It was a long night, with my daughter waking up at 3am and not going back to sleep until after 6. It has been a while since we have had a night like this and I don't know how we survived when it was the norm - every night and worse for 8 months. I am tired today.
Being tired is a pretty good condition to work in for me, at least when it comes to manual labor kinds of tasks. Once upon a time when I did actually run, my best 30 minute distance was after I had been up all night drinking at bars. I am not sure if one is meant to workout with a hangover, but I found them effective as I didn't seem to be as affected by my head getting in the way saying "Don't do this, it hurts".
This is day two of layoff, but I do have to get some work done for my business and make sure that I can keep something ticking over there. I will hopefully have a few remote sessions coming up in a few weeks that I will try to get some of the prep done for, but I am also looking after @smallsteps during the days and it doesn't give much time to concentrate on detailed work.
There is plenty of mindless that needs to be taken care of as well, but that is dirty, dusty and quite dangerous (for a three year old) work, so will have to wait until my wife finishes up for the day. I am sure I will be just as tired then also.
In my #AskHive post, one of the hurdles to having enough time for someone was the commute time to work. Time is a funny thing as having it doesn't necessarily mean it is available at the right time - if that makes sense.
For me at least, an hour isn't an hour if looking at it from an effectiveness perspective, for example, I am more creative in the evenings, which is when I normally do most of my writing. But even this, it depends on what I am writing. My commute to and from work is generally in a time frame that I wouldn't effectively write, so I don't see that as time away from my writing - but it can be used for other things. For me, I use commute time to either do thinking work or, listen to podcasts that inspire thinking or, deepen and broaden my knowledge in my interest areas.
I am guessing I am not alone in having optimal and sub-optimal times of the day for various tasks and it is likely ingrained into our very DNA in some form or another. We are not nocturnal by nature (according to our eyesight), so it is unlikely that we are going to be as physically capable at those times.
However, at night we do have the time and space to think well and perhaps tell stories by firelight. Maybe it is at these times that we are creative as it gives us the opportunity to think about the future, to imagine tomorrow and perhaps share what we discover with others. Maybe night time is when we are more collaborative too.
I wonder how this affects the "traditional" working hours that we have engineered through factory life, then replicated through schools to support the development of employees to fit factory life. With the changes recently with many going from office to home for their working environment and the challenges associated with things like having kids at home, I am sure that there are is a lot of bleed happening, work hours shifting from the norm. While this is going to disrupt some people, perhaps having freedom of working hours will create a more optimal environment for creativity and collaboration.
While most of us seem to leave this up to chance in most areas of our life, at least spending some time thinking about the conditions of success gives us the opportunity to design them for ourselves, or at least affect them. Of course, thinking isn't enough, we also have to pay attention to our personal processes and workout, what works for us as individuals. However it is good to note, conditions will never be perfect, so being able to operate effectively in sub-optimal conditions is a skill that is very much worth developing.
I am too tired to do this, I have no time, the time isn't right, I am not in the mood and a million other things get in our way daily, slow our progress toward where we want to be and generally, stop us from investigating our own processes along the path. Outcomes are important, but without good process, are highly unlikely to be accomplished.
Just because there is a wall in the way of what you want to do at the moment, it doesn't mean that something else can't be done that supports you, improves you - helps you be prepared for when the wall is removed. Preparation for success is a requirement, unpreparedness leaves it all up to luck.
Feeling lucky?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I have three kids... an older son, who is sitting home after his college closed for the year... and a 1st and 2nd grader, for whom I am now functioning as a teacher.
However, for the last 8 years, I've mostly functioned as a stay-at-home dad. My oldest youngest child is mildly Autistic and had significant infant acid reflux. I attempted to work from home at first, but I ended up spending 8 to 9 hours a day simply getting my acid-refluxy baby her food.
I broke down in tears of confusion, happiness, and relief when the local school system admitted my Autistic daughter at age 3 for full day school in a one-on-one session. And now she's back home... and I'm her teacher... and slightly disappointed at the school system for the apparently lack of basic knowledge in the curriculum... strange how that changed. I've come to realize that individual teachers are the important component, while the institution itself is broken beyond repair.
My youngest youngest child never slept... from birth until age 3, she woke every 2 hours. And then between 3 and 5 the nights got a little longer. But that was mostly due to finding the sweet spot of low room temperature, Marpac noise machine, and near complete darkness... God forbid someone three houses down the street sneezed in the night or the full moon was just barely lighting the floor or the room temperature rose above 64 degrees F!
In any case... I've been there... I know how it feels to be awakened in the middle of the night by a young child who I thought was/or should have been sleeping peacefully "by now" ...
