I'm quickly coming to the realization…

…that I need at least 2 days off of work this month if I’m ever going to be able to make it to Burning Man.

This weekend, I screwed up some major stuff for our Burning Man camp, and it was because I didn’t have time to get everything done and still do all the stuff I wanted to do this weekend. I ended up staying out all night Saturday night and not waking up until sometime Sunday…at which point I realized I had totally screwed up and not gotten the things done that I was supposed to do.

This is not a very common occurrence for me — dropping the ball, that is — so I was hit with a bunch of guilt full-on about it. But then I realized that dropping the ball didn’t mean that I was slacking on purpose; it meant that I didn’t have enough hours in the day to do everything I needed to do. That includes sleep, of which I am lucky to get 6 hours a night…sometimes 8 if I’m doing really well. Not only that, but there are a ton of things at work that are my responsibility that never seem to get done.

It’s clear to me that I need a hiatus before Burning Man in order to: 1) Pack and prepare for Burning Man itself; 2) Make sure our camp is getting what it needs from me (I’m the financial planner/organizer) before we head out to the playa; and 3) Take some breathing time to get my personal stuff in order and figure out what matters most to me and what I want to spend my time on.

And, frankly, it needs to be this week or I’m seriously not going to get the things done that I need to get done before Burning Man. I’ve also got to cut some things out. For instance, I planned on finding a roommate before Burning Man. I’m now not sure if that’s really feasible due to time constraints, and it would probably be best to table that until September anyway. I also have plans every single weekend between now and Burning Man. I will have to cut at least some of those out. I also have plans for a lot of nights between now and Burning Man, and I’m going to have to cut a lot of those out.

I need to get organized, and stat, before my camp thinks they can’t rely on me. I am normally a very responsible person (hey, I wouldn’t be able to run a business otherwise) and last weekend was the first time I can remember for quite a while that I really flaked out. That’s not a good sign.

I’ll likely take Wednesday and Thursday off this week to handle everything, and I will probably take most of Friday off too. For those of you who read this who are in my Burning Man camp (and I know there are at least a couple of you) this is my signal that I realize I screwed things up and that I need to make serious changes to get things back in order. And for those of you who work with me, it’s my acknowledgement that I need to hire someone else, because the only time things fail like this is when I’m understaffed at work and need to put extra hours in just to handle the load (I put 3+ hours of work in on Sunday, for instance.)

Peace and apologies to those of you affected by my messup. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.