Stopping the terror

Recently I noticed an interesting and increasingly predictable shape to my weeks at the newspaper – Mondays I was close to useless, which stressed me out.  Tuesday I started getting myself together and making some phone calls, none of which were returned, which stressed me out.  Wednesday I made more phone calls and got a few calls back so my stress started to ease a bit.  Thursdays most of the calls came back and I started to write.  Friday I crafted the pieces for the weekend.  (I tend to write a lot of Saturday features in addition to my Saturday business column, which means that Friday is always a big deadline day.)

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Until I recognized the pattern, I got super stressed out at the beginning of each week because I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done and I’d never get all the work finished.

Two weeks ago, it occurred to me that what I’m actually doing is processing a lot of information on Mondays so that I can be ready to start making phone calls on Tuesdays.  Those two days then give a shape to the week.

For the first time, I discovered that the “wasted” time on Monday and Tuesday was actually vitally important.  There might not be a ton of visible output for that time, but without it I’d spend the whole week walking in circles.

And here’s another crazy thing – no matter how much I terrorized myself at the beginning of the week, I always got all the work done.  So why keep terrorizing myself?

The next three weeks are going to be CRAZY busy – in addition to the regular weekly column and next three entries in the economics series, I also have to produce an entire special section about winter activities in our area.  I’m staring down the barrel of a LOT of work for the next three weeks and I’ve been getting nervous anticipating how I’d finish it all. I figured today would be a disaster.

But something odd happened when I got to the newsroom today – I sat down and started working.  Minus the stressful thoughts that I was wasting time, I actually had an extremely productive Monday.  It’s probably the first one I’ve had since I started working at the paper.

But even if I hadn’t been productive, I already knew that I’d be okay with it because I’d seen the pattern.  I knew there was no reason to terrorize myself, so I didn’t spend all that energy making myself crazy.

It still feels like a daunting amount of work to finish in three weeks, but for the first time I think I might actually be up to the task.

I’ll get back to you in a few weeks.  😉

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Have you read about The 30-Day Miracle Challenge yet?

If not, get yourself to THE CHALLENGE page and get psyched!  I mean, come on – THERE ARE PRIZES INVOLVED!!!!  🙂  The Challenge starts on Thursday, Sept. 15 and I’d love to have you join in!  Tell your friends and family – the more people we have participating, the more fun it will be…and the more miracles we’ll make!!!