This post was actually written the first Saturday of November but feels so relevant because on top of career full time jobs, managing our lives full time jobs, momming full time jobs, tis the season to add Holiday to full time jobs.

I have an empty nest and now no one to manage but me this weekend, which is like most weekends.

Where am I going, what do I want to do, and in which direction? First world gifts. The weekends are the same, streaming French music to make me feel the freedom and delight in traveling abroad. I make a lovely matcha and start the reset back to baseline from the week. I start with the mail pile, in my artful bag and whimsical Tropicana orange keychain with my mailbox key, in a retro modern shape that says, “Wanderluster.” I bought it while on an annual trip with my bestie, to her new home, in her new town this summer.

I didn’t get the mail for the week and my multi mailbox unit was full. I usually enter through the garage and stop at the recycle bin to lighten the load. In it goes mail from companies that want to replace my windows, add solar panels to my room, fix my car, shop their stores, grocery ads for the week, the hardware store, voting solicitations, and new dentists or realtors in the area.

Is Mail really necessary? In a world of striving to be eco-friendly, mail seems to be a dinosaur. My daughter declares that she will not have a mailbox when she is adulting.

Everyone wants my attention. As we evolve and get nanosecond information for research, communications, and even trivia, everyone banters for my attention like on the Wall Street trading floor. It’s overwhelming.

I take out my nifty letter opener and out of the pile my pile is reduced to: Read, Recycle, and To-Do. I have a couple of things to read, a couple of bills which I have to dissect and apply to the right ledgers (as I’m also the family accountant), and four other things that need to be handled.

I head to my gorgeous sleek office with light and morning sunshine, a beautiful wall gallery of my travel with two beverages, with my matcha and greens. I Light a candle and take the autumn chill off the room with an aesthetically pleasing, modern heater that tricks me into feeling like there is summer breeze in here with me! My office is joyful and has treasures around the world from a life well lived and very savored. It is home, my home.

In the mail pile, two companies that have already sold my information to other companies and if I wish for them to limit selling my information, I can go fetch the disclosure page deep within their website to ask them kindly, to not sell our information. Why can’t we remain opted out unless we want to opt in to sell out information? The last piece from the mail pile is from my insurance benefit portal. Yet another thing that someone has added to my list. Manage it yourself. That company also has information for me, the Summary Annual Report, the Annual Notices, and the Summary of Material Modifications. I do not want to sign in, gamble on the login and password, hurdle the random, do not pass go, security password change, go through account double security authentication, by this time, I’ve forgotten what I’m looking for and where to find the disclosures that they have notified me are there for my information. Where is THAT letter with those clues.? More Information and more things to add to my weekend list of managing things that I didn’t sign up for. Shouldn’t I be outside or at an art museum?

Now to baseline the desk. What changed while I was out of the office, what do I need to move to next week, what is my plan for the next work week with my week, plan for this weekend, and look ahead, which may as well be through the end of the year, which is closing fast. Noise. We have become handlers and life is a full time job outside the full time job. Unsubscribe. Oh yes, I didn’t do that task last weekend for two email accounts.

Now it’s time for coffee, yet another treat. Lavazzaahhhh! But first laundry, which is across from the office. And yes, it’s an aesthetically pleasing, beautiful space as well, because why not?

Can you see my garden of joyful delights to entertain me on the weekend of managing that which cannot be added to my week even though I am a party of one to manage? I am a Virgo with a lot of Libra, which is an organized, yet balanced sign, and even I am overwhelmed, constantly trying to find ways to reduce the flow of things exactly like this with simple steps. For now, the abundance of beauty and art gives me joy, a smile, and enough whimsy to sail with me in the world.

Sound familiar? Let us know about all of your full time jobs and what you do to make it as efficient as possible while still surrounding yourself with peace and calm, we’d love to hear from you!