Cry Me A River

Put on your rain slicker, tune out, quit reading or whatever if you’re not up to hearing my whine.

Bottom line. I'm discouraged.

You know, I really, REALLY wanted to win this 90 Day Challenge, but frankly, I don't see any way in the world I'm going to win. I'm so far behind it's pathetic. And why am I behind? I can sum it up in one word... weekends.

The 90DC doesn't take weekends off. The tasks are set up for 90 consecutive days, no time off. And most of the tasks so far have been quite time-consuming, as I’m learning how to do each thing. Yes, I get better and faster, but I’m not done learning tasks yet! I’ve still got at least two major new things to learn, one being another new piece of software. I hate learning new software at the best of times. Oh, I know, eventually I’ll think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread sort of deal, but while I’m learning new stuff everything is slowed down to a crawl.

So. I’m behind. I still need to learn new tasks. Things aren’t going to speed up for a while yet. And weekends are close to a loss for getting anything done.

Why? Well, interruptions happen. Doing laundry happens. Baking pizza crusts happens. Ironing happens. Helping men find or do things happens. Cleaning the bird cage happens. Fixing lunch happens. Oh, and did I mention the frequent interruptions?

And misunderstandings happen.

Why is it in today's society that if a woman tries to focus on a career, she's self-centered, but in a man it's considered commendable? Why is it okay for a man to talk about his work, but who wants to hear what a woman is doing? What makes a man's work interesting, and a woman's so totally boring?

And guess who won last year’s 90DC? A man. Now, this man had to quit work due to disabilities. In fact, he has a rather inspiring story of going from making big bucks, to living on disability, to improving his income by using this system. He worked a lot of hours in order to win. He had to battle with neuropathy in his hands, and sometimes his wife even had to type for him.

Did you notice that? His wife HELPED him do stuff. Bet she also encouraged him. And further, I’ll bet she was also doing the household chores, cooking the meals, and all the other necessary tasks while he focused on this one thing.

Well, forgive the whine, but I can’t focus on just ONE thing. Someone has to do the farm chores. Someone has to cook. Someone has to clean up the kitchen. Someone has to do the laundry. Someone has to finish boxing up all this wool. Someone has to… well, you get the idea.

And who is this someone? You guessed it, ME.

The men go off to work. They go off to socialize, to church, whatever. I go to the doctor and the grocery store, and once a week to a restaurant. And I work at home.

Like everything else in life, working at home has its good and bad points. Sure, it’s great not to have to get dressed up and drive somewhere to work. Sure it’s great to be able to somewhat set your own hours. But somehow, if you’re working at home, people don’t seem to get you’re really WORKING.

You can stop for a minute and do what else needs done right?

Well, in not one, but two of the courses I’ve taken recently, interruptions in the work flow were talked about as one of the major productivity problems. Every time you stop to check your email, get something you need, answer the phone… whatever, you typically lose at least 20 minutes. That’s not counting the time it takes to do whatever you interrupted your work to do, that’s the 20 minutes it takes to get back into the flow of whatever you were doing BEFORE the interruption.

Further, the highest productivity comes from at least one, and better two, hours of uninterrupted time, focusing on the task at hand. No wonder people go to the office early, or stay late, trying to get something done without constant interruptions!

Interruptions, sick days, other responsibilities, learning new stuff, having other stuff to do on weekends -- it just seems to be a constant struggle trying to focus on one thing and get the work done for the 90DC.

I can’t win.
But I’ll keep trying.