Last week I shared a few WTH (ways to keep your head) on both a Zoom call for parents and my Thursday Thoughts. Since then, so much has changed. And so much has stayed the same. We’re all still trying to keep our heads while we do all the things that need to get done from the confines of our homes.

Forget March Madness, we’re onto May Madness. 

It seems every parent I bump into or read their social media post has their heads, calendars, and lives full!  In the classroom, spring has sprung, kids have grown, testing is likely underway, and there is so much to do both to wrap up this year and begin setting up a solid start to the new year.  On top of all that, there are spring sports and dance recitals, end of the year showcases, concert, first communions, graduations. 

In Annapolis, we see all sorts of new-is young adults around town in civilian clothes. These are the soon-to-be USNA graduates and Navy Ensigns, who are evicted from the dorm and have a wee bit of time and freedom to act like regular old 22-year-olds until Commissioning Week begins on May 19th.  The underclass men and women breath a little sigh of relief but soon move off to summer blocks at sea, in trainings, or possibly even getting to go home and be a civlian for a short period of time. Commissioning Week is the blessed and unoffial start of summer here.

Like you, I have a lot I need to get done in a day. And, perhaps like you, I also busy trying to get through the list, trying to manage all the little fires, that I just keep fighting those fires without any idea what is most important.  Those 3 MITS (most important tasks) can elude me on some days, but I’m in the habit of assessing what I need to do at the start and end each day to keep me moving toward my goals and maintaining some level of sanity.

But it’s not without effort.

What’s also common for me is to distract myself with something else, less critical. My friend Jen Louden calls them time monsters.