Remote

You know, I don’t work (per se) but my problem for the work I do have to do is overwhelmitis and procrastination. They usually go hand in hand and leave me deflated feeling unproductive and flat like a used beach ball. I hate it when it hits me too, but I can’t wait for it to go away because it would become a permanent citizen of my world and drive me batty. Even playing with yarn doesn’t make the list in my mind go away totally. Hoping you can get back on track next week. ((hugs))

I deal with a weird phenomenon, which might be like the Vacuum you’re talking about, esp. when you distinguish it from garden variety distractibility. I can slide into a very unproductive mode and once I do it’s hard to extricate myself. It’s like an invisible force. When I’m in It, I think, “What’s going on? I’m getting nowhere.” Ojectively it might look on the outside like depression but I don’t feel depressed on the inside. I actually have lots of drive and creative energy and/or frustration on the inside. So I’m thinking about whether the real issue is that there’s this huge gap between my inner and my outer, and to avoid the zombie zone, I need to bridge the two. I could see that being very dynamic. I’ve also wondered if with creative work there are artistically fertile vs rest/replenish rhythms that I’m ignoring and out of sync with.

And wouldn’t you think some great coffee would do the trick? Sometimes for me if anything it makes it worse GAH!

Go, have a great weekend! You totally deserve it!

xoxox
marly

The vicious circle of being overwhelmed and procrastinating used to plague me. For me, it would start small (a couple of unanswered e-mails, a few undone tasks) and grow into a many-tentacled, smothering beast (sometimes quite quickly). I think dealing with this (and learning how to avoid it as much as possible) is a major part of successfully working from home. I still experience it sometimes, but to a lesser extent. Now that I’m the mother of a small child, I have such limited time in which my physical and mental space are my own, I’m chomping at the bit to work, and so I can usually hit the ground running when I’m able to eek out some time for myself. Even so, I have to keep a well-updated to-do list so I can stay on track and do the most important things first. Otherwise it’s easy to plop down and work on whatever is on my my mind at the moment.

I also identify with what Cecily said. When I’m working on something that isn’t yet earning me pay, I have a difficult time justifying it as actual work. I finally started calling it work out loud, and it’s starting to fit better and feel better.

The vicious circle of being overwhelmed and procrastinating used to plague me. For me, it would start small (a couple of unanswered e-mails, a few undone tasks) and grow into a many-tentacled, smothering beast (sometimes quite quickly). I think dealing with this (and learning how to avoid it as much as possible) is a major part of successfully working from home. I still experience it sometimes, but to a lesser extent. Now that I’m the mother of a small child, I have such limited time in which my physical and mental space are my own, I’m chomping at the bit to work, and so I can usually hit the ground running when I’m able to eek out some time for myself. Even so, I have to keep a well-updated to-do list so I can stay on track and do the most important things first. Otherwise it’s easy to plop down and work on whatever is on my my mind at the moment.

I also identify with what Cecily said. When I’m working on something that isn’t yet earning me pay, I have a difficult time justifying it as actual work. I finally started calling it work out loud, and it’s starting to fit better and feel better.

The biggest challenge I face in my work life might have something to do with the air quotes I feel in my fingers as I say “work”. Why the air quotes? There are several reasons, the biggest reason is the projects I currently consider my “work”, the things I hope will eventually earn me pay currently earn no cash**. Indeed, whoever will pay me for these projects doesn’t even know I or these projects exist. Few of my friends even know what I’m working on. I’ve been holding my cards close to my chest while I convince myself it really is time to finally take the leap and develop these projects (notice I won’t even admit to what they are) that have rambled around in my mind for years.

**Actual monetary reward isn’t the issue, perhaps most important in this situation is that there is no audience, no one needing this “work”. It is a vacuum I feel daily and it is only relieved in the moments I am truly working on a project or right after. Thinking about them doesn’t count, after a certain point, I find the thinking sucks any air left in the room…

I totally agree with Stacey’s “overwhelmitis” and it usually coincides with the the UPS man delivering a huge box of yarn. I get into a quandry, do I finish what I was doing? Do I drop everything and work on what just arrived? Do I hide the box and pretend it didn’t arrive? Do I finish what I was doing while THE BOX stares at me from the corner? Then, I eat a cookie, figure out what’s “due” first and jump in, hooks flashing.