How thin is too thin?

[threadwalker]

when you spread yourself thin across multiple commitments, how do you decide you've spread yourself too thin?

Is it a physical failure?
Mental paralysis?
Sudden unexpected shopping trips?
The insane desire to take on more, proving that you weren't overcommitted before but you might be nudging close to it now?
Friends warning you that you are frazzled or perhaps insane?
Or do you even notice before you collapse in a confused haze of exhaustion?

And what do you do to recover?
Do you cut out activities?
Freak and do a 180, becoming ultra-uncommitted?
Do you continue to try to keep all the balls in the air until you go to system failure?

Just curious.

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I know it's happened when I get a feeling of "schedule claustrophobia". If I find myself scrambling to get one commitment done before the next has to be started. What do I do? Well, first I tend to drop the things that don't involve commitments to other people (e.g., housecleaning, writing projects, etc. etc.). Then I grit my teeth and try to hold out until I've completed all existing commitments while valiantly trying to avoid taking on any more.

Yeah. Right. You know how well that one's worked out.

For me, over-commitment tends to come in waves. When it's been long enough that the claustrophobia has worn off, I start succumbing again to "that sounds like it'd be fun".