I think that pretty much says it all. :)
Off the Beaten Plan
plan: to devise or project the realization or achievement of
“Jack of all trades, master of none” is a figure of speech used in reference to a generalist: a person that is competent with many skills but is not outstanding in any particular one.
Is that an insult, or a compliment? A person can be good at many things, and be a person who is respected, with a large tribe of people who will turn to her with questions and know that she will have a solution.
And a person can be good at many things, but when a job needs to get done, they may never be the one who is called. After all, would you hire someone who only changes their own oil to repair your timing belt?
I am good at many things, but I can’t be excellent at all of them at once. It requires time and effort to stay on top of the game. I can excel at work and write a great blog, but I can’t also create an amazing website template or keep up on my Squidoo lenses. I could possibly do all of those things and be an absentee parent, but that really isn’t an option. You understand.
My attention can’t always be in one direction. It needs to wander, to take care of different tasks. To be the best I can at what I need to focus on now, so later I can be the best at something else.
A jack of all trades? I think not. But I will master some.
I’ve made myself a bedtime schedule, and tonight I stuck to it. To bed by 10 pm, iPod off by 10:30. At the end o the week I’ll see how I feel in the mornings, in the evenings, and in the afternoon. I hope to feel more energy by next Sunday, even if the change is not significant.
EDIT 5/3/10:
10:45 pm tonight. A little but late, but not excessive. Today felt pretty good, after I’d woken up all the way. :)
EDIT 5/6/10:
I’ve logged two nights in bed at 10:10 pm, and three at 10:15 pm. I feel successful with my goal so far this week.
I admit, I am the most productive when I have looming deadlines and am panicking over trying to get things accomplished. When I have extra time, I am not nearly so productive. I get antsy, impatient, and my attention wavers.
Or at least it did today.
But the truth is, the stress and deadlines are not good for me. Yes, I get more done because I have no choice. But I do other things – eat without thinking, drink high-calorie, highly-caffeinated drinks in order to stay awake, and don’t get enough sleep.
So it’s not good for me. The stress, the deadlines, the panic.
Finding a way to be driven without being pressured is hard. Aggressive accomplishment without the threat of penalty doesn’t come naturally to me. I need to practice, without hurting myself.
Last night (early this morning?) I mentioned some things that are important to me.
“Being 100% with my family, not just in the same room.”
To me that means:
- Not coming home just to take a nap to catch up on the sleep I missed the night before by staying up too late.
- Not staring vacantly at a movie or TV show that the kids aren’t really interested in on a school night.
- Not goofing off on the computer on a school night.
- Playing games with the kids, even if I really don’t want to.
And so I should:
- Make sure I’m getting enough sleep. Staying up until an hour before midnight and sleeping for seven hours is not enough for me. This is going to help with my overall health and weight-loss plans as well.
- Schedule time for the movies I want to watch after the children are in bed.
- Remember that the computer and the Internet will be there later – at work, after bedtime, on the weekends. My kids will only be this age doing these things once.
- Commit to at least one game, then suggest something else we can do together that they’ll still enjoy.
- Get out of the house with the kids, even if it’s for a two-block walk and my daughter asks to be carried after we cross the alley behind our house (true story).
I only get a half-hour in the morning and two hours in the evening during the week with the kids. I don’t want them to feel like we’re never around, like we never do anything together. Growing up I enjoyed being by myself and didn’t feel abandoned when I got home and my parents weren’t there – I actually really liked the independence. But maybe my kids don’t feel that way. I do remember my parents never wanting to play card games with me or board games – we did, just not as often as I wanted. I don’t want Donovan to remember that about me.
I would really like for all of us to get out to walk – hubby, the kids and I. My husband is often working on the family tree which is important to him, so I don’t invite him out all the time, but time together that we can do for free, that’s important stuff.
Planning those two hours in the evening can be hard. One day of the week is Cub Scouts for me and my son. He has homework that doesn’t always get accomplished after school as it should. My daughter likes to run around and play with the neighborhood kids, but we won’t let her go out without her brother. And then there’s supper, showers, teeth brushing (a nightly battle between the sibs), and the tucking in ceremony.
We don’t really have a set routine, and for the most part I’m okay with that. I’d like to set shower-teeth-book-bed in stone, because then maybe we’d have less of a struggle with that. But I would also love to not have to spend a half hour breathing down their backs to get things done. With my daughter, I understand. She’s four, she needs help. But my son is seven now, and really should be doing things by himself, yes? IMHO, anyway.