WFH is not for me!

I have great admiration for those who are able to work from home successfully.  I am not one of those people.  During the 2020 quarantine, I did manage to squeak out a routine of sorts.  I forced myself to stay roughly on-task and I did complete my work, but it was painful and every day seemed an eternity.  When my office at the university opened back up, I happily drove back and settled into my normal routine.  That normal routine has yet again been disrupted, but this time by winter weather.  I have been grounded at home once more, and the results this time are even worse.  Last time, I knew I was in for a long haul.  I had to get a good routine going.  This time, I know it is temporary.  I will only be here for a short bit of time.  I don’t really have to establish a routine.  The last time was due to a virus.  This time is due to winter weather that I can actually see falling.  The landscape outside of my window is constantly changing.  None of this bodes well for my concentration.

Here is a peek into the stay-at-home work day of a person who really should not work from home (especially when it’s snowing):

8:45 AM: Okay. I am ready to work.  I head into my office, A.K.A. the dining room, to get started.  As I pass the clock, I notice the time.  8:45?  I am forty-five minutes late.  How can I be forty-five minutes late when I didn’t even have to drive anywhere or pack a lunch?  Clearly I moved a little slower this morning with the knowledge that I was not going to have to drive.  No matter.  I will make it up with my tremendous productivity later!  But I will need another cup of coffee to take to my office.

I stop in the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee and I notice that while I was in the shower, several dozen people must have cooked and dined in my kitchen and left their dishes on my counters and in my sink.  How unusual.  Those dishes will drive me crazy if I don’t put them away, and it will just take a few minutes.  I open the dishwasher and notice that it is full of clean dishes, ready to be put away.  Hmmmm.  Those dishes will be such a distraction to my work if I know they are in here.  It’s best if I just put them away and reload the dishwasher and be done with it.

When the dishes are gone, I notice that the counters are covered with debris.  If I leave that mess on the counters, we will get ants.  I grab the towel and immediately notice that there is what appears to be pasta sauce on it.  How did pasta sauce get on the kitchen towel this early in the morning?  No one has eaten pasta.  My son probably opened a jar of pasta sauce just so he could get pasta sauce on my clean towel.  I go throw it in the laundry room sink.  That’s when I notice that I have a nice collection of laundry going in the sink.  It’s enough to make a small load.  If I don’t wash it soon, it’s going to start to smell soured.  I should probably do that right now.  But I hate to wash such a small load.  I should go ahead and wash a bigger load of towels.  I’ll just run to the four bathrooms and collect towels to make a full load.  Once the washing machine is going, I have to go back to each bathroom to hang up new towels.  Then I actually wipe down the kitchen counters.

Now, I am ready to work!

9:15 AM: In the dining room, I set up my computer and get a pen and paper for notes.  I have to freshen my coffee.  It got cold.  Weird.  I get a coaster from the living room.  I don’t want to leave a mark on my table!  You know what?  I probably should get a glass of water, too.  I shouldn’t just have coffee.  I go back into the kitchen for a glass of water.  I really don’t drink enough plain water at home.  Maybe if I put fruit in it?  I open the fridge to peruse my fruit choices.  Then I notice the container of rice.  When did I cook that rice?  Two nights ago?  Three nights ago?  It’s old.  I should throw it out.  What else is in the fridge that’s going bad?  The cucumber is mushy.  No one is going to eat that yogurt.  I should never have bought that flavor.  No one likes it.  That milk container has a teaspoon of milk left!  Who put that back in here?  I swear!  Why are there three open bottles of mustard?  Who keeps opening mustard?  This refrigerator is a disaster.  I end up with a half-full trash can and the dishwasher is running again when I head back to my “office.”

I start to open emails when my cat wanders in.  He loves to work with me.  He especially loves to sit right on my keyboard.  During the quarantine, I figured out that if I got out a box for him to sit in, he would sit beside me while I worked.  I should go and get him a box.  I go to the basement and search for a box that is sturdy enough to hold a kitty cat as “fluffy” as mine.  I find a good box, and a blanket to put inside, and get my cat settled in.  I am really working now.  I happen to look outside and see that it has started to snow.  Ohhhhh.  This is earlier than anticipated.  I probably should check the radar.  And I should text my friends and my sister to see if they have also noticed that it has started to snow.  I will be the Paul Revere of the snowstorm!

