The Universe Went the Other Way…I Crashed and Burned
I’d lay odds that you’ve had days, maybe even weeks, where despite your best intentions, little to nothing gets done. It’s like the universe veers right while you’re going left. Pivot, redirect, start again. Where were you headed to in the first place? After all that, you might have forgotten what you were doing. Why did you walk into that room? You might give up, start on something else or attempt to regain your footing to continue on with what was on your agenda initially, if you remember what that was.
A Week Nearly Lost
8 hours of customer support and still counting. Arrgh. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
It’s now Thursday, mid-morning, and so far my entire week has been defined by massive tech glitches among other annoyances that have sidelined most forward motion.
Last week, I dragged my heels getting to this newsletter. Mainly from lack of inspiration and uncertainty. What do I want to write about now? There’s so much I could share, the endless list of gratitudes. I’ve been enjoying many “Thanks” giving themed e-newsletters from friends, colleagues, and networking acquaintances. I’m wowed by the mind-blowing experiences of others. I’m relieved to hear that unfavorable circumstances were either resolved or haven’t gotten any worse. There’s so much I could write about. I honestly haven’t a clue what to say.
Rewind to Tuesday morning. Finally, I had free time work on this month’s newsletter. And wouldn’t you know it, the internet is down. Normally my responses to irritants such as tech crap is to get, well, irritated. Irritated by the inconvenience. Irritated that we pay A LOT for internet services that have been irritatingly slow since their recent mass, unrequested “upgrade”. Irritated that my morning plans crashed and burned. Fortunately, Word worked so I could hammer out a draft, if ideas finally come. No chance in heck of getting onto Mailchimp to lay it out.
Recalling A Forgotten Tactical Time Management Technique
Monday afternoon, I caught up with an old college friend. We had lots to share. Among the numerous updates, she opined about how her best laid plan days have been among the worst executed. Actions and activities have been hijacked by one unforeseen after another. After describing the 4th or 5th incident, she stopped and took a breath. She then recalled that back in her professional career, eons ago, before our 30+ year old kids were born, she attended a productivity course. There she learned a tactical time management technique which she applied regularly in her career. It saved her hide on numerous occasions. She wondered why she hadn’t adapted it to her personal life. She thought back to the craziness of raising three highly active kids, and wished she had remembered to implement the process then. Even now, with her kids grown, out of the house, some with kids of their own, her life is often beyond her control. She finds that nearly every day she’s acting in rapid response mode to an aging parent’s needs. Lovingly filling her role as grandma particularly during crisis situations when a babysitter is needed asap. Setting aside her plans when her spouse or friends have sent out a SOS.
Intentionally leave holes in your calendar for unanticipated events. Image by rawpixel from Pixabay
What was that effective time management technique? Something that I often recommend to my own clients. Leave space. Intentionally build holes in your calendar. Don’t max yourself out time-wise, space-wise, energy-wise. Granted we can’t create gaps every single day. Fortunately, we rarely need to react to emergencies and emergency requests on a daily basis (fingers-crossed).
Construct a Peace of Mind Cushion
We don’t buy insurance policies with the intent to file claims every day either. In fact, it would be grand to never have a need to dip into a medical, auto, or life insurance policy. We invest in them for peace of mind. To know that we’re covered during unanticipated circumstances. While the insurance investment, budgetarily or time-wise, may not be pleasant, it will take one element of stress off your plate when one added stressors is definitely not appreciated.
Building a cushion into your daily calendar means there will be wiggle room, maybe not a lot, but enough to rearrange your day, add in a last minute run to the store for your child’s homework project due tomorrow, grab a coffee with a friend who finally found someone to sit with her ailing spouse so she could have an hour or two refresh breather, to run errands before holiday guests descend, or to redirect your activities while the internet crashes. You may need your own recharge during the middle of the day to unwind from the craziness or take a time out when brain fog is restrictively dense.
Sometimes, an entire day gets kiboshed, and an full schedule needs to be rebooked. I worked on the tech glitch with various customer support agents from 7:00 am until 3:30 pm without any resolution. Not much else was accomplished except a time-out walk mid-afternoon. It was a complicated issue. Later that night, my husband finally discovered the root, a dying router. During his trouble shooting, the router fortunately heaved its last sigh. Ha, there’s the source. Hours of reconfiguring the new router and modem. By morning, we were back up and running. But Wednesday came with its own set of challenges. No progress on my newsletter once again. Now the pedal is to the medal before Thanksgiving out-of-town guests arrive this weekend.
Here’s Why I’m Grateful This Week Happened
I’m actually grateful as I wind up this November blog up that my internet was down after all. It gave me more time to reflect on the message I wanted to deliver rather than the visual effects of laying out how this will look. Email also wasn’t available to distract my focus. And, I’ve had multiple opportunities to practice diving into my patience reserves.
I’m grateful that if you got this far, and many on my mailing list likely won’t, that you clicked on the email, clicked over to my website to continue reading this blog, and made it to nearly the end. I’m grateful that as a subscriber, that something, somewhere along the way, either through my writing, my videos, my workshops, or one-on-one coached organizing, left you with something that has kept you coming back. If not, unsubscribing is always an option. Holes in our inboxes means more time to attend to making enjoyment holes in our calendars.
Happy Thanksgiving!
