Miscellaneous Distractions at Work

So, my boxes aren’t the only miscellaneous things in my life. How about at work? Today was a good example. My co-worker is away for a couple of days and I just about went insane. We’re getting close to a major event, deadlines for this and that are looming, my Executive Director wanted my help with a bunch of emails, we hosted a full dinner committee meeting in the office at lunchtime, several committee members wanted something from me (mostly information I didn’t have), the phone kept ringing, etc. etc.

It was sensory overload at its worst. I’d work a little on one thing, then my ED would ask for something, I’d switch to that, the phone would ring, I’d take someone’s payment, I’d send an email, 2 more would pop up asking me for information I didn’t have. I didn’t feel like I was finishing anything, the pieces of paper multiplied all over the desk and I was just moving them around from pile to pile.

I’m not good with lots of distractions. I started and stopped the same task several times, lost track of a few things and just generally had a really bad time. I got absolutely zero done on my own work and all the work I did on the event is disorganized. Some things need follow-up but I’ll have to look through all the pieces of paper again to find which are the ones that need work.

I worked from 8:30 am to 6 pm and didn’t even stop to eat until about 2 pm. Then I grabbed half a tuna sandwich and half an egg sandwich from the leftovers from the meeting and made myself a cup of decaf, using our fancy one cup at a time machine and the milk I’d bought for the meeting. Normally I buy coffee downstairs because I like the coffee better and because I like lots of half & half. We don’t usually have milk or cream upstairs. But it was a very frugal day. I usually spend anywhere from $7 to $12 for lunch on Thursdays and Fridays. Today I spent zero. That was my one good feeling.

Friday we close at 3 pm and I have to go make a bank deposit after that, but if tomorrow is like today I won’t have time to prepare the batches. So I arranged for a volunteer to come in from 8:30 am to noon to answer the phones for me. She could have come in today too but it wouldn’t have worked as well because we had a lot of extra people bouncing around in our small space today. Tomorrow it will be just my Executive Director, the volunteer and me. That should be much more workable.

I had to go to Safeway and the deli on the way home and I had to stand partway on the bus with my bags. I was exhausted when I got home and I hadn’t been to the washroom since 7 am! My hubby wanted me to get going on dinner but I had a bit of a break first (and a couple of brownies with rainbow bits!) before I started cutting mushrooms and grating cheese.

I made pita pizzas. They’re fast and simple. Basically I put pizza sauce (from a squeeze bottle) on whole wheat pitas. I top them with mushrooms and mozzarella and they cook in 5 to 6 minutes in the toaster oven (I keep the pitas in the freezer or they might cook a little faster). A couple of pizzas and a cup of decaf with half & half and I was much happier. But I’m still tired. I fell asleep on my bed fully dressed before midnight. Hubby woke me and I forced myself to wake up enough to write this.