Last week felt a little out of control. Numerous times throughout the week I felt my energy leaking out as pesky intrusions urged their way into my carefully planned schedule.

Monday morning started out with flu-like symptoms and an understanding that bed was going to be my “office” for the day. I dutifully dragged my laptop with me, got beneath the covers, intending to crank out a proposal or two, do some writing, work on a client’s blog design–something… After all, I am lucky to be able to do work anywhere, as is the nature of the digital realm.

I was tired and low on energy so I decided I would “just” clean up spam–from my various email accounts (there are 5 or 6 or perhaps more), from the comments section of my own and several clients’ blogs, etc. I used to use the Akismet plug-in to control spam on blogs, but something seems to have changed (they now charge for the service if it’s a business blog) and it obviously had not been working well at all: one client’s blog had over 6300 comments to wade through, most of which were spam. Yikes!

I began to realize just how much information is thrust upon us these days and how many decisions we make each day about what is important and what is not. With so much “not important” stuff flooding my in box, it can become easier to lose sight of the truly important people, ideas and activities in my life.

I’m trying to do a better job now of centering myself in the morning before I even get out of bed, taking time to visualize a blueprint for a successful day ahead and recommitting mentally to the goals I’ve set for myself. This “spam awareness” and the desire to avoid it also encouraged me to rethink the way I spend time–I’ve been using a time tracking sheet I got two years ago from Theresa Valade, a business coach I traded services with. Tracking your time in 15-minute increments for a week can be very telling–if you haven’t tried it before, you may want to check out some free tools available on Theresa’s company web site.