Is This a Self Induced Time Shortage?

Every week, I’ve been sharing things that are helping me with my time shortage problem.

So far, the improvements have been going good but today I have a dilemma.

The cancelling of all 4-H events due to covid was very eye opening. It made me realize that 4-H was taking up a lot of time. My kids aren’t even in 4-H anymore but I’ve been leading the Horseless Horse group for a few years now.

It was such a relief when I didn’t have to plan meetings every month or get forms done and all the other shenanigans that go along with that. I didn’t have to plan clinics, which had been a huge source of stress in recent years, and I didn’t have to come up with craft ideas for the kids.

It freed up a lot of time for me to use doing things I enjoy doing. I actually have some time to work on this site now.

For something that I didn’t have to be doing, I was sure letting the stress of it get to me. It was consuming way too much of my time.

It really was a self induced time shortage.

This year, they are “letting” us have virtual meetings and we’re going ahead with two shows this summer.

There was a horse project meeting last night and it turns out there’s a lot of kids who want to be in Horseless Horse.

So I find myself thinking about holding virtual meetings because it would only be a few this year. I’ll have to be at the shows this summer too.

But why am I doing this to myself?

It would be different if more of the people involved were nice and I loved doing it, but I don’t.

I love horses and teaching the kids about them but with all the rules and regulations that 4-H adds every year, it’s just not really fun anymore. The kids have fun grooming my horse and working with him but every other person involved either knows everything or nothing and it gets so frustrating.

I have to keep reminding myself of the important thing I learned and shared with you in my post about The One Thing:

By saying YES to this, I’ll be saying NO to something else.

By saying yes to this, I’ll be causing myself more of a time shortage. Last night’s meeting was an hour and a half long. Tonight, there’s a general leader meeting that’s also an hour and a half. That’s three hours that I’m losing this week!

That’s three hours of decluttering time that I’m missing out on. Three hours that I should be spending working towards my 5 year goal that I was hoping to reach by this May.

I do have an idea for next year. I know of two younger adults who might have an interest in taking over the group. If one of them leads the group, I could just let a kid, or a family, use my horse and then work one on one with them. I’m thinking that might be less stressful and less time consuming.