I apologize if I’ve been quiet the past few days. I guess I haven’t really mastered the art of blogging and Twittering consistently while on the road. I know, I probably don’t have to apologize, but I’m Canadian, and that’s what we do.

For those of you who haven’t been following my Twitter posts, my husband and I made a little road trip to Cincinnati this past weekend. Okay, there is nothing LITTLE about a 12 hour drive each way. But we did it, and we sure are glad we did.

The purpose of our little jaunt was to meet up with the group of podcasters who produce “Night of the Living Podcast“. If you are at all in to horror movies you have probably heard of them. If you haven’t, you should definitely subscribe.

A few months ago, my hubby, who has been a fan of the show since the beginning, sent off an email to one of the hosts because he wanted to produce a documentary about them.

He wasn’t really sure what to expect. I mean, imagine some stranger claiming to be a “fan” contacts you, and wants to drive all the way from Canada to film a documentary about you? What would you do?

Well, thankfully, the Night of the Living Podcast crew is just nuts enough to say yes to this sort of request. So off we went.

I heart the Internet. Sure, the technology that allows us to blog, podcast, buy cool stuff, learn anything about anything, conduct business and be more productive is truly amazing. But what is most amazing, what I really love, is the people.

We headed to Cincinnati, unsure of really what to expect when we got there. We knew the “crew” had agreed to be interviewed on camera. We knew they were willing to have us film the recording of one of their shows. We hoped they were willing to contribute to a little extra piece of the film, but weren’t sure. I mean, these people have jobs, lives, and we didn’t want to command too much of their time.

When we arrived, we received the warmest of welcomes. We discovered that all five of them had cleared their entire weekend for us – not just for the filming but because they wanted to show us their city. They took us to eat fabulous food at some of their favourite places. We went to see the X-Files movie with them (of which you will hear their review on this week’s episode of the show) . They welcomed us into their homes. They toured us all over downtown. They affectionately referred to us as “The Canadians” and were really curious about where we were from. Not only did we get a ton of great footage, we had an absolute blast.

Social media is a common thread that runs with anyone who is involved with it. It brings people together and bonds them almost instantly. We know the power of this medium to communicate, and we know the benefits it brings in terms of connecting with people you may otherwise never meet. This was one of the most fun vacations we’ve ever been on, and it’s due in large part to the warm welcome we received, not only by the NOTLP crew, but by all the terrific and friendly people we met in Cincinnati.

Freddy, Amy, Erica, Chisek and Andy – thank you for being such amazing hosts to us this weekend, for being so warm and kind, and for making our faces hurt from laughing so hard. You guys made our trip – and the doc, too. We look forward to seeing you again in Indy!

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I woke up this morning with an anxious knot in the pit of my stomach. My thought pattern went much like this:

I’m traveling to Cincinnati at the end of the week, so my mind is racing with everything that needs to happen before we leave Thursday night. There is a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the trip. (passports, health insurance info, video equipment, laptop, clean socks, toothbrush etc. etc. etc). Drop the dog off at the kennel. Drop the other pets off at their Grandparents’ house. Get pet food. Get fish feeder block. Pack. Figure out how to fit all our crap in the Jeep.

And that’s just the trip preparation. Then there’s work! I have to write a proposal, co-write at least one episode of our show, finish some web content, follow up on umpteen proposals and advertising contracts, develop navigation for a new web site, and make sure our design team has enough to keep them busy while we’re away.

All of this occured to me within about 30 seconds of waking up this morning. No wonder I am anxious.

I sat at the computer, heart palpitating at the thought all I had to do, and what email demands were awaiting to distract me from those tasks. My eyes hit Chris Brogan’s post about Drowning almost immediately. Sometimes hearing about someone else who is feeling similarly can allow a different perspective to flood in. It worked, snapping me out of my ego-minded selfish way of thinking. “Hey, I’m not the only person in the world with a long to do list,” I thought to myself. “How am I going to handle it?” I sat back, took a deep breath, and reminded myself of how I deal with extreme busy-ness.

I’m really in to top ten lists lately, so here’s my top ten list of things anyone can do to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

1. Make a list on paper. Prioritize the list, and schedule when you will accomplish certain tasks.
2. Once you’ve scheduled a task, don’t think about it again until it’s time to do it.
3. Re-write the list when necessary. Check things off and don’t worry about them once they are done.
4. Don’t be afraid to do like Chris did, and ask not to be disturbed. 99% of people will respect that. If they don’t, ignore them.
5. Turn off the distractions. No email, no CrackBerry, no phone calls until you’ve accomplished a certain task.
6. Minimize distractions, but don’t wait till 5pm to check your day’s worth of email. That will only overwhelm you more. Make time right after lunch to spend 1/2 an hour dealing with email. File anything you can’t address within 1 or 2 minutes and deal with it when the rush is over. If you have to, send a quick reply telling the person when you will be able to get back to them.
7. Take a break. The world will wait while you spend 45 minutes to take a walk, do some yoga or have lunch with your spouse. Don’t think about your lists while you are on your break.
8. Sleep. Nobody is asking you to stay up all night. If you need to rest, even for a couple of hours, do it. You will be much more productive if you aren’t exhausted.
9. Eat. If you don’t eat, your brain won’t work. Your blood sugar will crash leaving you emotional and frustrated. Make sure you get protein and veggies. And a Big Mac doesn’t count as protein and veggies.
10. This too shall pass. You WILL get through your list. The crazy busy time will end. You WILL get to take a break. And you’re not alone. We all feel overwhelmed sometimes.

Anything you’d add to the list? How do you avoid getting overwhelmed?

I’m off to get cracking on my list now. Happy Monday!

Photo credit: bourgeoisbee on Flickr.

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