10:30 AM: Everyone had been alerted to the presence of snow.  I even picked up my cats and let them look out the window at the snow.  It is all out of my system and I can work.  I open up Google drive and about fifteen tabs and get really involved in something.  Then I hear the mail truck try to make it up our hill.  I look out the window and see it stopped at my neighbor’s mailbox.  When it attempts to move up the hill to our mailbox, it can’t do it.  The driver tries backing up and trying again.  Doesn’t work.  Are mail trucks 4-wheel drive? Front-wheel drive? Rear-wheel drive?  I’m going to Google that.  Rear-wheel drive!  Well, that explains it!  Then, I hear my nineteen year-old son coming from his bedroom, where he had been studying.  He is wearing a hoodie, athletic shorts, and camo hunting boots.  He goes out to the street and pushes the mail truck to help the driver make it up to our mailbox.  It worked and the driver completed her route.  It was about ten degrees outside, so my son was really not dressed for the elements.  The whole scene was really comical to me.  I might have lost a little time giggling.  Since I was already gigling, I thought I should probably just watch a little TikTok until I had regained my composure.

I don’t know if you have ever experienced a TikTok time warp, but it is a real thing.  You have every intention of just scrolling for a few moments.  Then you see something so hilarious that you have to send it to your friends, because you are laughing so hard and you know they will think it is completely funny, too.  Then they send you back videos that are equally funny, and you text back and forth witty banter, and the next thing you know…

12:00 PM:  Wow!  Lunchtime, already?  I really should watch the local news while I eat to see about the weather.  It is important to stay informed.  My kids are out sledding now.  They are getting older.  I will not have many more opportunities to enjoy snow days with them.  I decide that a few minutes of outdoor time will really invigorate me for my afternoon of work.  At a snowy ten degrees, the great outdoors did not hold my attention for long.  A few times down the hill and I was ready to get back to work.

1:30 PM:  Okay.  This is serious.  The afternoon is for work.  I have a presentation to plan.  I need to find a video about success criteria.  I am going to look on YouTube, but only for videos that are educational.  I put in my ear buds and get to work.

The kids were still sledding while I was toiling away.  I could faintly hear them laughing and yelling, but I was on-task.  I noticed my daughter come in the garage and out the front door.  I assumed she had come in for something, but I didn’t question it.  Then I heard her come back in the kitchen, and she had something to tell me.

“Mom, you have to help us get Lilly.”

Lilly is one of our cats.  The last I saw Lilly she was on my bed asleep.

“Why?  Where is Lilly?

“We took her sledding and she jumped off and rolled down the hill a little.  Then she ran under the neighbor’s truck and now she won’t come out.”

“That was a bad idea.  Cats don’t like sledding.  You had better get her out and bring her back inside.”

Notice that I remained fairly calm.  My son often comes up with these “fun ideas.”  Lilly had been out making snow angels only days before.

My daughter took the jar of treats and headed back out.  I told myself NOT to go out.  I was finally on a roll with work.  But they were out a long time.  I peeked out the window and could see all three of them looking under the truck, but I could not see Lilly.

I love my cats, so I pulled on my coat and slipped and slid across the street to help them get the cat from under the truck.  When we brought her inside, she ran right to my bed and hid underneath it.  My son tried to get her out by apologizing and offering her treats.  She would have nothing to do with that.

My shoes and pants were soaking wet from crawling under the truck for the scared cat.  So, I changed clothes.  Again.  Then I went back to the dining room.  I checked my email.  I stared at my computer screen.  I stared out the window at the falling snow.  This was not going well.

Maybe the problem was the daylight.  I could see too much out the window.  If I waited until it was dark out, I would have far fewer distractions.  I bet if I tried working after dinner, I would be SO productive.  That was clearly the answer.  I’d just wait until it was dark…