Tag Archives: work

general-post, work

Think, don’t just do…

When I was a kid, I learned all my prayers for my religious education classes. I memorized them carefully, and over the years they became second nature. I could spout off any number of prayers almost like a robot.

Then, one day, in church we were challenged to really sit and think about those prayers. What were we really saying as we said our prayers at night, and did we mean them?

So I did just that. I sat down that night and really thought about the prayers I was praying… I couldn’t get past the first line. I was stuck. If I didn’t say them in the same rhythm and speed as I always said them, I couldn’t remember them. I couldn’t do it! I couldn’t think about it. I had to just do it.

Yesterday, I was brought back to that moment as I wrote up the steps to do one of the jobs I do at work. I’m going back to Nashville for the next week, and I wanted to make sure that anyone who sat down to do this one task could do it right. So I sat down to type up directions.

And I promptly got stuck. It’s so automatic for me today that I don’t think too hard about what I am doing. I just do it. I wasn’t sure if I should find it funny or alarming! Its often in doing things without thinking that mistakes are made.

So, I did the task one step at a time, stopping after each move to type up in detail what I did.

It was nerve wracking! As I’d finish typing up the last step, I’d go back to the task and go, “Okay, now what do I do?”  What’s the next step???

I got through it. A normal 15 minute job took me closer to an hour, but I’m quite proud of my little 12-step process now taped to the side of my desktop computer. I even peppered it with humor like, “Just do it right the first time, because I don’t feel like typing up the steps of how to fix it if things go wrong.” and my second to last step is, “Throw your hands in the air and yell, ‘DONE!'”

No reason to not find humor in my challenge of typing up the directions, right?

But, this isn’t a bad idea to do of any number of things, simply because it makes me stop and think about what I am doing. Heck, I might find I’ve been doing something wrong all along! Or I might find a BETTER way to do things, simply by taking the time to think about it more.

So, is there any tasks YOU would find it beneficial to write out the steps to?  Laundry? Dishes? How to give your cat a bath?

general-post, husband, random musings, work

I still get sad…

With my husband as a musician, I’m “used to” saying good bye for long periods of time. (Hence, “Musician’s Widow” of course.) I only “like” it because it means income into the household. But good-byes are never what you’d call fun.

Right now, it was my turn to “go on the road for work” and I said good-bye to my husband for a few weeks.

Confession: I still get sad saying good-bye, even if I’m “used to it.”

I woke up in a funk this morning of good-bye. I kept telling myself to not ruin our last few hours by moping, but it was HARD. My logical side said it had to be, but my emotional side wanted to make him stay with me a few more days. (He drove me to Texas for work, and he was leaving to go back home to Nashville while I stayed behind.)  Cancel gigs. Ignore the winter weather warnings. Stay!

But, no, he had to go. So I hugged and kissed him and waved as he drove away.

We’ll both get in an old rhythm that we get into when we’re apart. Phone calls. Chat session on AIM. Etc. We’re good at this, and at the end of the day it’s not REALLY that big of a deal. It’s our life and “how we roll.” We will both be so busy during this time that the days will fly by for us. It’s all good.

I’m fine now. Miss him like crazy, of course, but I’m doing fine.  But… I do still get sad to say good-bye.