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Songs and Schedules

I’m sure we all feel like every day is Groundhog Day. It’s the same thing over and over again. I’m fortunate that I can work from home and have two teenagers who can fend for themselves – for the most part. Here is how I’m currently spending my day. I could use some ideas to spice things up. Right now, I’m mixing up the songs I sing while I wash my hands.

Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.

7:15 am – Wake up

7:45 am – Get out of bed. Check my phone to see what day it is. Wash hands and sing Happy Birthday.

8:00 am – Shower

8:30 am – Coffee, breakfast and watch last night’s monologues. Wash hands and sing the Eagles fight song.

8:45 am – Walk around the kitchen island to my workspace on the other side and login to work.

9:30 am  – Let the dog out. Look up and do the Facebook list of the day. Today was 10 jobs and one is a lie. Guess which one. Silly, but it does pass the time.

9:45 am – Wash hands to The Frog Song. If you celebrate Passover, you know which song I mean. For everyone else, click here.

10:00 am – Daily team check-in and send out a few emails.

10:30 am  – Throw in a load of laundry, run the dishwasher, get yesterday’s mail and take something out for dinner.

10:45 am – Touched my face. Wash my hands to My Girl by the Temptations.

11:00 am  – Kids wake up, come downstairs and make a lot of noise just in time for my Zoom meeting. Login and walk upstairs to my bedroom and shut the door.

11:05 am  – Strategically place my laptop someplace where my colleagues can’t see my unmade bed and messy closet.

11:30 am  – Move laundry to the dryer and take recyclables out. Check voicemail, email, Slack and text messages and answer accordingly.

12 noon – Lunch and take the dog for a walk. Wash my hands to Happy Birthday because I ran out of songs.

1:00 pm – Log back into work and dive into a project I’ve been wanting to work on all day.

1:15 pm – Take a break.

1:45 pm – Answer phone call to reschedule my mammogram for the third time. No appointments until June. 🙁

2:00 pm  – Text colleagues to see if they are getting anything done. If yes, what’s their secret? If no, begin commiserating about how we never thought we’d miss being in the office.

2:30 pm – Wash hands and sing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.

3:00 pm  – Take another deep dive into the above project that I thought I’d be done by now.

4:00 pm – Pat myself on the back for a good start and make a list of tomorrow’s next steps.

5:00 pm – Wash hands and counted to 20 this time. Put my feet up and watch a little tv

6:00 pm – SHIT! I forgot to make dinner.

6:30-7:00 pm – Hungry family members come up one at a time to inquire when dinner will be ready. Vow to order out tomorrow night.

7:00 pm – Dinner & watch Jeopardy.

7:30 pm – Wash hands – probably for 10 instead of the full 20 seconds. Fold laundry in front of the tv.

9:30 pm – Exhausted even though I didn’t do that much today. Time to get ready for bed. Wash hands.

10:00 pm – Read a chapter in my book.

10:15 pm  –   Zzz….

What Success Can Look Like

I don’t love public speaking, but I’m told that I’m better than I think. I once took a class where we were videotaped giving a speech in front of the group. I was surprised to see that while my heart was pounding on the inside, no one could see me sweat. I never let on how nervous I was and seeing it for myself was a game-changer.

This came in handy recently on the way to a job interview, I went over the presentation in my head. I was feeling confident about my slides and prepared for whatever follow up questions would come my way. My accomplishment stories were solid, and I was proud of the two writing pieces they assigned to me. Everything was just about ready to go.

But I had one problem. I didn’t have an opening line. I’m a communications professional, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to kick things off. If I wanted this job, I needed a hook. Something that would grab their attention and hang on my word. Something that would make the senior leadership stand up, embrace me and say, “where have you been all my life?”

I went through the presentation in my head as I drove to their office. Nothing sounded right, and now my palms were sweating. I had that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. The voice inside my head was screaming at me.

“How could you be so stupid,” it said. “You worked so hard on this presentation. Why did you think that something would just come naturally? Or magically?”

I pulled into the parking lot with 20 minutes to spare. I had a few ideas floating around in my head, but I grabbed my laptop and downloaded my presentation hoping inspiration would strike.

Finally, I took a deep breath and asked myself: What am I trying to say? What do I bring to the table that they desperately need?

And then, out of the blue, it came to me. I am a storyteller, and people love to hear a good story. Stories are powerful things. They spark emotion. They inspire others to act and to give generously.

I finally had my opening line and made my way into the office.

* * *

“Whenever you are ready,” the CEO said.

I stood up and even though my heart was beating a mile a minute, I remembered my public speaking class. I took a deep breath and walked to the front of the room. My hands were no longer sweaty. I was back in control.

“Thanks again for inviting me here today. Again, my name is Elisa, I’m a sucker for a great story.”

At the end of the presentation, I thought it went well. The opening line was well received, and it looked like people connected with my ideas. Of course, one can’t be too sure about these things. Maybe I did terrible, and they were just being polite.

But, here’s the best part.

During my one-to-one with the CEO, her first question was this.

“Do you train people to speak in public?”

I was floored. I guess they never saw me sweat.

Best compliment ever!

 

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Reading Professionally

Whenever I head off to a conference for work, I typically leave room in my suitcase – not for souvenirs – but for books. And while I’d love to say the books I buy come from exploring and supporting the local indie bookstores, it is more likely that you will find me in the exhibit hall buying the book of a speaker who just inspired me.

Basically, the better the conference; the more books I bring home.

As a result, I have built my own library of professional development books. And I admit while a few have been read, there are a bunch more that have collected a good amount of dust.

But, not anymore.

I don’t know whether it is the quarantine or the smell of disinfectant wipes that have gone to my brain, but I gave myself another challenge this month.

In addition to the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I am selecting books I’ve purchased at these conferences to read and post articles about on LinkedIn. I might as well put my time to good use. I did pay for them with my hard-earned money after all, and honestly, I could use a little inspiration and career advice right now.

And while I’m typically a fast reader, these books come with exercises to work through in order to get the most out of their message. Therefore, I’m giving myself two weeks to read and work through each one.

If this quarantine has gifted me anything, it has been the gift of time. So, I have no excuses to meet both the UBC and my LinkedIn reading challenge.

If you are interested in these reviews, leave me a note in the comments and I will send you my LinkedIn page so we can connect.

Whatever you are reading during this crazy time, I hope it brings you joy. Happy reading!

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