Have you ever noticed your pace? I am a “doer” I move in multiple projects continually, but typically focused on one at a time during its allotted time. My work as a Strategist means often I am 1:1 with a client or team then work alone for weeks before regathering. One of the things I appreciate about #TheTackyBrownHouse is its ability to support my work environment. We’ve had a little barn built to become my office in the Fall. It’s a small cottage space that will simply be a place for me to meet with local clients and those who fly in to write with me a while. At the moment the space is not hooked up to our main power line nor a/c, so you can bet that the only time I am spending there is early morning. I look forward to the day when I have time to drywall and add the tones to it that make it my space, but for now that’s on the shelf. When do you shelf things? I find that like a room filled with horizontal rows of projects, I pick and choose what to work on and what to shelf as I go. When I compartmentalize that way, I can truly leave a project behind while I am wholly involved in the present moment. I work with a good many folks who seem to have line drive radar only. I love outcomes, particularly completion involved ones, but I am a firm believer in living the moment too. Yesterday we had torrential rain that would come and go. I took the morning first hours after eight to mow the side and back average. I knew that the schedule didn’t have it planned that way but the clouds told me the opportunity was short.
What opportunities are short in your daily life? Time with your spouse before they leave for work? Time with a child or a grieving friend? Time to celebrate with a neighbor the preparations for a wedding this weekend? Those moments are what make life so worthwhile in my opinion. Yes, the laundry has to be done, the book has to be completely written, a client’s project has to be launched, but I find that focusing completely for 90 minutes is about worth 6 hours of non focused work in my world. I use a timer and reward myself for 15 minutes completed with 5 minutes off. My optician taught me to do so when I was unable to see well for a year. He said my eyes needed to see distance and multiple ranges, so consider it exercise. Little did he know those breaks would become the 15 minutes of exercise as I walked outside to view the world differently for a moment. After a walk, I am back into it for 15-30 more minutes then a break again. My second one usual involves 5 minutes of self care, a treasured coffee, lemon water, or time to lotion up my elbows and hands with a scent I prefer.
My pace isn’t halted by my breaks, my life is enhanced by upping the pace of projects to include self care. When do you work best? Where are your energy draining parts of your day? What would support you in a better way? I have asked these questions for months we moved. Some of the answers were:
- more comfortable pens
- a different window covering
- shoes for outdoors that slide on and off when I am back
- a mat to catch the mud from the garden
- a different height for my laptop (we actually cut the table down by 1.5 inches)
- better, fresher choices for mid morning snacks
- not starting until 9 for client work/writing, putting me first, my projects first.
- spending time with Les as he leaves, then the garden for a few minutes before coming inside
What is your pace? What is your preference? Where are the best, most satisfying parts of your daily life?
It’s worth the ponder…
