Back at work. Back at writing?
Ah, the lovely lazy days of summer vacation. All rested and feeling creative again, so I started blogging. And then summer vacation ended and I went back to work. And suddenly, I don't want to write. It's been interesting being back at work. Before the summer we were backlogged and stressed out. During the slow, relaxing main vacation month of July, nobody was doing anything to generate much work for us, the phones weren't ringing and the emails weren't coming in, so even with a skeleton crew we got caught up. I came back to an empty inbox, time to declutter and reorganize, do what work did come in, and still have an empty inbox. (That latter is a new goal, both at work and at home: The actual inbox is empty. The resulting to-do list isn't, but now I'm on top of incoming stuff.)
As people came back to work here and elsewhere, and the pace picked up, I discovered I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep everything caught up. And that rather fascinates me. My reaction to my work load. I'm starting to realize I need a new attitude about it. So that's next for me, to find a way to pace myself, to not get worked up over ten new emails as I just got rid of five, and maybe not go home with so much tension in my neck, my nose runs.
Seriously bad habits forming there. I want to form good ones. This is a work in progress and it is also self-discovery. How to work well and avoid pressure? How to genuinely enjoy work even if things get hectic?
I will keep working on not using my email inbox as a to-do list, and finding ways to allow myself to breathe, so stay relaxed and to work at a steady pace, not a hectic one. I'll be using ho'oponopono for that latter, since that's linked to emotions. For the email thing, I got inspired by a Lifehacker article that described how to combine GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen) and Gmail.
I notice that I worry about missing deadlines. Making sure that I write everything down and make reminders so important things are handled in a timely way frees up my mind. Many have suggested that; right now, I'm really aware of how it physically feels to do that. One of the results: There's room in my mind again for writing. David Allen is right: My brain is for having ideas, not holding them.
As people came back to work here and elsewhere, and the pace picked up, I discovered I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep everything caught up. And that rather fascinates me. My reaction to my work load. I'm starting to realize I need a new attitude about it. So that's next for me, to find a way to pace myself, to not get worked up over ten new emails as I just got rid of five, and maybe not go home with so much tension in my neck, my nose runs.
Seriously bad habits forming there. I want to form good ones. This is a work in progress and it is also self-discovery. How to work well and avoid pressure? How to genuinely enjoy work even if things get hectic?
I will keep working on not using my email inbox as a to-do list, and finding ways to allow myself to breathe, so stay relaxed and to work at a steady pace, not a hectic one. I'll be using ho'oponopono for that latter, since that's linked to emotions. For the email thing, I got inspired by a Lifehacker article that described how to combine GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen) and Gmail.
I notice that I worry about missing deadlines. Making sure that I write everything down and make reminders so important things are handled in a timely way frees up my mind. Many have suggested that; right now, I'm really aware of how it physically feels to do that. One of the results: There's room in my mind again for writing. David Allen is right: My brain is for having ideas, not holding them.
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