Regular readers know that I am waging an ongoing struggle to maintain balance in my life. My ordinary pattern goes something like this:

See huge amount of work bearing down on me — like that boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Freak out and then become super-focused and productive, accomplishing an enormous amount of work in a short period of time.

Complete exhaust myself, so that I spend a week or two doing almost nothing but resting and reading.

Allow work to pile up until it becomes a boulder bearing down on me. And so the cycle continues.

I just need to break the cycle. Somehow, I need to find a consistent way to go after that boulder with a sledgehammer before it starts down the hill. then I will have time to skip the resulting stones.

I'm testing some methods for doing just that. I'll toss some of the out to you over the next few weeks.