It’s hard to admit this, but with so many worthier things to grieve,  I’m  feeling sad about the loss of my food processor. Big Oskar’s death after a 20-plus year run has precipitated a major time management crisis.

In the beginning, he was my personal protest against the Cuisinart, which was so expensive that I would have given myself a life sentence to a paring knife. Cheap, easy to clean and easy to run, he outlived the company that made him (Sunbeam) by several years and would still be chopping onions in record time if I hadn’t dropped his lid.

His death has prompted an eBay obsession, as I scour the listings for a replacement. I gleefully ordered one, only to find that the $20 bargain was in fact his little brother, the Oskar Jr., the two-cup model that my mother used to own. Using an Oskar Jr. to cook for a crowd is like mowing an acre with a hand mower.

In desperation, I’ve tried Black & Decker’s bargain Cuisinart clone, which takes 20 minutes to unlock, another 20 to clean, and has blades so wicked that I keep my health care power of attorney right by the instruction book.

Hopefully, someone soon will clean out a parent’s basement, find a Big Oskar sleeping in the corner, and put “this old thing” up for bid. Meanwhile, I’m joining the simplification movement and attacking those veggies with a paring knife. It frees up time for eBay.

I waved my hand wildly from my teleseminar seat and punched in the toll-free number. Ta-dah! As Julie Morgenstern’s first caller Thursday night, I got the lowdown on how she’d apply time management principles to social networking. Very carefully, it seems.

The time management guru said we should be mindful and proactive with social networking tools. “Plan your time as if you were going to a social club,” she said. “Decide when you’re going and for how long. Don’t do it mindlessly. Don’t do it without boundaries.”

Sounds good. Her advice is certainly consistent with the time management principle that we need to be proactive, not reactive, when we plan our time. Jumping to every tweet could be like living next to a tree of chirping, gossipy birds, like this flock of pink galahs. I hear their ruckus is overwhelming.

But can proactive time management really work in the new world of Twitter? Anyone?

Life is weird. My last post was about the value of vision boards and the Law of Attraction. My last column was about how I was setting out to make 1,000 online friends via social networking to promote my upcoming book, The Dog Ate My Planner.

Suddenly, I’ve been sucked into the Law of Distraction. Oops. Hard to keep focus on my vision board when I’m adding contacts, answering or sending (or trying to) tweets, reading what someone’s posted on my Facebook wall.

Tuesday evening, I’m attending a seminar (online, of course) with Julie Morgenstern, who’s known for her time management/organizing books, including Never Check Email in the Morning.

Any questions you’d like me to ask her about how to keep focus with social networking in your life? Or have you already got your tweets under control?

Please share away!

Sometimes the best way to get life back in balance is to sit back in a quiet space and take inventory of how life has gotten off the track.  But where to start?

The good news is that there are plenty of resources for taking an objective inventory of your values and priorities and how they stack up against the way you’re spending your time and resources.  And there are many tools, including humor and laughter, for relieving stress.

You’ll find some favorite resources for time management, organizational management and stress relief on the dropdown menus below.  And don’t be shy.  Share your own favorite tools with others in The Dog Journal.