Work Time

One by one the academic bloggers are announcing that their fall syllabi are finished off. PZ is done. So is Jo(e). Some with two weeks to spare. How can they relax like that? Isn’t there some last minute fiddling to do? You can’t be the first person to leave the test room! It’s bad luck.

As someone who only finished school in her mid-30s, you would think I would have this whole deadline thing figured out by now, but I don’t. It’s my nature to sit at the computer for an entire day, even if a majority of that time is spent farting around on the blogs and playing games. I have the best of intentions. I always plan to work for 12 hours straight and I can’t stand the guilt of not being at the computer. But, you know, I really do better work in smaller chunks. And it’s much better to really go out and have fun, rather than squandering fun on games of solitaire.

The kids have helped me unlearn those bad habits, mostly because I never had that entire day to “work.” Instead, I had little blocks of time to read and write. The scarcity of time helped me use it better.

Things are easing up around here. The oldest boy is much more self sufficient. He can play outside for hours with the neighbor urchins. The youngest one is doing a bit of daycare, and my husband is entirely in charge on the weekends. Big open stretches of time to daydream and to putter.

But I think I’m less inclined to waste that time than before, because I really want to spend time with the kids. I want to spring Ian loose from daycare and pry Jonah from his friends, so that we can go bowling or something. I would rather waste time with them.