UBC January 2024 - Construction Sites

In German, we call areas of life that require action "Baustellen" (construction sites). I feel like this current week has been a review of most of the sites I'm involved in / am responsible for. 

I thought it'd be a good thing to visualize and write about them, so as a first step I looked for a mind mapping tool that would allow me to do an outline. 

Here goes, I know it's small. I have a lot of stuff on my plate ;-)

Let me walk you through my thought processes:

In the middle I was supposed to write down the name of my company. Since this is not a corporate thing, it's just me, and it's fair to say that my person carries the responsibility for all of my areas I'm talking about. So I borrowed a line from Taylor Swift's Anti Hero:

I divided my areas into fact-oriented (right hand side) and emotional / relationship oriented (on the left) topics, fully aware that even the ones on the right won't be unemotional. I do think that the ones on the right can be managed with tools. Actual tools like hammers and screwdrivers to finally build that IKEA shelf I purchased months ago. And tools like to-do lists, delegation and the like.

So there's my day job. I joined my husband's business twelve years ago after his business partner passed away unexpectedly, leaving.a huge void. Hubby still works six days a week. We are having a hard time finding people for various reasons. December and January are the busiest months of the year, and we're still in the middle of this avalanche of demands.

Household. It's on my shoulders pretty much entirely. It's hard to maintain a status quo, let alone to achieve some sustainable improvements. In this browser I still have a tab open. It's a lady that offers home organising services. A full day of her services, including transportation of recyclable stuff, costs roughly 1,000 bucks. I'm tempted to hire her. 

The third bullet point is my new assignment with the magazine. It's safe to say I had a bumpy start. I wrote about what's going on there here and here. 

So on the left side are the areas that should be fun and easy. 

I'm lucky enough to have no immediate problems in my marriage, with my son or immediate family, meaning my parents. I put my Godfather on this chart because he's on my mind a lot. He and my aunt lost their grown-up middle child a few weeks ago.

Friends.... My best friend has become - for lack of a better term - a distant friend. I still have to figure out whether it's due to us both being busy, or if the friendship has run its course. We were supposed to meet this week and I thought we were talking about "after work", so I alerted hubby and son that they had to take care of their own dinner.  I texted her in my lunch break to ask where we were going to meet. No response all afternoon. I stayed at the office, and she called at 6pm. She told me she was on her way home, where she was going to make dinner for the guys (her sons are in Colin's age and are perfectly fine to throw a pizza in the oven), she would be ready to go out by 8pm. I blurted out "what? That late? Frankly, that's not working for me, I need to go to sleep at 9:30." We left things friendly, I'm supposed to suggest a new date, which I haven't done so far.

Later today I'm meeting my high school friends for brunch (it's 8:30am as I'm typing this.). Looking forward to that.

I put "Social Life" on the chart, even though there's not going on much in that area, because Hockey takes up most of our free time. While it's time consuming, it's mainly fun and represents a change from everyday business life. I mean driving Colin to and from practice is a huge time thief for me, but I often use the time while Colin trains to write or meet friends. 

Last topic is health, more specifically my recent issues with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and weight. I mentioned that I ordered a scale. It arrived, and I'm supposed to put the batteries in and study the manual. My new scale is apparently able to tell me how much of the weight comes from fat, water and the like. This is going to be scary. I mean, interesting. 

So this was my overview of the challenges I need to tackle. Since I called them construction sites, I think I should address them accordingly:

Photo by Ümit Yıldırım on Unsplash

• Wear a helmet
• Cordon off the site
• Put "Under Construction" signs on them
• Make a plan. You know, blue prints and stuff.
• Evaluate and hire engineers and handymen
• Purchase material
• Schedule phases and delays

That's how construction sites work, right?

Any thoughts on my approach?