Update Project Punctual

I am in a dangerous mood this morning.  Why? you may ask.

Because there is no tea.

Why is there no tea?

Because I made it and left it on the bloody counter because I was not awake enough to remember it after shoveling in my breakfast while STANDING (horrid way to start a morning), then trying to get the dog and the giant cookie cake for the vet school (which said: Thanks for making me better <3 Daisy) into the car this morning.  The staff got teary.

Project Punctual is leaving me with a general homicidal rage.  Because I can Do All The Things, it’s just not necessarily on someone else’s time clock.  I’ve been so freaking stressed out this week, watching the bloody clock that I haven’t been able to focus on actual work, on top of which I haven’t been sleeping well, as it’s been near to 100 every day this week and our AC just can’t compensate for that (modern houses are built with better insulation but AC systems that are adequate only to about 90 degrees, which is moronic since Mississippi spends at least 3 months a year above that), and I can’t sleep if it’s warmer than 70.  I was also so clock focused that I flat FORGOT to take Daisy to PT on Tuesday.  The physical therapist called about 9:30 to make sure everything was okay.

I have this weird sort of relationship with time.  My efficiency and discipline have almost nothing to do with time.  I pick something, I do it until it’s finished, and move on to the next thing.  The only thing I regularly have time associated with (outside alarm clock waking me up and the timer on my tea) are the various HIIT and Lady Spartacus workout timers that beep and tell me when to change what I’m doing.

I have SO MUCH packed into my day that having to actually THINK about time and, not only that, but specific times, is about to push me over the edge.  The proverbial straw.

Possibly this would not be so bad if I lived in a country where there was a daily nap.  Of course if I lived in one of those countries, no one would be this obsessed with time.  Sometimes I really hate American society.  We’re unhealthier than most of the rest of the world because most people here eat crap, don’t exercise, sit at a desk all day, and generally live to work, such that they’d rather pop a half dozen pills to fix problems than change the habits that created the problems in the first place.

UGH.

Times like these, I miss France.

9 thoughts on “Update Project Punctual

  1. I’ve never considered the fact that some people might be stressed by time. I’m a clock watcher, and I’m obsessed with being on time, and it’s just part of life to me. It doesn’t stress me…unless I’m running late. LOL. We must all be different in how we handle time. It would be nice to live in a place where everyone is laid back and don’t worry about time, but then no one would get to work on time, then businesses would suffer because there wouldn’t be anyone working. That’s why it would be great to be able to make your living by sitting at a computer, making stuff up, and doing it on your own schedule. Business would go on. 🙂

      1. I just know if I was extremely late all the time, the business here would suffer. LOL I guess Americans just don’t know HOW to do business like the Europeans or how to be less obsessed with time. Maybe if we did, there would be fewer meltdowns and people shooting other people. Now you’re making me want to go there on vacation and see how it would be to just…be.

  2. Thanks for explaining the mystery of our air conditioning! You’re right that it just can’t compensate here in the South in 100+ weather. I though something was terribly wrong because it is always a few degrees higher than we set it. Thank goodness for fans!

    1. I think we have an additional issue in our house in that the AC was probably bought for the square footage…NOT for the volume. We have 12 foot ceilings in most of the house and 9 in the rest, which is substantially more airspace to cool than the 8 foot ceilings that the load estimates for ACs are calculated on. We just bought a dehumidifier to put in the bedroom to see if that helps.

  3. Wasn’t there a news magazine article somewhere that looked at large companies in the US experimenting with letting workers make their own hours (maybe even Google)? I seem to remember it being a very successful thing, because morning people worked early, day people worked afternoons and night people worked later/evenings with some overlap (just naturally, no set schedules). It seems to me that they found those people to be far happier and more productive than people in a normal US corporate setting.

    I know for a fact that I’m far more productive when allowed to choose my own working hours…and far less efficient when forced to conform to a set time schedule. I dare say a lot of people are like that. It’s not that clock-watchers wouldn’t still be able to watch the clock…just the rest of us could be more laid back. Less stress all around equals happier, more productive workers, IMO.

    Without my tea…there would be bodies to hide…

  4. One thing though – we work at day jobs for less hours than many other countries. I couldn’t believe it my first day on the job in Turkey when I found out I was expected to work at least till 6 (and frequently later, but that was a customer service thing) while starting at 8.30. But they paid for us to order lunch, whatever we wanted, every day 🙂

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