Anyone Selling Time-Management Skills?

So guess what happened today... and I'll admit it.

I cried.

Tonight I was pretty emotionally distraught. Let me explain.

Today was just a series of events that lead to the floodgates being opened. For the most part, the day was great. I worked, had class, a teacher bought me lunch, and did a presentation. It was when 5pm rolled around that things started to really happen. And it wasn't even all that major, but I think combined with just the stress of trying to balance all these things I'm doing in my life right now, was the hair that broke the camel's back.

Tomorrow, Troy Phi's Dance Troupe, a group I'm in, is performing in front of Tommy Trojan. We're doing several cultural dances. At first, I thought I was only doing Sakuting, a dance with sticks that represents a battle. Come Sunday, however, I found out that I was also supposed to do Tinikling, a dance I had learned but never really got down, and Singkil, a dance I had never even learned.

Tonight we had a 2 hour practice in front of Heritage Hall to get ready for tomorrow. I had made arrangements to get there an hour earlier to practice Tinikling, but I was asked to help transport the props which took about half an hour. Then I had to find parking, so by the time I got to Heritage to practice, I was 15 minutes late.

I really needed practice on Tinikling, so that's what I worked on first. I was having a really hard time doing it with the clicking and was screwing up my partner. Now, I'm somewhat a perfectionist, so I was getting VERY frustrated with myself. In addition to that, I'm a people pleaser. I have this thing where I have to make everyone happy, so I'm very sad when I disappoint people. I'm learning to not be at this extreme, but to have some sort of balance.

In addition to all this practice and stress of trying to get Tinikling down and learning the new dance, I had dinner plans with a friend at 7pm. Originally, I was supposed to have breakfast with him on Saturday, but I double booked him on top of the 2007 Friendship Games, an event that Troy Phi was competing in at Cal State Fullerton. So I rescheduled for tonight at 7. I really needed the practice though, so I called him again tonight to move it to 8. I didn't get done learning Singkil until 7:50. I realized then what time it was and left to meet my friend in Pasadena (a good 30 minutes away) for dinner. He called me up wondering where I was and I told him I was just leaving campus, so he knew it would be about 8:35 until I got there. I felt terrible.

On the way over, I got lost finding the freeway, and when I did find it, a truck in front of me blocked my view of the freeway signs, so I missed an exit and ended up going south on the freeway instead of north. It was there that I lost it and just started crying. I was so emotionally and physically drained at this point that I just couldn't keep it in.

I called up a couple friends and my mom to just vent and they gave me comfort. They also advised me that I should probably cut back on some stuff. I think after this Sunday, I'll really have to do that. It's just starting to be way too much.

Luckily, my friend was very understanding and we had some great food! I'm just really trying to figure out the best way to manage my time and use it effectively to accomplish the things I want and to also have a good time while I'm here. *sigh*... it's tough sometimes.

Cy