And we’re back…

Posted by Doug on August 17, 2009

I’ve read the advice of pro bloggers who say you should never apologize for not posting to your blog in a timely fashion, but I can’t help feeling that those of you who have taken the time to read my musings in the past deserve to know why I’ve been away from Underpants Office for so long.  Besides, what’s been happening in my life is probably familiar to many of you–I started a regular job on January 1 of this year.

It’s a part-time job, theoretically, but the truth is that as I have been ramping up and learning the ropes, it’s actually been more of a full-time job, in terms of my time commitment (if not in terms of my compensation).  I’m still working in my home office about two days a week, but “home office” in this case can mean my actual office at home, a table at a coffee shop, the couch in my living room, or anyplace I can set up and connect to the Internet.

My new job is at my church–my official title is “Director of Media and Communications”–and my primary duties include managing the volunteer teams that provide media-related technical services for church worship gatherings, meetings, conferences, events, etc., such as sound, video projection, video production, still photography, and such.  But my responsibilities also include managing the church local area network, the church’s Internet connectivity, the church Web site, the church newsletter, and the church management system.  I also provide day-to-day workstation support for the church staff.  Oh, and I also lead the contemporary worship team, so I’m playing in the band, planning worship services, rehearsing the band, and running the worship services–pretty much everything except the preaching.

As you can imagine, this keeps me extremely busy, and it’s been difficult these past few months to make time for blogging–most of my various blogs have suffered because of this, but I am holding onto the hope that, in time, I’ll settle into a routine that will allow me to return to a more regular blogging schedule.  (You’d think that after nearly eight months I’d have found that routine by now, but clearly I haven’t.)

The upside of this is that I’m being forced to re-acquire many of the time-management and work-management habits that atrophied somewhat during the year I took off from regular employment.  As that happens, I’ll try to share my experiences and lessons learned here, because I suspect that many of you are in somewhat similar positions, that is, trying to balance a regular job with whatever it is you are doing in your home office.

Thanks for your patience!

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