adjustment
so, two posts a day turned out to be one post too many for me . . . and therefore i will be putting retreat content into its own section within my usual AM posts. that way, i can avoid flooding your google reader with too many posts, and those not ‘officially’ participating can dabble in the retreat activities whenever they sound enticing.
sound good? i hope so!
thank you all for your kind [and constructive] words yesterday. blogs are funny things — no one [including me] likes to post unflattering photos or the unpacked/messy side of the apartment, and readers get the impression that the writer’s life is just AWESOME — maybe even perfect!
believe it or not, sometimes i even get fooled by my OWN posts, like the one from a year ago that i linked to yesterday. but further investigation reveals that it wasn’t always so easy back then, either.
don’t hold your breath for unflattering pix, but here’s the darker side of our new place!
miraculously, just like last may, vickie sent me a beautifully-timed care package that contained some magic in the form of paper:
yep – a plain old ‘things to do today’ list [from yesterday]. and thanks to a fairly light clinical day, i was able to bulldoze through the mess and felt a lot better about my work situation. which brings us to this morning’s retreat topic . . .
summer retreat day 11: mastering your time at work
it is amazing how malleable time feels sometimes! it can stretch [while doing something unpleasant, minutes feel like hours] and shrink [that magic flow state] to the point where it REALLY seems like some parts of the day are ‘longer’ than others.
for me, the morning goes by very quickly while the afternoon tends to drag. between the hours of 3 and 6 pm, i rarely feel fully engaged in my work. instead, i’m thinking about what time i’ll get to leave, which to-do items are waiting for me at home, and what to make for dinner!
but time is life, and wasting those 3 hours [from an experience OR productivity standpoint] is not worth it.
therefore, today’s focus is on thinking about and identifying patterns in your day that are perhaps not serving you.
writing
. . . will be on the above topic, and you can add to the entry by brainstorming some solutions about how things could be improved. for me, i think that creating an ‘afternoon list’ of not-so-taxing-but-necessary things to do would help. today i am in clinic — luckily, an experience that DOES tend to engage me quite well — so this doesn’t apply as much, but on my next ward or lab day i will give it a try and let you all know how it goes!
reading
✔ one of my very favorite blogs is angeliki’s repsych, and today’s post dissolve the time is . . .well, quite timely!
meditation
if you can, try to sneak in 5 minutes right at the beginning of your slump time, whenever that may be. i may get some interesting looks in clinic today, but i’m going to try this!
mini-assignment
one suggestion would be to try the slump-time-to-do-list strategy i mentioned above — or try implementing your own idea to improve the flow of your day.
in other news:
we did it — i am now the proud owner leasee of a silver 2011 prius! it is really shiny and pretty and i am terrified i am going to hurt it, but obviously i will be as careful as possible. we ended up deciding to lease because the total cost if we do decide to buy was essentially the same, and the lease required less money out over the next 2 years [ie, the last two years of fellowship for both of us].
new apartment. new neighborhood. new car. clearly, a new era is dawning; my uterus just needs to get with the program!
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6.8.11
workout: 3ish miles in the AM outside [hot but bearable!]
cooking as silly as it may seem, i appreciate those of you who urged us to just get takeout for a few days until things are steady + manageable. you all had a great point, and i know my cooking mojo will come back with a vengeance once life starts to feel a little less . . . raw.
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