It was so nice to wake up yesterday morning and remember there was no one coming and we didn’t have to get up. Of course, the dog still thought we ought to be getting up at the crack of dawn, but he was soon put in his place.
I was looking forward to a day of uninterrupted work but even though I was at my desk on time, I didn’t start the proofreading straight away. No, I had to write up yesterday’s blog post first, didn’t I? And then I had to choose an image and then post it everywhere. Determined not to be in the same position this morning, as soon as I’d done all that for yesterday’s post, I started today’s.
During my reading hour I read Jessica Brody’s latest book, Page One to Done, in which she recommended two things I had to go and look at immediately. The first of these was something called binaural beats, which is where different frequencies of a sound are fed into the ears instead of the same frequency, or something like that. I found a free app that I could upgrade if I wanted to and, actually, I may do just that.
I’m a big fan of white noise while I’m working. I can’t listen to songs with lyrics or instrumentals where there’s a lot going on. I do, however, like to listen to rain, or to the ocean, something like that. The app I found had quite a few to choose from including the two Brody recommends for creativity, so that will keep me busy learning how to use it.
The second thing she recommended was her own companion app to the book, which is free. So I went to look at that as well. (There’s a link in the book to follow, rather than finding it in the app store.) It’s still in beta at the moment and there’s a warning to expect glitches while they iron things out. There were a couple of glitches, but nothing that stopped me looking at it. To learn more about it, though, I think I need to load up a real project and I’m not in a position to do that just now. Maybe once I’ve caught up on the client backlog.
I was about to start work when the delivery driver arrived with some new tops I wanted to choose from for a weekend event. So then, of course, I had to try them on, and that led to me trying on a couple of dresses ahead of a wedding. One was way to small and went in the bin. The other was fine, and as I’d lost a further 2lb over the past week or so, this dress fitted nicely too. Another 1¼lb and I’ll have lost a whole stone (14lb), since April. All three new tops went into the wardrobe.
I went back to my desk and the cuckoo clock announced it was midday. Time for my midday brunch! Would I ever get back to this blummin proofreading? I broke for something to eat…(‘broke’ – hah, that’s funny, broke from what? I wasn’t doing anything!) And when I was back at my desk I updated today’s blog post thus far, determined not to have it to do this morning.
Then I realised the bin men hadn’t emptied our wheelie bins yet and we had another bin bag in the kitchen that could do with going in ours. I was about to do that when the poet said he’d do it, and once he’d convinced me he was up to taking a bin bag out, I let him. He had already rather gung-ho tried to rehang a mirror in the hallway and ended up having to crash on the bed for an hour. Yes, he’s feeling much better, but his body clearly isn’t listening and he needs to rest and recuperate.
It was stifling by this time in the office and we had all the windows open and all the fans on. The forecast said it was 33℃ outside (apx. 94℉) and getting hotter. So I thought perhaps we ought to close the window now as we were trying to circulate warm air from outside, More time gone.
By the time I actually started the work, it was 1:30pm. No wonder I never seem to get it finished. Time I started to get more disciplined on my hour-long work slots again.
I did try the binaural beats but didn’t get comfortable with them straight away. First of all, the ‘study’ beats were too distracting, so I switched to ‘focus’ beats instead. Those didn’t work at first either, because they gave me eye strain in my left eye. On further investigation, my ear buds weren’t feeding into my right ear, so everything was going into my left ear. I changed that and got on with work for a whole Pomodoro.
After a break, though, I switched to my trusty old faithful rain sounds, and managed a few more Pomodoros with those. I eventually finished work at just after 9pm. But I did finish it. And I sent it off. Because it was so late, though, I didn’t get to upload today’s blog post. So it’s late.
We have shopping to get at the weekend and some new bedding, and I have that afternoon tea thingy with the family ahead of the daughter’s wedding. But the big thing happening this weekend is it’s Alfie’s first birthday tomorrow. No doubt we’ll be getting him some wuffins and a wuff-day cake from the pet shop to celebrate, and perhaps a new toy. He could also do with a new bed to go in the bedroom as he’s wrecked his old one and it’s letting the rest of the room down.
Whatever you’re up to at the weekend, I hope it’s a good one!
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