This year, I decided to spend June planning for vacation later in the summer. And recently, I’ve discovered some limits.

My usual M.O. is to intend to work ahead, in hopes that I could get stuff done ahead of time. Then, when I don’t, I find myself grinding at the last minute to get it all done.

This year, I started working ahead with genuine intention. I planned out some of what I would need to accomplish, and set about doing it.

I quickly discovered a problem, however. It is hard to plan ahead further out without planning the immediate first. So I shifted gears and started on that stuff instead.

This set up an internal conflict between working ahead on the immediate future or the further future. And the real answer became both.

So, instead of slow and steady, doing a little extra to save me later, I did it fast and furious, doing a lot all at once.

In the meantime, I’ve worked so far ahead, I started losing track of where we are now! Which is kind of weird.

And now the anxiety over getting the work done is replaced with the anxiety of doing all of the things at once.

Finding the limits, though, is amazing. Even as I’m entirely confident I’ll never repeat this process again.

But this time, the potential to actually relax into vacation rather than sprint is a nice change of pace.