Do not think of elephants
I woke up this morning and thought of what I had to do today and I got a jolt of cortisol or whatever they are currently calling the stress hormone. Coming off vacation is bad because you notice all the work feelings–they no longer seem normal. At first I tried not to think about all that work I had to do but then I realized trying not to think about it was itself part of what wears me out. So I deliberately thought of as many different things as I could–not a “flinching” thought but a good square look. Then I got up.
When I got to work I wrote down about 15 things that I needed to do. Not all of them had to be done today but they are all things that need to be followed up on sometime. I think I got four done. Maybe five. I know when my boss called me the one thing he asked me about was not one of the things I had gotten done then, nor even began before I left work. He didn’t give me a hard time about it, just asked, but I don’t like it when what he thinks is my top priority isn’t. It took me until 2:15 pm to get to my number one priority because in the morning I had to do a Monday report, follow up on some hot issues from last Wednesday, go to the daily meeting, and spend most of my “free” morning time going over late-shipment analysis because I need input from other people and most of them are going to vanish, what with Thanksgiving and hunting season upon us.
It wasn’t really a bad day but if I can’t relax more than that I am going to need a week off by February.