It’s the weekend and I’m sitting at my IAG laptop working on a Thing. This actually represents a #fail moment on the 2017 Rules for Toast Work. But… and this but is super important… even if you brand yourself one way, that doesn’t mean you can’t surprise people – including yourself.

Let’s take a step back. I’ve made it something of a mission with my current peers and leadership and sundry stakeholders to establish a business brand of ruthless prioritisation to keep my work within its carefully constrained 40 hrs/wk. I do this because of Dean. I do this for my own sanity. I do this because frankly someone needs to be the model to point to that speaks to what it looks like when we have to bound our expectations of what we can demand of other people to the limits of their actual legal employee contract.

On the other hand, today… TODAY… I have something I absolutely want to get done for Alex. Just must get this done. Not because I’m afraid I’ll get a bad performance review or because people will be disappointed in me or I’ll lose a bonus or because the flippin’ world will fall over. Nope. This is that exception that proves the rule, the thing I feel no one else at this time and place can complete, it’s my job to do, and there is a hard stop deadline to getting it done.

Which means I’m sitting in my home office watching the wind blow, listening to the branches bang against the side of the house and… procrastinating. You’ve got to be f*in kidding me. You didn’t expect the story to go this direction did you? Trust me, the Thing I need to do is not a Toast Note. It is also not the task I spent the last hour on which is reading the news or the one before which was meal planning for the next week. I’ve eaten pie (it’s good for breakfast), chatted with Dean’s parents, and updated our financial software. Instead of feeling virtuous and diligent and getting the Thing done, I’m pretty hard out considering scrubbing the bathroom walls with an old toothbrush and weak vinegar right now. So it turns out the brand that I was building may or may not be well understood by everyone at work, but my subconscious sure as hell bought into it. So much for virtue signalling.

Surprise!

“Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing.” ~ Boy George
Yes… I’ve sunk so low I’m now quoting Boy. George. *sigh*