After spending hundreds of hours reading about sleeping habits of toddlers, it's actually quite common to have a toddler regress in the number of contiguous sleeping time. I'd give advice, but that's never helpful...
--End odd stream of thoughts.
I've been through these times aswell with my little one. Many health issues at the start and so many sleepless nights. What always got me was just when I thought I had a handle on the new norm it changed again. Now nightmares and bed wetting seem to be the phase we have to get through.
Hope things improve for you. Your comment provoked me to reply.
For sure. My father was a teach for almost 60 years - the system is broken, great teachers are becoming like hens teeth.
Many do, I think that it is part of becoming a parent. Ours has food allergies and the last year or two has been good (comparatively) to the first year and a half - which was a nightmare.On top of that, the hospital screwed up parts of the post-birth treatment for my wife... fun times.
This time, I think it was mostly the fever that woke her up and then, the light in the room keeping her up. This far north, the light starts very early already.
Thanks for adding your comment here, it definitely helps to discuss these things - too often, the things that are important don't get talked about, while everything else gets discussed to death.
She's so cute. Give her a hug from uncle G-dog.
Very cute, especially when she is very tired :D
Will do.
Video chat this weekend.
Yep, should be good.
This applies only to those people who do not know "WHY?" they should do something.
The why is super important for most people and when it isn't there, defaults come into rule. Most people's defaults aren't great.
With the battle cries resounding here most of the time, I can dedicate between two and five hours a day to "my own work". But I believe in short working periods. That can be productive as well. Especially if the quality is the determining factor, rather than the quantity of work. Also, I do consider giving my attention elsewhere important. It's training for me, still, despite the fact that it is also real.
Once upon a time, the Australian cricket team used the rule that we only have something like 40 minutes of pure attention available a day. They then trained to focus for very, very short periods of time (a couple seconds) and then tune out nearly completely when they weren't directly involved in the game (games are all day affairs and can be five days long). They were very successful.
Something like that. The thing is, one needs to identify what one's cricket game is and where to push harder.
Do you think most people even know what game they are suited for?
I wouldn't judge. I'd only say most of us have still many things to do before we find the optimal game for us. Which may be a life-long process.
It should be life-long I guess, as we change, as does the game. I like the artist life where there is no such thing as retirement, just changing the experimentation process.
Well, at least we have that one going for us ;)
We are just a creature of habit. Some more than others.
The ones that are moreso, may be challenged greatly with this upheaval. Others will bounce around and maybe find out new things with the newfound freedom.
The good news is that we have the opportunity (necessity?) to build new patterns, better habits, and redefine something that may have needed a change before the lockdown.
Never waste a good crisis!
I think it is a necessity few investigate. People build childhood habits and then seem to think "that'll do" for the rest of life, no matter what changes in the world.
Me quedo con la última frase para siempre "la falta de preparación lo deja todo a la suerte" excelente. Que bueno leer publicaciones como estas, con las que me siento tan identificada, humana e imperfecta. Gracias
You are welcome - it would be easier to answer if you translated from Spanish for me :)
Estos tiempos tan cambiantes obligan a vernos más a nosotros mismos y cómo somos en situaciones demandantes o que están cargadas de estrés, las horas sin dormir, sobre todo cuando hay preocupación, requieren su tiempo también para calmarse y seguir haciendo lo que nos gusta. Todo estará bien.
Everything will be fine, as it always is. Things will be as they will be.
I hope smallsteps is feeling a bit better today.
We all have time, if it is not the right time for something it can be used, as you said, in preparation for when it is somethings time.
She still had a fever, but it had dropped significantly.
I have been caught unprepared far too many times in my life.
Glad she is doing better, must be terrible in this day and age when any fever is present.
I think it's the angle she's got her head on while sleeping but I suddenly realised in the first photo how big she's getting :) (she still tiny though)
You're definitely not alone in having optimal and suboptimal times to work in. My most subotimal time is early morning and definitely before the first coffee (don't even ask me anything or make me think then, it won't end well for anyone). I work best at ridiculous hours of night x_x
When it comes to my project I don't have time for this, but will happily apply it to everything else I don't want to do XD
For me i like to do serious stuff very early in the morning when i wake up. My brain is so fast. I read my academic books and it sinks in fast.
This doesnt mean i shouldn't read in the afternoon even if the conditions are suboptimal. I feel working at suboptimal levels require some form of determination . I was watching a video and Jeff Bezos said he actually schedules his time. He does serious work by 10:00 am time . I feel people should schedule their time and put the most important things when the time is most optimal. Very good post @tarazkp