Seems like an odd combination of words for a title, huh? Read on and you will understand.

True confession: I am technologically challenged.

I can do basics…very basics, that is. My husband even thinks I am a computer wiz. But I am stumped frequently by what many younger bloggers probably consider basics.

As an example, I have now invested at least sixteen hours (over a few days) in trying to individualize the look of my blog and my About Me page. And it’s still not what I want, but I compromised because I simply can’t keep spending this much time on it. I understand that there is a WordPress reference to help clarify the in’s and out’s. But even that left me baffled. I imagine, if I was willing to spend another sixteen hours studying what’s available to me, maybe the light would go on.

I made an erroneous assumption when I signed up for Blogging 101 that things like CSS and widgets and SEO would be part of the learning experience. No fault of WordPress – clearly my own misunderstanding. And I’ve learned huge amounts about the process of blogging and how to reach out and develop a following and keep the action going. I’m grateful for that.

But I still don’t have a clue what CSS is. I have figured out SEO. And I sort of know what widgets are, but not how to use them other than the first level.

I’m guessing all this would be a no-brainer if I was 40-50 years younger and had been raised on and by computers.

For the past two weeks, I’ve spent so much time on the blogging course, I’ve not touched the novel I wanted to have completed this spring. I was fortunate enough to have a brave and honest friend critique what I’ve already written of Gram & Me. The good news: her comments were very detailed and helpful for the goal of making Gram & Me worthy of agent consideration. The bad news: essentially an entire rewrite is necessary. So even if I didn’t have two more weeks in the blogging course and wasn’t plagued by my technology limitations, my timetable still is set back probably several months.

Groan.

One step in front of the other. But I have made a few decisions about how to proceed. First: If I get hung up by technology limits for future Blogging 101 assignments, unless it is a critical component, I will limit the hours I will invest on a daily basis. Second: I will use the weekend break from the course to create a detailed outline of the necessary rewriting of Gram & Me.

And last – and possibly most important to quality of life – I will commit at least four hours daily to doing things with my husband and dog, and to fitting in my much neglected workouts. (Ugh, the scale is a painful reminder to just how neglectful I’ve been about those). As a retiree, I can’t say I don’t have the time. It’s all about how I choose to use the luxury of time.

Balance is critical in everyone’s life. Every time I start to let this or that project or obligation take over my daily life, eventually I get cranky. Okay, bitchy. And dissatisfied with life in general. When it’s really all under my control (in most cases). We need to commit ourselves to balance in our lives and goals. It’s not an option. It’s vital to our physical and mental health – and quite likely also to the health of those closest to us.