“Huh?! What’s tha-” I say as my phone buzzes right beside my head.
“Oh.. uh… hello?” I answer groggily.
“Guess what?”
“Uh… what?” I say, as I recognize my wife’s voice.
“I thought Leah’s flight arrived at 6pm. But it’s actually arriving at 3.55pm.”
“OH!” I say, as I sit up… the last vestiges of my afternoon nap suddenly shaken off.
“That means… I’ll have to pick her up by myself. And not with all of us there like we planned.”
“Sorry, my mistake,” she laments.
“That’s OK,” I say, as I scramble for my keys and wallet, “these things happen. Pity we can’t all go now.”
“Yeah,” Vicki sighs, “but at least ONE of us will be there.”
“Yep! OK, better dash then…”
I hang up. Race out the door. Jump in the car. And pray the speed cameras aren’t operating today.
55-minutes later I’m pulling into a parking space at the airport. I can hear the whirring of turboprops from the plane that has just arrived from Auckland.
I bolted into the terminal building. And positioned myself casually against a pillar.
Hoping it wouldn’t look like I’d almost missed greeting my youngest daughter as she walked in from the tarmac.
I couldn’t manage this kind of last-minute thing if it was happening every day.
But with one-off times like this… I’m thankful for the flexibility of freelancing.
If I have an unexpected chunk bitten off my time one afternoon…
I can usually catch up in the evening. Or just push things to the next day. No problem.
But things become a whole lot less flexible when deadlines start stacking up.
My strategy is to never arrive at the day of a deadline with work still needing to be completed.
Although sometimes the best organization can’t predict unexpected things… and you finish just as the last grains of sand in the hourglass fall.
Or you have to swallow your pride and arrange for extra time.
But if this is a constant struggle… there could be other things at play.
One which I’ve experienced myself, and have seen in others, is self-doubt.
It manifests in many ways.
One is procrastination. And what I call “blissfully ignorant procrastination”… otherwise known as “busywork”.
I’ve got my own strategies for dealing with these things. And I like to share about them in my emails from time to time.
If, right now, you’re feeling kinda stuck because of this sort of thing. And don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere. Then I can offer you help through coaching.
We might just need a session or two to help you get on track.
If I’m speaking to you… you’ll have to get over the hurdle of contacting me…
But imagine the time and energy saved if you can just get moving… now.
Simply reply to this email. And we can chat about what you need.
All the best for a productive week ahead!
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EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham