Working Approach

I remember talking with a few coworkers a couple of years back and it was identified that men do a much better job of setting a goal and focusing on how to achieve it. This helps them prioritize all the items that get thrown their way. There’s pros and cons of course but this translates to men achieving milestones and women making sure all the other important-but-not-milestone things get done. You get bogged down in the day to day tasks that don’t necessarily move you forward, professionally or even being personally fulfilled and feeling a sense of accomplishment.

I’ve been trying to keep this in mind as I continuously develop my professional style of working. The biggest accomplishment with work I’ve had is actually another word of advice I’ve been following - don’t let work stress you out. Putting it all in perspective. It’ll get done and it’s just work - not the end of the world. Starting this new job, I kept that forefront and center and it’s worked out marvelously. Most days are non-stop go and an endless barrage of meetings and deadlines and deliverables and questions to be answered. But I juggle it all and manage expectations and at the end of the day by the time I get home work has been left at work and I’m able to focus on personal stuff. I’m in much better spirits, have less grey hair, eat much healthier, get more personal stuff done and enjoy my job so much more. I’m also able to get a lot more done because I’m not stressing - it takes a lot out of you to stress AND try to get stuff done.

I’ve been applying the milestone approach at work. It’s a struggle as there is so much stuff that gets dropped that I want to pick up, but I’m learning to let things fall that aren’t my responsibility. However, I’m constantly looking at opportunities to move us ahead and in the long run that works out better for everyone. And the great thing is that I already got a rave review at my 6-month mark so think this new style is working.

But that’s not what I was wanting to report on. I was feeling absolutely bogged down and no time to get everything done. I sat down and looked at the numbers. I’m at work about 9 hours a day. My commute is about 2-3 hours a day. I sleep usually 8 hours each night. What’s that so far? 20 hours. That leaves me with 4 hours a day to get everything else done. Figure an hour in the morning and another at night for getting ready for work or bed and eating. And I’m left with 2 spare hours to cook decent meals, meeting up with friends, relaxing, volunteering, committee meetings and basically having a life. I took a look at the work commitment and that wasn’t going to change. Sleep hours are never to be touched! Commuting could be reduced in half but would cost me about $3,000 extra a year - you’ve heard me rant about this before here. So really I was left with maximizing that precious 2 spare hours a day.

On average, I have at least 3 evening commitments a week. Either from committee meetings, drinks with friends, events I’ve been invited to, etc. Looking at that I realized it was the committees I was on that was stressing me out really. I am on three committees in my town. And I’m a chair of a committee that is in my field (work related). I sat down and had a think about what I want to get out of the committees. What’s my end goal? Well, for the work related committee - it’s just good PR and has served me well professionally. Good way to get my name out there and associated with sustainability to a broad group. So I was going to focus on that, moving forward. There are two committees with my town that are building related. Really one is a sub-committee of the other as the school project we’re building is so big that it warranted its own meeting time. For both of these, there isn’t too much extra time needed outside of the committee meetings, so not too bad. In the end I get my name on bronze plaques! I have my name on two public buildings already. My goal is three, so am almost there.

The last committee was the one that was bogging me down. It’s an energy group that’s composed of town officials and a few citizens. We’re constantly working on projects to make the town greener and use less energy. Exciting work but I realized I really can’t commit unlimited time on all the work that could be done. I had to pick something and let that be my goal. I had come across Green Revolving Funds and although challenging, realized that if I could get this set up and running successfully this would be something I could be very proud of. And with that, I’ve been less stressed because I’m not over committing myself and am able to have something to help me evaluate things I want to take on.

I feel like I’m just reaching my equilibrium finally after years of oscillating and trying out new “diets”. Now, if you threw a new twist in like family and children I’m not sure how this approach would work. If I’d be out of whack and need realignment, but have a good basis or back at square one. Does make me wonder how others manage all the things that are thrown at them - both male and female.

