Brandon Quintana

I’m the kind of guy that likes to stick to schedule. All my projects, meetings, deadlines are all in a calendar and it keeps me organized. It came to a point where if it wasn’t on my calendar it probably was going to be forgotten and end up not being done. As time went on more and more things started filling my calendar and it got to a point where I wondered if I would get everything done. For the most part everything got done, but over the years it has gotten harder and harder to keep on track.

Back in college it was easy to keep routine. School, work, social life. Everything seemed pretty predictable and when that happens it’s pretty easy to keep on track. After college though, it I figured I would have less on my plate. This isn’t really the case now and on top of that there’s a lot of unpredictability.

That’s been the hardest part about keeping on task. I used to think I can take on 10 projects no problem. I’ve always kept a busy schedule. Now with what I’ll call “interruptions” in life it’s hard to keep a routine. What I really needed was about 36 hours in a day. Now I can only keep about 2 or 3 projects going at a time. I realize this isn’t a bad thing. For the amount of work, it takes a lot of my time, but it still leaves room for me to do other things.

When I first went out on my own, I figured I should take on as much as I can since one day I might have work and the next day I might not. This seemed to work out pretty well. I did a lot of work and had a little time for everything else. I figured that was what I needed to do in order for this to be successful. As time went on, there weren’t really any dry spots. I consider myself lucky because of that, but I needed to spend more time besides just working.

I set aside more time for social activities and other things to keep my mind away from work. I’ve been able to keep my routine more balanced. I think it’s worked out a little better for me. I used to want to do everything all at once, and now I’m trying to take things at a slower pace.

I haven’t taken a real vacation since I went out on my own and next month will be the first time in about 3 years or so. I think it will be good for me. I was thinking maybe I won’t bring a computer, but that’s probably not the case. I’ll probably try to keep up on my blogging which has fallen behind for quite a while now.

I figure balanced life is the best thing. Not too much of one thing or too little of another. It’s difficult for me since one I focus on one thing it’s easy to overlook something else. I guess it’s just going to take a more conscious effort on my part. There’s always going to be a lot going on and it might throw a wrench in my routine, but that’s just something I’ll have to deal with as time goes on.