Some days I feel scattered, like maybe I’ve got a bad case of Attention Deficit Disorder. Or, maybe my brain isn’t aging well. Here’s what happened yesterday and how it all worked out.
It’s not that I forget things, although that happens too, but it’s more like I remember too much, all at once, and start doing one thing, realize I haven’t finished the other thing, etc.
If you work at home, and on the computer, you probably have days like these. The door bell kept ringing. Thursdays I have help here in the house to keep it clean and functioning.
Gaby, my housekeeper from Jocotepec, knows not to bother me when I’m writing on the computer, but she came in because the dryer went out, so we had to call a repairman. As soon as he got here, of course it started working again.
Nevertheless, it needed a revision, so he went to work. Meanwhile the builder arrived to work on some screen doors. And Juan, the gardener, needed pool chemicals. Then the man came to fill the gas tank for the house. The painter came to repair some moldy walls.
About 5 p.m. everyone had left, and although the house got taken care of, my work didn’t. Now to some of you these interruptions may sound trivial. To others, they are high-class problems and I shouldn’t complain.
All true. We live in a country (Mexico) where we can hire cleaning and upkeep help. There’s also a lot of dust, or rain, power outages, bugs, and unpredictable phone and mail services.
Most days everything works, including super high speed internet connections. The biggest challenge for me is keeping focused on what really matters.
What really matters is that I appreciate whatever the moment brings. Then I can do what it takes to get things resolved. It means clearing some mental space to concentrate once the interruptions are over.
It doesn’t matter that things happen on my schedule. It does matter that I am producing quality work that my clients pay me well for.
It’s my brain that works the least well on days filled with interruptions. I adopt a “no stress” attitude and go with the flow. I also try to keep optimistic about machines and people. (Only once did I call the clothes dryer some bad names, but Gaby doesn’t speak English…)
Why am I telling you this story? Because in order to write good blog content, you need to share a little about yourself with readers. You also need to maintain a clean and well-functioning office space, especially the one inside your brain.
I also suggest you “come clean” with readers, and when you haven’t got much else to say other than to recount your day, don’t be afraid to admit it…just kidding of course.
I started to write a post about narrowing the focus of your business projects so that everything overlaps and can be reused and re-purposed for more than one client. But I had to clear my own mental space and get rid of the left-overs from yesterday. I still want to write that post, but will save it for later. Thanks for listening.
Recent Comments