Don't you like it when...

Don’t you like it when…

1. Last week I went to a professional schmoozing event after work. Besides being ideally located just across the street from my work, I loved that I knew over half the people in the room, if not more. Working in my particular field over the last 6 years here in Boston, really makes you realize what a small professional world it is. And all that much easier to network and stay connected!

2. When you can enjoy both ends of the birthday party spectrum. This coming Saturday night is a grown-up b-day party at a local watering hole we’ll often frequent. I’m looking forward to the good beer, good company, a warm fire in the fireplace and a nice and laid back time. In contrast, this past Saturday I attended a birthday party for Maggie (2 years) and Cameron (3 years). By the time I had arrived (only about 5 minutes late), it was in full force. They had rented out this room at their church which was perfect. There was a bouncy house and play stations and food and balloon making. Cam was an awesome host running up to me just as I arrived excited I was there and before I knew it I had my shoes off and was playing around with him and his buddies. It wasn’t until later that I realized that the room was full of about a dozen children with at least one parent each and I was the only adult really getting down and playing. Only got in trouble once - got kicked out of the bouncy house - I was too big! But had a blast chasing around and singing the songs and drawing and doing all the kid activities. Maggie was a doll and was super cuddly when we were doing the singing. Still not sure but starting to get into the songs - wiggling and clapping and everything. Needless to say I had a blast and went to bed extra early that night.

3. Lastly, but not least, don’t you love it when you flip things around in your favor. This is a case of win-win-win. We were talking about doing a cookie swap at work within my department. In the end we each took a day to bring in cookies. It conveniently worked out to be these next two weeks as I’ll be out of town afterwards. Today featured peppermint bark shortbread chocolate goodness. And by a first time baker!

4. And finally, don’t you like it when you’ve been looking for something endlessly and it finally shows up. I couldn’t find some receipts to be reimbursed for work and my Christmas list. Both showed up this weekend.

Random Monday

Random posts:
- Last minute change in plans this Thanksgiving - ended up down in CT w/ my cousins and dad. Nicely hosted at family friends (of my cousins) so very little prep or clean up.
- Played Spite and Malice - it was a long game but good. We played with 4 - it might be better with 3?
- Speaking of games, for the longest time I was continuously an underdog when playing Rummy with my dad. Recently, I’ve fared better - nothing like practice!
- Driving back from CT I was surprised how many people had Christmas trees on the roofs of their cars. So early! And yet, I need to start figuring out where to get my tree this year.
- You know junk drawers right? I don’t really have one. I’m pretty organized… kindof. My trick is that I have a junk room. I dump the random stuff up in the loft and it sits out of sight forever. This weekend I made a go of it and it’s all nice and tidy and put away. It still feels good to have order around me, even several days after the cleaning. Now, if I can only keep it tidy.
- My latest addiction is looking at real estate online in my town. I think my burn from the last house is finally subsiding. Not completely, but some. There’s this cute little yellow house…
- Do you remember that website that predicted airline ticket prices and when to buy tickets? Well that same guy has a new website that tracks data for electronics and tells you the best time to buy things www.decide.com I’m thinking of getting a new digital camera. I’m finally accepting that perhaps one reason why I don’t take many pictures is because my camera is almost 10 years old and doesn’t take great photos. This site might help me pull the trigger.
- And finally, here’s a cute little video I stumbled upon. Enjoy!

PI

I blame it on being surrounded by engineers 2/3s of my waking day - I’m totally nerding out! Strangely I’m becoming more geeky than my peers though - there’s a question for another day. First it was an interest in learning how solve the rubik’s cube, well over 25 years after owning my first cube. And now, for some reason I have decided to memorize pi. Well, at least the first part of it. I think I have the first 16 digits memorized. And I think that’s enough. Large enough to be impressive but small enough not to take up other valuable real estate up there in the old noggin. Why possibly would I want to do this? I have no idea. I am complete rubbish at memorizing. And I can’t even remember the last time I used pi. Just go with it I tell myself… (as she becomes more eccentric).

