Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Productive is as productive does

I admit it, I was wrong.

For months now, I've whined about how much my productivity level has dropped since having a baby.  Yesterday, I made a mental note that it was 5:45 a.m. and I had already fed and changed the baby, pumped (sorry for the TMI), done my crunches routine, read and responded to work emails from overnight, baked a batch of cookies, read and posted to a few blogs, looked for and forwarded job opportunities for B, read several industry articles, sketched a new strategy to help smooth out an internal communications issue at the office, showered and dressed, eaten breakfast and set out breakfast for M and B, and was headed out the door to work.

Whew.

I'm not less productive.  I'm actually more productive and completing more projects, more work, but in a less obvious way.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm still struggling to reconcile pre-mom me with post-mom me.  I loved being a "go to" person to get things done with a high level of proficiency, punctuality and creativity.  I loved the pressure of new projects, the stress of juggling professional goals, volunteer commitments and personal projects.  I miss not being able to say "yes" when asked to take on a really exciting AMA rebranding project or lead the charge in raising money to fund supporting cancer survivors.  I hate realizing my clothes don't match after I've already been at the office for three hours and constantly having frizzy hair and haggard-looking skin.

It's hard for me to not look for the hard ROI on my investment of time, energy and creativity.  I want to attach numbers/dollars/event participants to completed projects.

Of course, M is happy and healthy and I feel blessed to be his mommy.  I celebrate that.

At this point, I'm kinda wondering what I was doing with all my time two years ago.

Oh, right ... getting eight hours of sleep a night.

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