Monday was my longest stretch at my desk in a while. Last week we were at the beach. The week before that I recorded my audio book, flew to Tampa and back (on my second attempt, so I spent a lot of time at the airport!), and went to NYC for my 15-year-old’s combo Mommy Day/birthday present (seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The Friday before that featured camp shows and early camp pick ups and so maybe we’re talking August 4th or so since I’d been at my desk for more than half a day?
But let’s be clear what we mean by “long.” Over the course of Monday, we had the junk removal service come to get an ancient mattress + bedding set that was still in the house, the HVAC crew was here all day repairing things, one child needed to be driven to Starbucks to meet friends, and then to be picked up when he called me, plus I was ending at 4:40 to bring another kid to fencing. I was also not exactly in a high energy state, as I had woken up at 2 a.m. thinking about things, and just as I was finally feeling ready to sleep again at 3:30 a.m., the toddler started screaming and did not stop, so I went in to him, and I didn’t wind up going back to sleep until 5:30 a.m. when I admitted defeat and gave him to my husband, who took the 5:30 – 7:15 shift.
(I would like to note that the thinking at 2 a.m. did work, in the sense that I wound up rewriting something with a much better structure than it had previously. So thank you, inner editor, I admire your skills, but I would appreciate you working at different hours. Perhaps the baby was also thinking deep thoughts from 3:30 a.m. on. I do not know…)
So I was tired and getting interrupted a lot. But it’s folly to hope for perfect working conditions. If I waited for perfect working conditions, I’d never start anything. And I don’t just mean those little tasks that people sometimes do in short spurts, like responding to meeting requests or sending invoices. I needed to do some thinking-required worky-work. Better to start and do what I can and come back to it when I need to. One way or another, the important stuff gets done.
Just not always between the hours of 9 to 5. Because I’ve been doing some stuff at night and on weekends (and on vacation) too. It’s what makes it possible to then do, say, Mommy Day #4, which I completed yesterday. I took the 7-year-old to Chuck E. Cheese and got him a 90-minute play pass. He had a grand time and we enjoyed hanging out. Now I’ve done these special outings with all four big kids this month! I wasn’t sure how it was going to fit, but it did. Everything fits when you decide it needs to. Now I’m even planning a Mommy Day #5 with the little guy next week if the weather cooperates. We shall see!
Yay for completing the four big kid mommy days!! And thank you for the great perspective as always. I have some tasks to do today that seemed intimidating, but now I will schedule the time in my planner as “worky-work” and they won’t seem so bad after all!
@Cate – thanks! Yep, we can do a lot. Sometimes we just need to buckle down and work rather than obsessing over how much work we have…