Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Productivity: Or Not

Today I kept an eye on Shannon Brawley as she recovered from losing her wisdom teeth, did some packing for our impending move, did service planning, had a great meeting with someone who will be serving at church, caught up on admin stuff for work, chased after email, had several PCC-related phone conversations, ran to Office Max and watched an interesting wrestling with the laminator, took two kids to Sweet Frog, wrote a blog post, taught a piano lesson, interviewed two prospective music teachers, hugged my parents, let my son drive me home in MY car (don't tell his stepdad), made rice bowls (with lime/cilantro rice - watch out, Chipotle!), figured out how to do cucumbers like they do at Asiana Bistro (good because somebody gave us about 25 cucumbers) and store them in the fridge for snacking - yum!, applied medicine to my son's infection, cleaned the kitchen (mostly) and watched an episode of CSI. And now I'm going to bed to read a bit more of "Unbroken" on my Kindle app for my iPad.

My favorite parts of the day are the ones with "Mom" all over them. And the moment that will come in about 30 minutes when I close my eyes and fall asleep.

I struggle with feeling "productive" on a day like today. I go and go and go, talking and thinking and encouraging and listening and just doing whatever is on the calendar that needs to be done. I check Facebook and read email and keep an eye on Twitter and watch the world fly by. There is NEVER a moment when I feel as though I am "done" when it comes to my job; every seven days, there it is again - SUNDAY - and it's hard to escape that constant pressure. I like it - I crave that adrenaline and that creative state. But days like today are necessary. I wasn't in the office and I don't necessarily feel "productive", but I've been on the go, doing lots of different things out of the different elements of my life and letting my mind sort of expand.

Writing about this tonight helps me recognize the value of the day. It will help me be creative and "productive" tomorrow.

But I'm thinking about those cucumbers and wondering if being productive is maybe overrated.

1 comment:

annie said...

Ah, Beth! I need someone like you to follow along behind me and tell me to pick up the pace! You make me tired just reading this! Rest well, friend!