What happens when the calendar goes silent
My blank week, why it happened, and what I did about it

I blanked out last week.
As in, my calendar fell utterly and completely silent.
Shit.
Why it happened.
For the last two months, I’ve been on easy street. I’ve been able to write whenever I’ve wanted to, and I got a ton of writing done over the summer.
I’m an elementary school counselor for roughly nine months out of the year. I know, I know, lucky me. I have summers off and get paid. What people don’t understand is that I have a nine month contract and the pay is spread over 12 months. No matter how often I explain that concept, people still don’t get it.
But I digress.
When people asked me what I’ve been doing over the summer, it’s been beautiful to say, “I’ve been doing a lot of writing and I’m working on my first book.”
And then it came to a screeching halt.
The end of summer came and it was time to saddle back up into my new school contract for the year.
No matter how much I attempt to prepare myself for the start of the school year after 25 years of doing so, it always slams into me like being caught in a huge wave. I get knocked about like a rag doll. My schedule gets out of whack and suddenly having all the time in the world is no longer. At least eight hours of my day gets devoted back to my day job.
So, last week I was reeling and couldn’t get my shit together. As if sorting through the whole work, life, writing balance wasn’t enough, I decided to also start hitting the gym again.
As a result…well, you see the calendar. You know what the result was. Nothing got written on the calendar, but I did the bare bones: two blog posts and my newsletter. (You can subscribe to GTI Wednesday here — wink, wink.)
And that was all she wrote (cue the drum and cymbal crash)…
What I did about it.
What I didn’t do was beat myself up over it. I got the bare minimum of what was necessary for Get To It.
I didn’t allow myself to be bothered by the fact that nothing got written on the calendar. When I plan out my week like this,

everything still doesn’t get done on it. I look at my weekly plans as more like guidelines and a direction for me to go instead of hard-pressed goals.
And notice, I don’t write down more than two items that I want to do. Sometimes my days dictate what I’m able to do in the evening, and that’s okay.
Again, the most important piece is to not berate myself over it. It happens. The best thing I can do is learn from it and move on.
Which is exactly what I did.
Call to action.
I’m passionate about positivity in all facets of my life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. If my writing resonates with you, then you would love GTI Wednesday, my midweek newsletter that provides a 5-minute positivity boost. Sign up and read for yourself!

