It is what it is
Hello you chiquita banana.
I have a confession to share with you, my loyal EP readers. I am hastily composing this dispatch on Saturday afternoon, less than a day before this lands in your inbox-- and a mere couple of hours before leaving to attend a friend's wedding (for which I am also unprepared to attend)-- with no time to refine, edit or polish this offering.
I have, as they say, procrastinated my butt off.
The positive spin is that this is the first time since I started these weekly dispatches that I have left the writing of an edition to the proverbial last minute. But the fact that I am flirting with disaster only three months into this practice does give me pause. So this week, I thought it might be interesting to write a bit about procrastination, and finding ways to make time to do the things you care about.
[insert pause as I look and what I have been up to this week to justify the situation in which I find myself]
And yet...
When I look through my collection of recently-read articles and interesting tidbits from the interwebs, I actually think I had a really good week. Despite this little flurry of accountability stress, I would actually prefer to share some resources about why time management is ruining our lives. “Personal productivity presents itself as an antidote to busyness when it might better be understood as yet another form of busyness. And as such, it serves the same psychological role that busyness has always served: to keep us sufficiently distracted that we don’t have to ask ourselves potentially terrifying questions about how we are spending our days.”
Even though I was not able to muster the time and motivation to get this dispatch drafted in a timely way, when looking back on how I spent the past 7 days, I actually had a pretty rewarding and balanced week. I spent a generous amount of time getting caught up with some too-long-not-seen friends, I moved things forward with a few important files at work, I helped organize a successful event, I laughed many many times, I repainted my kitchen, I meditated every morning, and most importantly, I felt happy, grounded and fulfilled for the better part of each day. So what if I didn't get this one thing done on a timeline that I would have liked?
This dispatch may be a bit rough, but in the end I showed up and got it done. And I am kinda okay with that for this week.
In the spirit of "showing up can be good enough sometimes", here are a few other resources I like:
In closing, I did fall down a small rabbit hole this week reading this lonely account of trekking across Antarctica. And yet all the while, I also kept thinking about this absolutely blissful video from last year of a Norweigian trekker who, after three months of isolation and exhaustion, slowly uncovers a stash of cheezies and candy that he had left for himself for the trek back to home base. I LOVE his unfettered and wholehearted joy at the simple pleasure of finding a snack after such a grueling experience-- and in particular I am struck by the quiet, shimmering pauses that he takes as he takes in the experience.
But I digress...
From one earnest, fulfilled and sometimes time-crunched person to another, I am glad that we can show each other patience and love as we hold hands on the precipice of potential failure. I hope you enjoyed this dispatch, and have an accomplishment-filled week! (or not)
Until next Sunday,
The Earnest Platypus