It takes me some time to recover from unexpected or unforeseen events that interrupt the course of my day. Running a business and functioning as a single mom requires a lot of organization and planning. When a cog gets stuck in the wheels of progress, I have a very hard time recouping my day. I can’t seem to just spin, pivot and find my original pace again.
I had three appointments today. Along the shoreline there was an interview with Jeff P’an, Glass Blower; a meeting with David Black, Artist and another appointment way up in Rocky Hill CT. Knowing that I would be onsite and out of the office all day I prepared for the road. Yesterday I filled my gas tank with gas. I checked my digital voice recorder to ensure it had batteries and was in proper working order. Checked my digital camera in the same fashion. Put together files and notes for the various meetings and figured out the times of departure/arrival etc. At 11:45am I gathered everything together, got into my car and… the car battery is dead! This comes as a total surprise to me. I’m stunned and in disbelief. I turn the key again. Yup, it’s dead for sure. The lights (to my knowledge) were not left on. All the doors were closed shut. Who the hell knows how or why this has happened but one thing I do know as I sit in my dead car is… MY DAY IS SHOT! I’ve just wasted the time of my clients, and the rest of my week will be affected by this one stupid event because now these meetings (and the work schedule for the next few days) will all need to be rearranged.
I wish I could just come back into the office and hit the ground running. I’m thinking many of you could just seize the day and take advantage of the “free” time just acquired. And eventually after regrouping that is what I’ll do, it just takes me some hours to do it. I usually start slowly by calling everyone I’ve just dissed and explaining and rescheduling appointments. I’ll throw in a load of laundry (just to trick myself into thinking I’m doing something productive.) I’ll maybe sit down and answer email or make phone calls, read some feeds and perhaps write a post (just like this one) and by that time I’m usually back in “work” mode and can move forward and salvage something of my day… but it’s already 3:15pm and in order to stay somewhat on schedule I know I'll be working until 8:00pm.
I’m sure Merlin Mann of 43 Folders could give me some good advice on how to cut this regrouping time in half. Perhaps help can be found in David Allen’s book Getting Things Done.
Have you experienced this? Can you recover quickly? If so I’m interested in knowing how you handle these little setbacks. What’s your secret?
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