Posts Tagged ‘9-to-5’
Why I want a 9-to-5 job reason #5: reading.
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ~Charles W. Eliot
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” ~Mark Twain
“Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.” ~William Hazlitt
“In reading, a lonely quiet concert is given to our minds; all our mental faculties will be present in this symphonic exaltation.” ~Stéphane Mallarmé
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ~Richard Steele, Tatler, 1710
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” ~Harper Lee
Reading, like grocery shopping, is a past time, a hobby even, that I think many people do without even realizing how special it is.
I love to read. Given my current hours, I’m trying to make more time to read before work. But due to all the other work I’ve taken on, I spend most of my morning, as I’ve discussed, running around like a crazy person multi-tasking my behind off, not always so successfully.
As I get out of work much later at night, reading instantly puts me to sleep if I try and read before bed.
I am trying to take 30 minutes before I have to leave for work to sit down and read, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Usually I’m using those 30 minutes to make one of my infamous make-shift lunches or tie up emails, etc. that I did not get to during the day.
Reading is, no doubt, a relaxing activity. It’s hard for me to spend 30 minutes of my go, go, go-style day relaxing, but I am trying!
However, due to the growing stack of books in my room, the activity now even seems daunting at times! How am I ever going to read that many books?!
How it is that I can turn a relaxing, enjoyable activity into a seemingly impossible task says something about my mental state these days and my inability to CHILL OUT.
Hence the above, said implemented 30 minute reading program, greatly encouraged by those concerned with my stress levels these days.
I keep reminding myself that I’m working towards something and that soon a sense of normalcy and some more free time will return.
The idea of coming home, cooking dinner, then snuggling up on the couch to read a book is so, so attractive to me.
Why I want a 9-to-5 job reason #4: having an office.
The desk that would go very nicely in my imaginary office, compliments of Thomas Moser (www.thosmoser.com).
I currently have two different lives. The one before 3:30 and the one after 3:30 behind the bar at the Bistro. These days I find that I love going to work behind the bar because it’s when I get some time to relax. I get to chat with the customers and mix cocktials, it’s really more fun then work.
That before 3:30 time has me cramming in getting my freelance PR and social media work done, going to meetings and making connections, exercising and doing any other errands I need to get done. That time stamp, 3:30, haunts my entire day. I am constantly estimating how long things will take and planning my day and wake up time accordingly.
I almost always over estimate all that I can get done in those few hours before the bar. Often the reason I overestimate is because I don’t factor in distractions.
Focus and motivation. The two hardest things for me to come by. Focus more so then motivation. I’m pretty stoked to be working towards a career in public relations which keeps me amped and raring to go most days. While I have no idea how I’m going to get there I constantly remember a quote my dad read me from The World is Flat:
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.” ~Thomas Freidman
While I am usually eager to get up and start running, distractions often take away from that motivation. I place alot of this problem on my working conditions. I spend all morning in my apartment. When I don’t have meetings at specific times I find my focus is even worse. If I have meetings I at least know I have a deadline to get something done by.
However when I have unitl 3:30 to get a list of things done with no specific time or no serious consequences whether I get them done or not, it can be difficult not to stop and clean the kitchen, or the bathroom, or go through my clothes, or check facebook, or go through old pictures, or call a friend, or stop and have a conversation with my roommate, etc. etc. The distractions in my apartment are endless.
Simple solution: having an office.
If I had an office that was meant only to do work in, I think I would get a lot more done. Having a work space sets a trend for automatically putting you in the mindset of working, period. Given my lack of funds to rent office space, having an office is not going to happen until I have a 9-to-5 job.