BTW, did you know that “nerd” most likely was invented by Dr. Seuss? "A nerkle, a nerd, and a seersucker too!".

BTW, did you know you can find your birthday in pi? Mine is only 68,554 digits into the number. My brother's doesn't show up until way after 920,000 digits. Just saying.

Friday Leftovers

Here goes…

- The New England cold that has been flirting with me for the past month or so finally decided to commit and settle down.

- I was out sick both Friday and Monday last weekend.

- I quickly gave up trying to be productive while out sick and languished about the house drinking fluids, watching movies (latest theme is the apocalyptic type), and knitting.

- I’m almost done one of the bulkiest sweaters I’ve ever made. I’m not sure I’ll wear it but I decided not to rip it out so that only means moving forward and finishing it.

- I dragged myself to work each day this week and am starting to slowly feel better.

- Still, I’m beyond delighted tomorrow is Saturday.

- I was only gone for four days, but something changed, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what.

- This week I presented at a conference. It’s been hanging over me to work on the presentation for the last month. So nice to be done and it was well received.

- Don’t you hate it when you have a cold and are speaking and your throat suddenly goes beyond dry you think you’ll choke.

- I drank a lot of water during my hour and half presentation.

- The first day back from being sick I wasn’t sure if it was real or I was napping. I was walking home after work, across the bridge looking at the wonderful city skyline at night. Same as usual, except now there was:

• 3 or 4 helicopters circling above in the dark cloudy sky. They didn’t look like the traffic type but more government issue.
• There were spotlights criss-crossing the sky - batman call style.
• 10+ motorcycle police parked outside the federal reserve building just chilling but a little ominous
• Sirens galore as I reached the subway station - ambulances, EMT and fire all coming from different directions on different streets

- I felt like I was at the beginning of a movie where something was going to go seriously wrong with the world. I think it might have been a combo of the cold drugs and watching too many movies when I was out sick.

- Worth noting that Occupy Wall Street is across the street from the federal reserve building and subway station.

- Last night swung by an opening. Some friends from growing up went out on their own and opened a business. I was going to show my support and then to home for an early night.

- Ended up running into someone from my industry I’ve been wanting to catch up with for awhile - there goes an hour.

- A little later, Maggie and Dave from Maine came down to help celebrate - there goes the night.

- Had a blast catching up and hanging out - skyping (on an iPhone) with Sara in DC in the bathroom (only place where it was quiet), ended up closing the place down.

- It was strangely déjà vousish of old highschool times with a twist of our older mature selves. Strange when old and new worlds collide. There was talk of a ski weekend away this winter. That would be fun, although I haven’t skied since the ‘90s!

- Took two subways and a bus to get home - they all arrived within minutes - very nicely timed and appreciated as I fell into bed at midnight!

Fall Weekend: Ecotarium

It was a beautiful late-fall weekend this last weekend. (I rewrote that sentence a few times trying not to use weekend twice - no luck). It’s weekends like these that make you appreciate living in an area with seasons. And I got to spend a bunch of the time outside. I had a play date/slumber party with Cameron and Maggie (and their mom - Cece). We made our way up to the Ecotarium in Worchester. It was a fun museum and I have to say it again, seeing a museum through the eyes of youngsters is fun all over again. I wasn’t wild about the live animals they had (not a big fan of zoos*) but they had a lot of cool stuffed animals - which I like and other amazing exhibits. Funny enough, one of the highlights of the museum was at the very beginning - where the kids were able to walk on air. Well, sort of.

