After the last couple of weeks of my crazy, 100-mile-per-hour racetrack schedule, I looked at my calendar for next week, and I wilted. It didn't look any better or lighter than the last two weeks.
I turned to my dear husband for his help. Actually, it came out like a growl: "Here! Help me out with this! Now!"
He took my next week's schedule and analyzed it and came up with a plan. (It can be really helpful to be married to an engineer. I highly recommend it!) We discovered that I have 11 1/2 hours of calls and 1 hour of out-of-the-office meetings - all of this in 4 days. Then there's the real work that actually needs to be done - somehow, somewhere, sometime.
Chris scheduled work times in between my calls as well as put in Dawn Time almost every day. While all I could see was this sea of stuff, Chris was able to see spaces in between. I had a plan!
Blessed relief.
But it didn't seem to make sense. We'd structured the hell out of my days, and it made me feel better? What's up with that? Here I've been saying that having structure allows me a framework in which to be flexible. It's kind of like fencing a ranch so that the horses can roam and graze and yet not run away. But I didn't just put a fence around the ranch; I fenced every possible path and walkway. And I feel better?
I think it has to do with that problem of not being able to see anything for that sea of appointments. Chris helped me by being able to see things for what they were (while my calendar was pretty well filled, there were a few unscheduled times), finding the gaps in my schedule, and making sure I had free time arranged.
So while my week next week might be planned to the hilt (I didn't go as far as to schedule bathroom breaks, but it's close), within that plan I have some free time - true free time that will not be work and will be filled with what I want to fill it with.
The structure might be a little more restrictive than I would want it to be, but for this week I needed a litle more organization in order to get that freedom I crave.
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