Shannon Philpott-Sanders

Productivity: One Wet Dog at a Time

For the past few days, I’ve had the house to myself. It sounds like a wonderful thing – time to complete all of those tasks that I’ve been putting off, time to sit back, relax and catch up on TV shows, and time to do all of those things I’ve wanted to do, yet I’ve been too busy to accomplish.

Wrong. It is a horrible thing, especially for productivity.

Instead of vegging out on the couch, completing home projects and freelance gigs and washing the dog who has smelled up the entire house, I have been a miserable wreck of ADD-stricken angst.

Oh yes, I had my to-do list and I planted my butt at the kitchen table with my Macbook, but nervous energy got the best of me.

I pitter-pattered around the house, I procrastinated on projects, I spent hours on Twitter and Facebook, and I took drives around town to occupy my time.

I’ve come to the conclusion that in order for me to be productive, I must have noise, people and barking dogs around at all times. Most of all, I need deadlines.

So, with a stack of editing and writing projects stacked up in my Inbox, I was determined that today – my last day of freedom – would be productive. Today was my deadline to accomplish everything on my to-do list for the week.

And, I found a way to do it. I turned up the radio and gave in to my ADD nature. I promised myself that I would alternate tasks to maintain my sanity and attention.

One writing project, cut the grass, another writing project, give the dog a bath, an editing project, do the dishes, another editing project, Swiffer the hardwood floors, send out client e-mails, put in a load of laundry, grade two papers, vacuum the carpet in the basement, and so on (and of course, a blog post).

And it worked. I’m accomplishing much more today than I have all week. And, the aroma of wet dog is no more.

– Shannon Philpott
Blog Entry: June 11, 2010

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June 11, 2010 - Posted by sphilpott | Blog, Writing | empty house syndrome, empty nest syndrome, procrastinating, productivity, to-do lists, wet dog, writers block