I’ve had a crazy week and a half, and I have another crazy week or two coming. Last night (as so often, it seems) I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked – for various reasons, the main of which includes an anxious 9 year old basset hound – and I have a busy day. So many important things to do. And they’re all important, and I need to do all of them. Of course. That’s what I’ve been allowing my brain to tell me, anyway.
So far, I’ve had breakfast, brushed my teeth, shaved, put the washing out, seen two kids off to school, got dressed, and walked the dogs with my wife (who’s about to head off to spend a couple of days with family – she’s been busy, too). I could (should?) get right down to the work that I need to do today. That’s the work that I’ve not already looked at – emails, documents, spreadsheets. It’s just gone 8am, and I don’t officially start my work day till 10:00am (I allegedly finish at 6:00pm).
But I’m going to have a sleep – just an hour, probably no more. The mountain of work (as it seems) isn’t going to go away, but it’s not going to get appreciably worse. And if I don’t take a bit of time, it’ll feel worse, I’ll probably do a worse job of managing it, and I’ll feel worse. An hour, I know, will make all the difference.
The fact that I can do this is one of the benefits of working from home. I’m not going to say “temptations”, because I don’t see it as a bad thing. This is partly because I’m not sure it would be as much as an issue if it weren’t for the fact that I’m working from home in the first place. There’s no easy dividing line between work and home, and there’s no commute to force me to take some time out and do something else, either. I can (and do) start checking my email at 6:05am, and only stop at, well, far later than I should have done. To be claer, I’m not asking for sympathy, but trying to identify the problem, own up, and encourage other people to take it seriously, too.
Sometimes, it’s time to break the cycle, or just realise that a cycle is about to start. We don’t want to be grumpy (grumpier?) with our family, or quietly seethe at our colleagues or work acquaintances, or resent the people on social media who seem to have it all covered (they don’t, at least most of them). We need to take a break, and that’s what I’m about to do. I have work support, and I don’t need to do everything myself, right now. It’s time for a sleep. See you in a while. In fact, do tune it next week: there will be some exciting news.
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