Right next to the first batch of exhibits was a glass railing that looked down at the two floors below. The designers had taken a portion of the floor and made it glass. It provided a strange optic illusion. You weren’t quite sure where the hard surfaces were. I was helping Maggie take off her winter jacket and I notice Cameron at the edge of the regular floor, reaching his arm out trying to find the glass wall that is usually there. And it wasn’t there! We go over and show how you can go onto the glass floor. It was a strange thing that the little minds took a while to process. Their bodies were so funny - they wanted to check it out and walk out on the glass floor but their legs wouldn’t really let them move at first. And then the strange tentative little steps. And then a moment later they’re rolling around and enjoying this new phenomena, the fear completely gone. There were several other kids, one young girl was a little too young and just freaked out that the normal physics of her life was turned upside down!

We jumped from exhibit to exhibit - even checked out some ferrets (you can see a tail) and at one point was able to jam all three of us into this one play structure. Of course Cam crawled out before the camera could come out. The other highlight was at the end of the museum - we took a train ride around the grounds and even went through a tunnel - excitement. I wonder what it would be like having that job - riding the train over the same short route hour after hour.

In the afternoon, Maggie was down for her nap and Cam, Cece and I hung out outside. Cam was a great little helper and helped me vacuum my car - I love a cleanly vacuumed car. And they have a great set-up with a shop-vac that makes it so easy. I’m sure I’ve waxed poetic about it before. I was on a roll and even vacuumed Cece’s car too - cosmetically. Cam loved vacuuming but was more interested in vacuuming up little leaves. We would take turns. First he would go vacuuming up leaves on the garage floor. And then I would quickly try to get as much done on the cars. He would come up and interrupt me periodically with a leaf in his hand for me to vacuum - too cute. Also, I wish I had gotten a picture, but we were both wearing “ear muffs” to protect our ears from the noise. Except his were a bit big so ended up squishing his cheeks forward too.

And we came up with a fun game in the afternoon. He has a John Deer toy tractor. I’d sweep up leaves in the driveway and he would come over, I’d load him up and he would go over and dump them out, backing up just like he has seen his dad. That task kept him occupied for hours. He would get really excited and tell us about what he was doing. I couldn’t always follow all of it since he was so excited.

In the morning, I heard Cam first so came in to wake him up. He was so excited - it’s like special medicine. I climbed up into his new and amazing fire truck bed and we hung out in bed chatting for awhile until we heard Maggie. And then we went in to get her and she was so excited to see us. We hung out in her room and both kids wanted to take their PJs off and just roll around gently rough housing together. Cam picked out both of their outfits and I think it was about when they were both running around buck-naked that mom got up and came in. A morning at church playing with more new toys and then home for lunch.

Sunday afternoon, I ran errands before heading home and didn’t get in until 4 pm. I was very thankful for the extra hour as I tried to catch-up on chores before crashing for the night. All in all a fun weekend and thanks to Cece, some pictures to remember the days by!

*Funny side note, as we were driving to the museum, Cece mentioned how someone had told her that visiting zoos in developing countries wasn’t a great idea (they have trouble taking care of their own population, let alone animals). And in mid-sentence she laughs when she realizes it was my brother who told her that - not some strange “someone”. Small world and still strange to have her relaying conversations she had with Nick. We were far apart in age we didn’t overlap in friends.

Halloween

Who knew I’d have a Halloween this year. A lot of towns canceled Halloween because of the snow storm and downed wires. Granted I haven’t really gone trick-or-treating for myself in decades. And then surprise surprise I find myself in a pseudo-halloween. No costume - other than the 9-to-5 grind gear but I’ve been collecting a lot of candy. That’s the great thing of working in an office of 9 floors of workers. The nature of my job has me running around a lot and I end up at a lot of desks with little baskets of candy out. This week I’ve had my share of treats. I even hit the token “house” that hands out full size candy! Today, I’m tempted to make one last round. It’s like Halloween spread out across several days - and I get to eat the candy when I get it (something we were never allowed growing up - had to be checked first and then we got just one piece a night). Granted, I do suffer from the drops after the sugar-highs but that’s usually on my way home. Hey - Halloween only happens once a year right!