Monday
It was one of those Monday mornings. I woke up tired, forced myself out of bed, into the shower and by the time I had gotten out, my son had gone. My daughter and I spent precisely three minutes together in the kitchen. She drank half a cup of very sweet coffee and off she went into the world of high school.
I faced the traffic, which wasn't as bad as I had imagined, and came into an office filled with stress. Or perhaps it wasn't filled with stress as much as my little bubble was surrounded by it? I opened my work e-mail which I intentionally left alone for the weekend and I felt like I'd been bitten by something. Have you ever opened a credit card bill and taken a double take at the amount due? "That can't be right?" you think, and as you survey the damages outlined by Chase, you see that it is, of course, accurate. You charged every single item.
Such was my e-mail. Copy went to a client that I had tried to improve, but actually made worse in my haste. Today I heard from the client. Little things that I had done or left undone throughout the past few weeks all seemed to come back to me today. Like a seemingly innocent $53.98 from an online retailer isn't a big deal, when added with other similar things adds up to quite a lot of stress.
I did the worst thing I could have done to remedy the situation. Instead of taking, stock and prioritizing, I foolishly tried to fix everything at once. This was likely the cause of my issues to begin with.
It's important to remember that not everything has to be done immediately. It's actually faster in the long run to do things slowly and correctly that rush through things, even if they are "must do now!" But it goes against my nature.
It was also important to turn off the laptop today. After "only" eight and a half hours, leave and go home to the people I love. Had I spent more time with them this morning, perhaps I would have shown up to work slightly more ready to take on the world.
I faced the traffic, which wasn't as bad as I had imagined, and came into an office filled with stress. Or perhaps it wasn't filled with stress as much as my little bubble was surrounded by it? I opened my work e-mail which I intentionally left alone for the weekend and I felt like I'd been bitten by something. Have you ever opened a credit card bill and taken a double take at the amount due? "That can't be right?" you think, and as you survey the damages outlined by Chase, you see that it is, of course, accurate. You charged every single item.
Such was my e-mail. Copy went to a client that I had tried to improve, but actually made worse in my haste. Today I heard from the client. Little things that I had done or left undone throughout the past few weeks all seemed to come back to me today. Like a seemingly innocent $53.98 from an online retailer isn't a big deal, when added with other similar things adds up to quite a lot of stress.
I did the worst thing I could have done to remedy the situation. Instead of taking, stock and prioritizing, I foolishly tried to fix everything at once. This was likely the cause of my issues to begin with.
It's important to remember that not everything has to be done immediately. It's actually faster in the long run to do things slowly and correctly that rush through things, even if they are "must do now!" But it goes against my nature.
It was also important to turn off the laptop today. After "only" eight and a half hours, leave and go home to the people I love. Had I spent more time with them this morning, perhaps I would have shown up to work slightly more ready to take on the world.
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