Everything is Juuuust Right!

Is frittering a waste of time or can it be counted as a way of getting little things done?

I had such high hopes yesterday morning.

I got started an hour later than originally anticipated but I was working on a column. It was all-part-of-a-day's-work. That isn't frittering is it? No, I didn't think so either. I called it a legal diversion and carried on.

I tackled (what I thought would be) the hardest part of my day first. Two and a half hours later, that segment of The Book Project was polished up and off for final 'approval'. That was time well spent. I applauded myself for completing that task and moved onward.

This is when I got a little sidetracked.

I wasn't sure if I had a lot of creative and high energy left to spend on The Book at this point of the day so I started working with the layout. That piddly stuff where the book publisher makes recommendations on the types of font to use for headings verses body, the margins, gutters and all of those kinds of things. This is where I feel like I started frittering my time.

But is it frittering when it is something that will have to be done at one point or another anyway? No, I didn't think so either. So I continued on with my little side-project for another few hours. One part of (about) a five or six (or ten) part process is complete. For now.

This was the point I decided to tackle one-chapter-at-a-time. I am in the fine tuning stages for several chapters. Unfortunately this task fell upon me at the (not quite) midway point in the afternoon. I read what I had and my weary eyes and brain wondered "Is it good enough, just as it is?"...

Then I walked away.

I got comfortable and snuggled into the love seat with a book in my hands. Someone else's book. It felt good to read words that were not my own. I lost myself for a while ...

... then I woke up.

No! No! No!! "Do NOT waste your day sleeping!!", I admonished myself as I tried ever-so-hard to keep my eyelids apart from each other.

Then I started bargaining with myself. "Well, if you are not going to 'Write a Book', the very least you can do is mow the lawn."; "Ugh! I do NOT want to mow the lawn (sigh)..."; "Well then? Get back and DO something productive with The Book"; "I am all out of energy and motivation". Yes. I actually do have these two sided arguments within my own head. I usually lose.

At this point, I realized that I had forgotten to turn on the radio at the onset of my day. Music in the background keeps me in-the-moment and exactly where I need to be to accomplish long-winded tasks.

I was paralyzed. Book. Lawn. Book. Lawn. Book. Lawn.

The lawn won. I went out and moved my body and it was the smartest choice of the two options that I gave myself. I came inside, had a shower and then started doing 'hard things'. Little things that I had been putting off for forever. Like changing the battery in the answering machine and telephone (so the call display would work). Big things like cleaning cat litter and making some supper. I thought that I accomplished more than that. I am sure that I did.

Then at 6:53, I looked at the clock and congratulated myself. All of my work was done. I allowed myself to sit down, sit still and watch Gilmore Girls. My guilty pleasure.

Did I fritter the day away? My vote goes with 'No'. I did necessary things. I did creative things. I did hard things. I did easy things.

All in all? I would say that yesterday was a 'Win'. I invested a good part of the day to The Book Project. I invested necessary time and energy tending to that-which-needed-to-be-done. I invested some time in myself as I tended to what felt right at the time. Then I slept.

As I made my bed this morning, I could not help but think of the days where I would look longingly at my bed each morning and wish the day away so that I could climb back into bed, throw the covers over my head and sleep through my life. These days? I am eager to wake up in the mornings and just as excited to climb back into that soft, comfy oasis and lose myself to sleep. Just the right amount of sleep.

Yes, I am truly back in my 'Goldilocks Zone'.