines… all 5 of them.

So what does that make me, exactly?

I do the same thing with websites. Brainfart hasn’t been touched in months (wasn’t specifically just for me, though). My very first website is 14 years old and hasn’t been touched in years, and is uuuuuuuglyyyy!

I started Polite Canada a few months back. Now, the premise of bringing Canadians back to our fabulous “polite, cheerful, classy” reputation is solid, but the follow-through? Notsomuch. I knew going in that I wouldn’t be able to devote a lot of time to it, so I made it a team effort, and recruited a handful of people to do specific tasks. Sounds ideal, right? Well, as excited as they were to jump on board, actually submitting content was another story, and except for Broot, Sher, and Wee One’s Grade 2 teacher (who sent me a great project, but it’s not going up just to be wasted), most of them ended up ignoring it. With no time to manage it properly, I didn’t chase them too hard though, and I take the blame for it going nowhere. So it’s on the back-burner, unfortunately, even though I still think it’s a great idea, and I believe in it fully.

Main Street? Well, that one broke my heart, but at least I know I did everything I possibly could to keep it together. I have a few ideas for putting another group together running around in my head, but it really is too soon for that. Need to give myself more time to grieve the passing of the first. Speaking of Main Street though, I’m having breakfast with J-B tomorrow, and I can’t wait! It’s been weeks since I saw him last! I’ll say “hi” for you, shall I?

I think I’ve finally figured out that sometimes things just don’t work out, and that starting something new when I don’t have the time is just plain counter productive. Maybe, at 39-plus-almost-6 years old, I’ve finally grown up. yeah, right.

So… what about you? Do you have a habit of biting off more than you can chew? How do you handle that?