As I have been writing over the past couple of days, I have been working on a theme of getting down to work. It has taken me in a couple different directions and is turning into (as of right now) maybe a three-part series, beginning with this post.
I got back to work after an 11-day vacation over Thanksgiving. The vacation was not quite what we had initially planned. We have had to postpone our trip to visit family in Alabama due to Covid, as I’m sure many others did.
With restaurants, sports, indoor activities all closed until at least December 18 in Minnesota, we haven’t had much to do. We still got a lot done - deep cleaning of the house, set up Christmas, got the garage mostly cleaned, did a bunch of reading, some all-around good R&R time with the kids.
Yet, after 11 days, not going on our trip, not doing anything particularly noteworthy, I have this lingering feeling that I wasn’t very productive over that time. Sure, I went back to work fairly refreshed for a change, but I didn’t produce anything.
I may have written in my journal twice over that time, and didn’t write for the blog at all.
I learned that even when I have time home with no work beyond some chores around the house which can easily be spread out - it is still virtually impossible to find the time during the day to work on the projects I say I care about - like this blog - especially when the kids are home.
So, what is the solution?
It is simple. But it’s not easy. Deep down, I know exactly what the solution is.
Get up a little bit earlier.
My 7-year-old is now able to wake up and get ready all on her own. The 3-year-old, not so much, but she at least regularly sleeps until 6:30-7:00a. The early morning is one of the rare moments in the day that my house is quiet. The time is there.
If I don’t want to take away time in the evenings spent with Abbie and the kids, then I have a pretty simple solution - just get up earlier.
It’s simple, really. A 3-word solution: “Get up earlier.” But that certainly isn’t easy. Even today I didn’t do it. Though I made a deliberate effort to open up the computer and write after I did get up.
For me, I need to write. To facilitate that, I already knew, deep down, what I needed to do.
What work do you need to do? What is keeping you from it? The solution of how to get to work is likely a simple one, and if you think about it for any amount of time, it will be there in the back of your brain, needling you, until you start doing it.
Please share your simple solutions in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading