When is busy too busy?

I'm late back from a meeting which means my head is still buzzing and it is going to take me a while to wind down, looks like I might be helping some people test driving 'Alpha' in the new year. It has been a busy week and there is still more to come, I do try to pace myself but there are always the unexpected elements and the things that take far longer than even your most carefully thought out estimates. I know I'm in trouble when I'm having to put in extra early mornings (I have never been a morning person!) as well as doing stuff after evening meetings.
Thank God next week looks more spacious.
In the first year here I could take my day off when it suited me; a different day each week if I wanted. This year I am going to have to go back to the pattern of writing it in for the same day of the week and defending it to the hilt! The same is true of quarter days. The fixed patterns are helpful I find when the pace hots up, not just or me but for the family too. They have always been good during hectic phases; though keeping them informed - as in warning them when the diary pressure is mounting and letting them know when I expect it to ease - helps. They nor I let it go on too long. I've never been a routine person, Some say I have only 2 speeds: full throttle and dead stop! And it is true if I am on a roll I can get enormous amounts done in a relatively short space of time, If I'm not however everything seems to be a struggle to get done at all. The dead stop phases can seem like idleness to others (and sometimes to me) but I have learned that I tend to be at my most creative directly after my most seemingly idle phases. Certainly when I come back from Quarter days. So I try not to worry about it. Balance I learned for me is not the symmetry of the weighing scale but the dynamic and fun of the seesaw: it is fine while moving and is only a problem when one side gets stuck in the air and the other permanently wedged to the ground!