Frankie likes to sleep on top of me, she snuggles in the dip at the small of my back. This morning I woke up and for just a brief moment I tried to breathe and focus on her tiny, furry weight and rhythmic breathing. Then my brain kicked in and I could feel rising panic because ALL THE CONTRACTS and emails and the SOW for the one project and the back-to-back meetings and the fact that I leave tomorrow and no one has backup access to the AWS account with the elastic transcoder and when did I stop being a creative director and start being a giant task list?
The one thing I want to get right as soon as humanly possible is a funny foreign concept called “work-life balance.” I am way out of whack right now. I want to be in whack. Right? I’m certain that’s how the saying works. 🙂
As a Certified Control Enthusiast, I get way too far into the details of every single project so I am practicing backing off and appreciating that Tom and Stephanie are better at managing details than I will ever be. Delegating has never been a core strength of mine so I am practicing that, too. Luckily I have a great big practice session starting tomorrow when we get on that airplane (but tomorrow feels awfully far away).
I think it’s the calendar. The back-to-back meetings make me feel squeezed and cramped in my own life and I have to find a way to breathe space back into some of my schedule.
Just for a moment I closed my eyes and pictured myself getting on the airplane with the Captain and I imagined that amazing feeling when they shut the cabin door and you know no one can schedule a meeting with you for at least five days.
I’ve started using my mini-trips as my way to unplug and delegate and trust. I got lucky because I work with some of the smartest and most capable people I have ever met. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be able to leave the studio at all and they would one day give tours of the building and talk about the woman who went insane on the 4th floor and sealed her office in movie posters and clear packing tape and some say her spirit still roams the halls late at night looking for hidden snacks in everyone’s cubicles.
She’s partial to pop tarts and Swedish Fish.
So another long day ahead, but it’s a day-before-travel day which makes it both busier and happier.
Today: I actually wrote this early in the morning but wanted to find the picture of Frankie before posting and then I looked up and it was almost midnight, how did that work-life balance go today HAH HAH. We may be getting a new project to help with open casting calls. Beth showed me a cool WordPress plug in. I tried to check in to the flight and online check in isn’t working so I had flashbacks to my June trip but it’s late and after four phone calls to the airline I’ve decided to fix it at the airport. Never a dull moment! Bought the Captain a cool zipper sweater for the trip.
