How to deal with a disturbance in the Force

I knew exactly what I wanted to work on this week. I was going to continue rewriting my fantasy novel. I had made some good progress on the worldbuilding and the magic system, and I was finally getting back into a rhythm.

Then a letter arrived from the Dutch tax authorities.

Our non-profit foundation, Trideo, had been selected for a routine check. Nothing alarming, as far as I can tell. But they need documents. Annual reports. Plans. Financial information. Details about what we’ve been doing and what we’re planning to do.

And they need it before the end of the month.

There went my carefully planned September.

A disturbance in the Force

As I walked through the woods this week, I called it a disturbance in the Force.

You can have your priorities perfectly organized and diligently work through them every day. Then something appears that you didn’t plan for but can’t ignore.

I initially tried to keep everything else going alongside it. The novel. My podcast work. Preparations for a possible research trip in October. Fantasyfans. All the other projects already occupying little corners of my brain.

That didn’t work particularly well.

I stopped taking my daily walks. I didn’t sleep as well. I became agitated. There was a knot in my stomach.

The funny thing is that the paperwork itself isn’t particularly frightening. The problem is uncertainty. When something suddenly lands on my desk with lots of different parts and no obvious first step, my brain wants to solve all of it at once.