The Thursday Post That Was Supposed to be a Wednesday Post

Pixabay

On Tuesday, I made a decision that made no sense from a time management perspective. In the midst of grading papers and exams, posting midsemester warning grades and preparing for a long-awaited trip to see my daughter, I decided to carve out a chunk of time to visit with a friend.

There were plenty of other things I could have been doing (writing this blog post, for example). There were plenty of other things I should have been doing (see the first paragraph of this post), and, when I got home, there were plenty of other things that remained to be done. And you know what?

I have no regrets.

As I type this Wednesday post a little after midnight (making it one of two Thursday posts), it promises to be a late night. I've finished grading most of the papers I needed to grade, but a few still remain. A Wednesday post on another blog has also been shifted to Thursday.

But I had a great day. I got to spend uninterrupted time with a friend I see face-to-face only a few times a year. We got to laugh and commiserate and enjoy each other's company. And the food at the restaurant was pretty good, too.

I realize that this is a strange post for a blog about organization. My very structured, practical husband told me (more than once) how surprised he was that I opted to meet with my friend when I had so much to do, and I'm pretty sure most professional organizers and productivity experts would have advised against it.

But I'm not a professional organizer or productivity expert -- something that's abundantly clear if you read this blog on a regular basis. If organizing by STYLE means embracing the styles that come naturally, then managing time by STYLE means embracing our priorities and planning accordingly. For me, that means making sure to spend time with the people who matter to me, even when it means posting a blog later than usual or making a late night even later.

The good feelings that are created when we do things that matter to us linger.  There will always be blogs to write and papers to grade, but my friend won't always be in town.

And I hope I'm never so grown up that I forget that people are more important than papers.