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| WHILE EVERYONE ELSE WAS PLAYING
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 – column #7147
There is magic in solitude, unbounded freedom in quiet, and an ability to focus time and effort – or ‘staring out a window while sipping coffee deep in thought.’
That was my day yesterday, not one of turkey and trimmings (Hazel is on a trip with her family) – one of leftover pizza, working through Monday-marathon-tasks and catching up on emails, working through too many paper and electronic files – sorting/triage of ‘deal with it, purge it, or forget it’ before it goes back in a folder, drawer or trash bag.
The length of such non-work-days is ridiculously long, but the real productivity is considerable because I get a lot of sh*t done; I save wasteful revisits to things I’ve not wholeheartedly given effort (if that’s the case – why give it time or space) taking up space in file drawers, space in my head, and valuable calendar time later …
While many spent yesterday laughing and playing – watching sports or horrible news on their screens, I’ve always found that ‘time working efficiently while everyone else is playing’ produces multi-fold benefits in the future, such as more free time (who doesn’t want more of that?), more productivity/income (who doesn’t want more of that), and genuine progress on some key things which are far more valuable to me – to my life than a stat-holiday can ever deliver (who doesn’t want to fulfill their dreams?).
I hope you had a great day yesterday.
I surely did.
OK, boys and girls, get back to work now …
P.S.: I may have mentioned before – while I was growing up our ‘family long weekends’ were often spent doing work at one of the dealerships my dad worked at, to earn extra money. We weren’t dirt-poor, but not well off; I learned a work ethic in my family. It might have been simplistic and lacking many things, but the chance to worthy work, to feel good doing any kind of work well, and the feeling of exhaustion/satisfaction at the end of the day is not something that comes from the factory – we have to learn it, earn it, and love it. I have memories of a sore back and weary fingers from scraping wax off showroom floors, painting walls, varnishing wood and spending a dime for a Coke out of an old machine that still had those green-glass seven-cent bottles (hey, it is an inflationary time!); those memories may be old, perhaps irrelevant to anyone else – but those experiences are fundamental to who I am, how I work and when/how I play. Maybe this is perverse – but I truly ENJOY working on a holiday. It’s sometimes lonely, but the value is huge …
Reader feedback:
Hi Mark: I, too, am still a member, and voted for Travis. Quite honestly, I’m a little worried about the new leader … even though she’s a self-acknowledged Libertarian I’m concerned about the nonsense re Ottawa … sure they aren’t perfect, but I believe she’d like to take it too far, BR, Calgary, AB
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