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All Work and No Play Makes Charlie Something Something…

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, one where you finally sit back and survey the work that’s looming in front of you, and you take stock of the deadlines, and your capabilities, and the help you can get, and the resources at your disposal, and the staggering importance of all the tasks on your list, and then you find that if you strain hard enough, you can imagine a scenario, unlikely though it is, in which you can barely — and I mean just damned barely — manage to get everything done in time, provided that you buckle down, work smart, sleep little, and cut back on unnecessary extracurriculars like… oh, I dunno, going home. Eating. Breathing so damned often, that sort of thing. But dammit, it could work. If you just throw yourself completely into it, and everything goes well, with no surprises, you just might be able to pull this one out of your ass. Barely.

You with me here? You had one of those days? It’s sort of depressing, and yet strangely exciting. Once you’ve figured it all out, you’re filled with a new optimism, a sense of purpose. It’s a tough challenge, but it’s not impossible. Not technically, anyway.

You’ve all had one of these days, right? So you know how it feels. You’ve scripted out your next few weeks, or even months, with nothing but work, but there’s a tiny little light, way way out there at the end of the tunnel. And gradually, a sense of grim determination settles over you. You’ve got a job to do, and there’s nothing left but to roll up your sleeves and dig in.

Which is when you take an early lunch, of course. An early, long lunch. Quite possibly with a beer, or three. Or nine. And then you go home early, because clearly, such a complex and important plan should be undertaken early in the morning, so more can get accomplished on the ‘kick-off’ day.

Come to think of it, it’s probably best if this sort of thing is begun on a Monday morning, so the weekly progress reports won’t get all screwy with just a half-week of the new plan. And now that you bring that up, aren’t there monthly progress reports, too? And here it is, already the third of the month — and tomorrow will be the fourth, fer chrissakes. It’s way too late to start anything significant in May. Perhaps June will work, or even July, to kick off the third quarter right. But today? Clearly not. And tomorrow’s not looking so good, either.

So, obviously, I had one of those days today.

(Okay, not literally, of course. I didn’t actually drink at lunch, for instance. Felt like it, after trying — and failing miserably — to come to terms with all that must be accomplished between now and mid-May. And for the record, I only went home early because all of the servers that my work is on were down for several hours today. I decided that was some sort of omen or other, and that the best course of action would be to slink under the covers and hide shivering like a scared little girl for a few hours. Omens’ll do that to you, you know.)

Anyway, things may be a bit sparse and sporadic around here for a while. On the other hand, I’m writing this instead of getting started on all that work, so maybe the status quo will hold, after all. Still, I think something’s gonna have to give somewhere — there really is a lot on my plate for the next few weeks, and I’d really prefer not to give up any of that breathing I’ve been doing lately. I’m just starting to get the hang of it. Meh.