Finding the Balance

That was an extremely tiring, rewarding and yet productive week. Well, productive if you pay my wages. All my personal goals suffered tremendously!

After last week’s post, I took into work a wealth of positivity. Starting my working day an hour earlier at 7 am felt a lot better, my mind quickly adjusting to lumber from its slumber at around six. I wasn’t quite prepared for the comment from a colleague ‘no one will notice you putting in the extra hour that early’, which tells you everything of the kind of environment I now find myself in. Quality of work? Not so much. Are you seen? Part of my soul died, then. If I had one, naturally.
The advantage of starting so early, for me at least, was getting a jump on the day, feeling invested and invigorated: I felt switched-on and organised; I stretched my brain cells holistically across the program rather than just my pieces of work; my tasks were completed effectively and I got through a good deal (I make one-line notes as a to-do every day and built up a sizeable ‘DONE’ list). I felt like my old self basically, which was excellent, and even found time to organise a Morning-Tea for White Ribbon.

The disadvantage is that those starting later completely cock your day up as their disorganisation leaves you foundering at six or seven pm. That, admittedly, blows goats. Thankfully that wasn’t every day, only three out of the five, but by the time Friday afternoon came around I yawned so hard I almost dislocated my jaw. If my colleague hadn’t ducked and weaved, I could have taken his arm clean off.
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Additionally my own personal interests took an absolute shellacking – I took a grand total of zero photos and edited a commensurate amount; I wrote only a few sentences of my next book; I read no blogs to expand my mind; I read less than fifty pages of a novel I picked up last week, and nothing of Tim’s Tools for Titans; I had no Spanish lessons; my 15,000 daily-step total was met only twice. I was so tired after work on Friday I went straight to bed for a nap, waking myself up with a little snore. Sexy! Stand fast ladies, this little man is already taken!

So, my next trick: find the balance. 

As a slight addendum, late on Friday as to make amends, I struck into the excellent brainpickings.org, referred to by Tim Ferris’ podcast interview with the owner herself, Maria Popova. I am very excited to see she’s publishing a book eight years in the making: “A Velocity of Being: Illustrated Letters to Children about Why We Read by 121 of the Most Inspiring Humans in Our World”. How amazing does that sound? Not only that, all donations go to supporting New York Public Libraries. Go order a copy!
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Also, Sunday reading will be digesting James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh in between, as ever, tea and biscuits and some walking in the glorious sunshine. 

Image references:
https://www.brainpickings.org/
​http://thewellnessproject.me/stress-can-affect-every-organ-body/
​http://brightontheinside.co.uk/eat-drink/doughnuts-were-into-in-brighton-hove/
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