Cornered Office
with Mir Kamin
I'm a freelance writer and mother of two working from home, which theoretically means I can set my own schedule so as to best accommodate my family. In reality, "flexible hours" often equals "working too much." Yes, I'm my own boss; no, that doesn't mean life is easy. It's hard to leave the office when you live there. But I love what I do and feel very lucky. And not just because I get paid to work in my pajamas.
To learn more about Mir, check out her profile on Work It, Mom! or visit her blog at http://www.wouldashoulda.com/
Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their suggestions on my school transportation dilemma. After much soul-searching (or talking to other parents in the district, whatever), I decided that I really just wasn’t comfortable using the bus at this point. My kids have been through too many changes lately for me to throw one more at them when I really don’t need to. So, a-driving we will go, and I’m already sucking up to another parent who’s offered to carpool on occasion. Phew!
Yesterday marked my first uninterrupted day of work in, well, almost two months. And I had grand plans for my day. Oh yes, I did. I would do my daily work, plus I would get ahead! Far, far ahead! With all that extra time!
Stop laughing.
You know the truism about how you expand to fill the space you have? So, for example, when you move from a smallish house to one that seems impossibly large for your needs, you’re astonished to discover a year or two down the road that you have filled up every inch of that place, even though it doesn’t seem like you really have all that much more stuff than you used to? The same is true for work and time.
When I had to cram all of my work into half an hour here and an hour there and frantic typing in the evenings after the kids went to bed—because they were home all day and this was just the way it needed to be for a while as we got settled—I got it all done, somehow. It seemed like I never had a solid chunk of time to focus on work and yet I managed to keep up. I just felt like I was constantly teetering on the edge of disarray.
When I finally had the whole darn day (okay, six uninterrupted hours, anyway) to work, do you know what I discovered?
Well, the breakfast dishes needed doing and I had to do a little bit of dinner prep so that I wouldn’t be stuck with it all later on, plus my desk was a disaster area and needed some tidying, and I had to make a couple of phone calls and my emails were piling up and you know, I haven’t really gotten everything straight on my calendar just yet and a client wanted to check in and chat and….
Oh, be quiet. I got all my work done (barely). That’s all that matters, right?
(And the first person who says I’m expanding to fill my space gets smacked.)
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[...] If you’re wondering how my first kid-free day went, you can read about it over here. That isn’t terribly important, but what IS important is that I didn’t mention that one [...]
Woulda Coulda Shoulda » We’re recruiting them for the band | August 14th, 2007 at 8:53 am
And you didn’t chat with me once. Not once
And this is probably why most of us work best in a time crunch. You ignore the distractions because you have to.
chris | August 14th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I find that I somehow thrive when I have obstacles to overcome when meeting deadlines.
Like thing one, thing two, and thing three (school starts next week!).
jcreer | August 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Somehow, more things to do = me being more productive during the time I have.
I totally experienced that same thing with regards to housecleaning and laundry when I stayed home this summer.
I, unfortunately, DID expand to fill my space and joined Weight Watchers to get THAT under control.
Rachel May | August 14th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Umm…you’re expanding to fill your space!
(ducks)
Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist!
Crisanne | August 14th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Oh no! I forgot about that! I’d better find a way to put nose to the grindstone when school starts for PunditGirl, but I know I’ll spend more time dealing with the clutter and the laundry!
PunditMom | August 15th, 2007 at 7:57 pm