I'm going through some major ones now. I recently decided to leave my human resources position, and will be spending time in upcoming months working on long-term writing projects for my coaching business and various personal projects. So, big change there.

Most of these projects relate directly or indirectly to the other big transition in my life: the adventure of becoming a first-time parent! My husband and I have a baby on the way in May, and we have so many things that we want to do before he gets here to make the first months of his life easier on all of us. As I type this entry, I hear our contractors banging away in our basement. We decided that the 2nd set of major home remodeling projects had better get finished up before the baby makes his appearance, or realistically we'd need to be prepared to wait at least several more years. That's just one of the things we decided that we'd like to stop planning and thinking about and actually get done. Aren't deadlines invigorating?

Periods of intense change create unique time management challenges. Often, when systems are working well, effectively managing time, projects and energy can start to feel like a comforting predictable routine. Making a big change can have ripple effects on every area of your life, all the things that you are working on and want to work on.

To start off, change (even very positive change) is inherently stressful. Change takes a toll on your mental and physical energy, proportional to how many changes are going on and how major they are; change affects how your body uses its resources so much that it can even impact your immune system.

Even the most wonderful change in the world still requires you to devote time and energy in handling it. This time investment generally comes in addition to what you have been spending time on already. So typically in a time of great change, something has to give because saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else. It's up to you whether that "no" is something you give up on consciously and on purpose, or by accident through being overcommitted and overwhelmed.

One advantage to having powerful time management tools and systems already in place when big change shows up is that hopefully you are more efficient in the first place, and more aware of what is on your plate and when it needs to be done. The tools allow you to be more efficient and give up less than you might otherwise need to do. But no matter how organized and efficient you are, we all have limits on our time and energy and it's critical to pay attention to those limits, especially if you suddenly have extra change in your life putting even more demands on you.

One thing that I gave up for a while was updating this blog over the last month. I chose for a while to prioritize instead giving the very best of myself to my coaching clients during their sessions, winding up my obligations at my corporate job, and taking the time to properly care for my pregnant body and growing baby. Now that the time I was spending on my corporate job can be reallocated elsewhere, expect to see more of me here again. I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts on time management in this space as I work to manage my own tools, projects, systems and energy through my life transitions.