Careful What You Wish For - Guest blog post

All:

We are super thrilled to share this guest blog post from Elizabeth Kirk, Marketing Directors for TRC Engineering.  Please give us your comments and feedback and perhaps we will see Elizabeth posting here as a regular contributor!!

Careful What You Wish For

For weeks I would tell anyone who would listen, what I really need is time at home without any distractions—none: no traveling to meetings; visiting clients; association events or anything that makes me leave my house.  I certainly don’t want to eat out anymore – ARGGHHH.  I mean NOTHING for about two weeks that’s all I was asking for in order to grab my crazy life by the horns and get all my ducks in a row personally and professionally.  Two weeks at home with no distractions – none, not even the kids. 

I typically work from home and I have a nice set up in the basement; it’s usually very quiet (except when a passerby gets the attention of a dog, then of course the other two dogs have to chime in).  My computer always works, and my desk and chair are very comfortable.

A typical day in my old life consisted of getting the kids off to school and start work by 8:00ish; work a few hours, leave for a meeting, sometimes an after-hours work event, and then returning to continue working.  Pretty organized, and mostly efficient.  I just wanted to make it more so, streamline everything so it all runs like a newly oiled machine.  You see I am a little OCD and neurotic about things so just two weeks of nothing would be perfect to get everything lined up the way I like it.  Also, I didn’t want any squirrels around to distract me from my mission.

I must say that when I first heard of the shut down for a couple weeks, I was a little excited – ahhhh I get to take care of my stuff without distractions -- is what I thought.  Boy was I wrong.  The first week goes by and things are hectic as the world, my kids and husband try to figure out this new way of life.   In my case it was a little different. Remember, I typically work from home?  Having the face-to-face meetings and immediate events and luncheons canceled helped keep me home (at the office) to focus on what I wanted to.  However now, like all other professionals with kids, I have extra squirrels distracting me as I try to get my great stuff accomplished.  What I was hoping to get done in four hours now takes eight as each kid comes to me for this and that.  Now, I not only hear the dogs notify me of a passerby, but I know when the kids are happy, angry, hungry – you name it.

Another week goes by and I get word that the two big events that I have been working on for the past year are either canceled or postponed.  I feel badly for the committee members that have worked hard for the past year to help make these events bigger and better than the year before.  And of course, schools are closed indefinitely, and I get to figure out how my middle schooler and high school senior are going to continue learning and be engaged. 

Well, I got my two weeks at home and then some.  As we enter our fourth week of “NOTHING” I must say it is a whole lot different than I was hoping for.  The stuff I wanted to get ahead of has either been postponed, canceled or my brain cannot focus on it.  The kids are having are hard time realizing that I am still trying to work and need me for every little thing.  Despite their ages my kids are struggling to respect my professional space boundaries.  Why did my youngest think it’s okay to interrupt my conference call because she couldn’t find her water bottle? 

I also have new workmate at the desk next to me who is very quiet most times; however, likes to have discussions with himself as he figures out solutions for the projects he’s working on.  I now no longer just have the noise from the three dogs – I have the kids and husband added to the mix. 

Yes, I know that these challenges are trivial in the big picture; and all I wish for everyone is health and happiness.  May you all find a little comfort knowing we’re all struggling with our new realities.