Work has been crazy and I have felt literally underwater. My husband and I leave on Monday for an early 20th anniversary trip to the Bahamas. We will be at an all-inclusive resort. I had an audacious goal. I want to fully be on vacation, no checking into work or answering a few emails. There seemed to be insurmountable obstacles between me and that goal: emails I had not had time to answer since December, scheduled all day outreach programs, project deadlines, and a back log of office work. This week I employed two things that I have been actively trying to work on: saying I am sorry I can’t do that and single-tasking. Truth be told they were hard and had the reward, an actual work and guilt free vacay with my life partner of 26 years, not been there I would have descended into old habits. Eye on the prize…she persisted!
How did it go? I did something I have never done. I had nearly 1,000 email to go through so I set aside an entire morning and went through them one by one. I have done that before, of course I have usually had on podcasts or been answering the phone or talking to someone in my office at the same time. This time I just did my email. More about the unexpected power of single tasking later. Here is what I never did before. I deleted emails without doing what the person asked, if they just emailed out of the blue and it was not relevant. I also responded to some and said something I never say, “I am sorry I don’t have time.” I have to admit at first I felt guilty than I felt liberated. It is freeing to realize you don’t have to do everything, just because someone asks.
That list of the insurmountable number of things I had to do, I decided to try single tasking. Meaning giving each task my full attention while doing it. Admittedly my husband has been going on and on about this for years. How I should just focus on one thing! Of course great for him, he is a guy. Right, ladies? It kills me to say this, because he was right, I actually got so much done in much less time and feel like I did a better job. Of course I hate it because he was right. I love him of course; I just don’t necessarily love him being right instead of me. Long story short I walked out of work on time yesterday, put my out of office to back February 26 can’t be reached and I am ready to be fully present with just my husband in the Caribbean. See you when we return!
