I've been MIA for two weeks again. This has been due to a number of reasons. The main two are my mental and physical health taking a hit. I have had to come to accept that this is going to happen from time to time and there isn't much I can do about it, except roll with it. As no amount of self-loathing or any level of frustration is going to get me anywhere. In fact, it only lengthens the amount of time I need to find my feet again.
The third reason, well, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. And here I am going to rant a bit...
... The Rant
If you are providing a service or doing a job for someone. Don't lie. Manage your client's expectations.
I say this from a client's perspective. We are having an inverter installed on the property to make dealing with the constant power cuts from loadshedding more bearable and less disruptive to our lives. It's a big boy inverter that will basically be able to power most things, with exception of anything with a heating element (geyser, kettles, heaters, etc.).
To say I was excited is an understatement. The heatwaves have made sleeping without a fan impossible for me. I was sleep deprived on top of everything else that was going on. The foreman said it's easy and it will be done quickly. A day or two he said.
After day five of "We should finish today." I was losing my humour completely. It has been a week and a half, almost two.
Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciate that they are taking the time to rewire everything so that it is all automatically sorted. We don't need to lift a finger or run around unplugging certain things or flipping switches. The convenience is going to be amazing. But dang it! Why not tell me from the get-go, this is gonna take a while?!
I had prepared and planned around 2 or 3 days of chaos. I got two weeks of constant chaos. Things that I wanted and needed to get done were all put on hold indefinitely as I babysat the dogs and helped moved a variety of things around to provide access to plugs and wires. The fact that I wasn't feeling well and was unable to rest with strangers and constant noise did not help my mood any.
But in the end, I made peace with it. I looked at what needed to be done and the average time it was taking them to complete something, and I made my own guesstimate as to when they would be finished. I was bang on the money. So please explain to me how someone like me, with no electrician knowledge, managed that. Surely it means estimating the time it will take isn't THAT difficult?
Here are my two cents on the matter. Rather overestimate the amount of time it will take to get a job done. That way your client is able to plan their life around that accordingly and not get frustrated. And if you happen to finish before the given time, well hey, it makes you look good. Your client might like you more, instead of wanting to wring your neck for making their life hell when you said you would be done a week ago.
Moving forward...
Right, now that that is out of my system, it is time to move on. The new inverter is set up to be able to power our computers as well as WiFi during loadshedding. Which I am looking forward to! No longer will I be interrupted and need to scurry to shut down and unplug when we suddenly move up a stage or loadshedding is implemented out of the blue.
We will also have lights and fans. Fans are the big one as I can hopefully get something resembling a normal sleeping routine back instead of looking like a narcoleptic when I randomly fall asleep from sheer exhaustion.
I am aiming to get our living spaces back to some semblance of normalcy as well. Right now everything is covered in piles of things that needed to be packed out or moved to allow access. I haven't been able to use my couch in two weeks. I happen to like our couch a lot. But it's piled with some of my sewing and watercolour painting supplies at the moment.
It could be an opportunity to de-clutter some and sort out some things I have been meaning to do for a while. Though that will largely depend on my energy levels and those have been dismally low recently.
... Inktober Failure
Speaking of art supplies, I realise more than half of October is gone and I have done only a single piece of art. Unfortunately, when my physical and mental health is at a low, my creativity is non-existent. Not only art-wise but writing-wise as well. Hence my lack of posts.
Gentle Coaxing...
I am trying not to get frustrated with myself, as I mentioned earlier. It is proving to be difficult though. Instead, I am simply attempting to gently coax myself into getting back into things. This is a challenge in itself though as my brain has a tendency to become nihilistic. And I am trying not to be absolutely mean to myself but my brain will quite often tell me I am useless trash and everything is pointless anyway so why bother?
This makes pushing myself to get anything done all the more difficult. A balancing act between trying not to get angry at my useless self and go even deeper into the hole, and trying to encourage myself to take steps towards getting out of the hole.
What do you do to get over a slump or lack of motivation?
Thanks!
As always, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my ramblings.
Credits:
- Photos by me;
- Canva for helping me make the photos look pretty.