Lost in Clip Art land

Having to figure out my blog here (it's now in okay shape but needs a little tweaking) had me thinking about the parish website and what we might like to do with that.

Was trying to figure out everything there is to know about websites on my to do list for the week? Nope (although the parish website has been being discussed recently, especially since vestry retreat). But I let myself get sucked in - kind of thinking that with Easter coming and our goal of trying to reach new folks that it warranted my time and had some urgency.

So instead of 8 million other things I could have been doing I landed in internet land for about a day of work and much of my down time the last day and a half. In my true research nerd fashion combined with a learning style of trying to see the big picture to understand the parts and ADD tendency to hyperfocus... well let's just say there's no lack of information in my brain or computer on the topic at the moment. I explored different ways to build and host, is it better to be blog-based or be a website, how one might use web-based calendars to embed on your site, places to find royalty-free stock photos that don't cost and arm and a leg, etc. etc.

So today I was trying to work on the newsletter. I have a love-hate relationship with our newsletter. I think part of the problem is I am maybe just a little too creative and have too much technical knowledge and that gets in my way. Am I capable of just throwing something together that has basic info in it, being okay with that, and printing it?

Apparently, No. I think about photos from this or that recent event that could go in, that of course need to be cropped and resized (by me because I took them and downloaded them and they're on my computer). Different blurbs that need to go in, and then look for clip art that might go with various blurbs or articles to help them stand out so people will see and remember them.

So I found myself lost and wandering in clip-art-land today. Blah. So I've got some appropriate graphics, but I do not have a completed newsletter, which was my original hope for the day. *grumble*

Somehow I've been tripping up over myself like this this last week or so... more than other weeks. But the last couple weeks I have had a block with the newsletter.

It's got the same feel to it as being "stuck" or having writers block on larger assignments in seminary. I have so many thoughts and ideas I feel a bit of overwhelm, and am not sure where to start - so I spin my wheels trying to figure it out. Then because I've fallen behind of when I planned to start and/or finish, stress and negative self-talk gets attached to the project, compounding the problem, so it turns into a bit of a snowball and it can be hard to break out of and move forward.

Photography and wordprocessing expertise come in handy, but in someways my life would be easier if I didn't have those skills because I'd have no choice but to rely on others to do some of this stuff. To use an ice-cream analogy (mmmm ice-cream)... my options would be more limited to Vanilla, Strawberry or Chocolate, instead of knowing there are a lot of other flavors at Baskin-Robbins if you're willing to make the trip. I'm trying to get better at handing things off and asking for help rather than fall into the "I can do this quicker than I could explain it to someone else" trap. Because while on the face of it that might be true. It's also true that I end up spending time figuring out how to incorporate Pistachio ice-cream and chocolate sprinkles in a way that fits with the other 3 flavors. As cool as that may be, or as interesting or challenging as I may find it... is it necessary? Is it sufficient and acceptable if it ends up more simple?

I need to try and apply what I learned from Dr. H while I was in seminary. That the combination of high IQ, creativity, ability to generate information, and a little perfectionism related to some family systems baggage, mean that I will often be thinking of the end-result of a project in a more complex way than others might. I hear "write a history paper on monks" and I want to understand and see the larger picture of all things monastic from the first monks to the present. That would involve a lot of time and energy. The professor may just want a 2 page blurb outlining some basic info on one group of monks from a specific time period, and my classmates may be planning to spend a couple hours total on the thing. So it was helpful for me to ask for an example... what does this thing I'm trying to create look like? Or ask how long they expect the assignment to take and ask others how long they thing it will take and what they thing the final result will look like. That would help me to narrow my focus and resist the urge to over-research in trying to do a better and more thorough job, or just because I found the topic interesting.

So... the question is how to apply these things when the "assignment" isn't given by anyone but is a group "we should do this" kind of thing, or when it's self-imposed. How do you decide the limits and parameters? How do you set realistic expectations, or somehow break it up into smaller steps that can have more narrow scope when someone can't give you and example essay and say, "reproduce something like this"?

Well, the good news is that I have a phone appt set up with Dr. H. in about a week when originally I couldn't schedule something for the week after. I lucked out with a cancellation, and I kept an appt for the following week as a kind of follow-up, since we will be heading toward Holy Week at that point, and I'm sure there will be plenty to juggle.