Les Semaines September 30, 2009: Nose to the Grindstone

[neile]

And so, September went by and barely had time to say a word in passing. Or rather, I barely had time to say a word (here at least) in September.

It has been back to work. Back to working my life around work.

I'd forgotten, or erased from memory, how difficult it is to get things done during the academic year when I'm back at work. I mean things aside from the daily necessities of life, but kind of including them, too. It doesn't make sense. I only work five hours a day. But after work, after the (admittedly short) commute, errands, the necessary phone calls, I often find myself not getting to lunch until 3:00 or so...and by that time I'm starving because I had breakfast before 7:00. Or when I eat it at work, before 8:00.

Trying to fit in an hour of writing time each day is difficult, but damn I'm doing at least that if it kills me. And don't laugh, because it sometimes does. I could so easily be buried under a pile of books (the library's and mine own) that are piled up waiting to be read, or choke on the growing and accumulating dust mice, or get tangled in cobwebs that already festoon the chandelier in the dining room. I already trip on cat toys. Oh, and cats. Who want to emphatically point out that feeding cats isn't optional. Nor is not playing with, or holding, or not petting enough.

Other possibilities include being foreclosed on for not making mortgage payments, malnutrition because we're eating out of the pantry and freezer, starving when that runs out because I haven't gone grocery shopping.

Well, okay, I did pay the bills, despite them forgetting to put me back on the payroll. Oops. A bit of a surprise on the payday that wasn't, I have to say. But they did fix it quickly.

And I wrote a grant application and even sent it in a day early. You can be as proud of me as you like.

So that was September. And now, ready or not, here comes October.

[The original date on this post--the day I started writing it--was September 9th. Oh well.]

-----

For quick updates on my listening, reading, and writing, see Les Semaines.

------

Comments

RE: Not Getting Enough Done

[melindadansky.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this?

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

It doesn't have a solution--other than trying to find a way to organize your time into larger chunks, but it certainly made me feel better about my progress (or lack thereof) on large projects.

Re: Not Getting Enough Done

[neile.livejournal.com]

Wow, that explains so much about how I work and think.

Bookmarked. Thanks for the pointer!

Re: Not Getting Enough Done

[nightwol.livejournal.com]

That is so well described! Now I have a taxonomy for thinking about working styles and which one is most useful in any given circumstances. Thanks for the link!