Office hours

Today has already included a trip to a new park, 48 oz. of coffee, a new cupcake shop, lunch in the car, no afternoon napping (not without my encouragement), and about an hour's worth of work accomplished.  This has taken us to afternoon snack time.  I feel that any one of those parts is often a solid effort at the day.  (Oh, but that is not my style.  Oh, but I would love to find and then commit to the right full-time gig.)  The Elder is done with school for the summer season but the boy isn't yet, so my normal distractions are quickly increasing by the fistful.   

And thanks be for 20 oz. of decaf in the middle of everything, else my fingers would not be a'workin' for the shakin'. 

So this all leads me to a new thing that I want to try out this summer: office hours.  I fight the distractions when trying to get my work done here at home, and it's a frustration that I haven't overcome yet.  Even when the boy is around full-time, it's not much better.  I can shut myself into my bedroom, but there's still always someone knocking or shouting or crying or laughing hysterically.  With my house's petite size, you can just hear everything (great when you have to brush your teeth, terrible when you JUST WANT SOME SPACE SO PLEASE DON'T BREATH SO LOUDLY).  Plus, my space is also the boy's space, so I can't very well wholly shut him out of the room.  Of course that doesn't stop me from trying. 

So I've laid out some plans with the boy where I find some office space somewhere and gravitate there regularly M-F.  It will just be established that I am not available from 10-noon or 8-10 or even 3-5 every weekday.  I have a fairly consistent amount of work to do, and while it's getting done, I don't love my scatter brainedness with it.  I'm looking for direction and focus, so we'll give it a try at least for a week or two.  The main hope here is that I'll also start some new projects rolling or explore some new avenues that have been bouncing around in my mind for a while.

 Props to the boy, who I know can hold down the fort like a champ.  (Granted, we're a pretty weak castle to defend...more of a bygone relic, really.)  I say "I need to be gone every morning for a couple of hours."  He says "Okay.  What are you going to do?"  That's a golden response right there.