Space clearing

[chipotle]

It hasn't been an unproductive weekend, even though it's only been productive in an unorthodox sense.

Saturday was spent driving around, mostly to the East Bay area, Danville and Pleasanton. (I said, only partially in jest, that I wanted to drive to visit fall. I suspect I'd have to get into the Sierras to really visit it, though.) Not too surprisingly, I found a restaurant or two that I'd like to visit. Pleasanton is--I hate to say it--a very pleasant place.

Mostly, though, I was engaging in what I've dubbed (again only partially in jest) "driving zen," clearing my mind and thinking about what I'm accomplishing, what I'm not accomplishing, and just what I should expect to accomplish. What I realized is that there's one thing I've lacked in the year I've been living out here: a real personal work space.

When I was living in Riverview, my bedroom was just my bedroom; I had my computer set up in the living room, to one side. I only slept in the bedroom and I lived in the living room. Since I've been out here, I've been doing the same thing, but I've been working in the living room, too. And the living room isn't good for working in. It's hardly an ergonomic wonderland and it's full of distractions, and I am an easily distracted person.

And the other thing I realized is that if my problem is at least as much space management as time management, then trying to cut back on my office work load means I'd just have more time to fail to get personal work done in. Realistically, I shouldn't be having much less time during the day now available to me then I did when I was working back at NetPoodles.

So I'm going to stop trying to "fix" my current job for the moment and start trying to fix my living space. I've been letting "get real desk and chair" be much lower priority than it should have been. I'll fix that, and get better lighting in the room, and maybe get some closet organizers.

I realize this doesn't mean my work-driven angst is illusory. The stress is still going to be there, with my boss gone it's still likely to get worse, and the possibility of them telling me they no longer need my services by year's end doesn't get reduced by me getting a nifty desk. I also realize that there aren't likely to be second chances with the company looking for the part-time Excel guru if I tell them (honestly) that a change in circumstances at my office makes me more critical in the short term and that my damnable sense of work ethics would make me less inclined to leave them now.

But, I realize that I've got to get a lot better at being able to work on my own side projects even with a full-time job. I think I was able to do this once, but I've lost the knack. It's time to find it again.

Comments

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Has it really been a year already?

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

It's 11 months, 1 week and counting. My road trip out here started November 12th last year.

Despite my fits of tail-chasing concern, I know I can say I've done okay well, all things considered. My income is less than it was in Tampa Bay, particularly if I adjust it for the chunk of money I need to be saving for self-employment tax ($x in a W2 position is more or less equal to $x less 16% in a 1099 position, it would seem). But my expenses aren't substantially higher and I'm enjoying the area, and I've certainly had a lot of my gathered inertia from three decades in and around the Tampa Bay area overcome. I may continue to be in a state of flux for a while, but there's something to be said for that over a state of stasis. Part of me feels like my newly-discovered Quest For Desk is gathering more material possessions I shouldn't have, but I suppose if that truly bothers me later, I can get rid of a couple other material possessions that have been hanging around in the garage since last November as a karmic balance.

[traveller-blues.livejournal.com]

A coyote I know once told me that 'posessions are things which you have to carry around later. Living in the minimalist means that you have less things to distract you, less to leave behind if you have to move, and you can always visit someone else's toys.'

I can't say I agree fully with the statement, because in reality what you come home to is the buffer state between you and the next day's work.

Good luck with the decoration. -:)

-Traveller

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

There's nothing ilke a really good desk for carrying your stuff for you. Mine's a computer desk with three big riser platforms-- the monitor sits in the middle and two platforms rise on both sides, capable of supporting speakers capable of deafening Carnegie Hall, so I just use all that extra room for storing stuff. Yay! It's got a keyboard tray which I never use, too.

If Chipotle has no plans to move anytime soon, movability is not such a concern.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Ah, it's the Big Desk approach. :)

Back in Riverview, I actually had a fairly small computer desk, because
I decided to place it in my living room and needed to be able to make
sure it was quite out of the way when it wasn't being used. It worked
very well, though.

My room at Tugrik's is not very big -- it's smaller than the last three
bedrooms I had in Florida, actually. A Big Desk would make the room into
something of an obstacle course. :) I'm considering getting a fairly
compact 'cart' style desk, although I want it to be big enough to hold
an Apple 20" Cinema Display. Not that I have one, but I can dream.

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm finding FlyLady helpful as far as living space stuff is concerned... though I also know of BatLady, which may be more apropos as she has less cutesy-housewifey-sounding ways of phrasing things.