Today was a hectic and busy day. For those of you who don't know, I am an information analyst, which means I help analyze and structure data for a database. Yesterday and today, I was in brainstorming meetings all day. It might sound like fun, but my usual work week is about 50% meetings and 50% analysis time, give or take 20%. A few days in a row that are all meetings is a major change. I felt stressed because I was getting behind on my regular work. Instead of doing analysis, I was planning projects that would require analysis. Plus, these meetings are technical meetings where three developers are bouncing ideas off of each other, and I need to be in the room listening to programmers to talk about things I don't understand in case there is something out there where they might impact data and I would have to speak up. And I have to pay super close attention so I don't miss something important and then they mess up the data. One or two hours a day of this is fine. Eight to nine is exhausting. Plus, everyone on the team is using their maximum brain power, not just me. Everyone is in the same boat.
Yay!
Seriously. Me kvetching about my job is awesome.
Why?
This is the first time I've felt stressed about my job in months, and that is a good thing. Of course, my own private Pax Romana on the job was nice, but it reflects something else: I was too stressed about my personal life to feel stressed about work. Before, I was coasting along. Other people would be stressed about upcoming project plans or other stuff and I'd think "What are you whining about? This is easy compared to what I am dealing with at home." And it was easy compared to home. (Caveat: I don't recommend blowing up your personal life to make your job seem relatively easy. That is not the point.)
This week's work issue is micro stress, not macro stress. The Boy in boarding school for anxiety and depression is macro stress. My marriage imploding is macro stress. Not that work blip isn't important, but this stretch of a week with all meetings isn't permanent. This will last for a few days and then it will settle down, in one way or another.
The fact that I am settling down into micro stress is good. I means I am healing from my macro stress. The distracting injury is calming down, and I can feel other parts of my body.
Or maybe micro stress is like hair on your toes. Hairy toes aren't pretty, but read somewhere that it means you are healthy.
This blog is about the little and big thoughts that pop into my head. I once read that when Flannery O'Connor walked into a bookstore, she would want to edit her published works with a red pen. In the digital world, we have the luxury of tweaking things up after we've hit the publish button. I can be a perfectionist/procrastinator, where waiting for the ideal means little gets done. Here I will share what is not--and likely will never be--perfect.
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