There’s sleepy tired, there’s physical exhaustion, and there’s mental exaustion. Currently I believe I’m experiencing all three.
Or it could just be apathy.
My Thursday was frantic. There was a very large project that I needed to accomplish by a particular deadline. The deadline was impossible. There simply wasn’t a way to make everything move quickly enough to get it done, even if I had spent every second at the task. I started work early and stayed late (although I refused to say how late when questioned this morning by my coworker). I endured minor injuries. I felt like a factory worker on the assembly line – insert paper, fold paper, sort paper, fold paper. Stuff paper, stuff envelopes. Stand. Sit. Hunch. Bend.
We talked about preparing for this particular type and volume of project next time. There was little notice on this occasion, and as it goes, life got in the way so the project didn’t even launch until the last moment. But what about next time? I can see this scenario repeating itself, and I don’t look forward to it.
How do you plan for things that happen at the last moment? At best, we had five days to accomplish this task, but until the last moment, there were always more important tasks to do first. Isn’t that the way it always goes? But had we given the project some attention daily, we would have stood a much better chance of making it happen on time.
Do you plan for the worst, or keep the order? In my job, I have a backlog of tasks quite regularly. I log new items as they arrive, and work through them in a top to bottom manner, in most cases. Occasionally urgent tasks cross my desk, and those get immediate priority. Was this all-day task something that could have been given a one-hour jump in the line every day so that one day didn’t have to be given completely to it? When I let something jump the line, I risk upsetting people who feel that their task is just as important and critical as the jumped task.
Well at any rate, the week is done. I still have a backlog, and I missed some tasks that had firm deadlines for Friday, but I can’t do anything about them now. All I can do is recover from my exhaustion and make it through my weekend.
At least I got to mow before it rained.