Return to Work

7/17/2012

Return to Work

It's Tuesday and I made it through Monday.  You know it was Monday after all you had a Monday too.  But for this was MONDAY after being gone from the office for two weeks. I got up super early yesterday and booked it down the highway by 6:30 am so that I could have a few minutes (or hours in some cases) getting myself grounded before everybody else came in for the day.  

I am always anxious when returning to work on a variety of levels.  On one level I worry that somebody might have futzed with my area.  My work area is clean and everything, and I do mean everything, is placed exactly where I want it.  I'm happy to say that my space minus the usual half-filled, cold cup of coffee that I always have with me, everything looked the same.  Perfect.  My zen was good.

I went around the offices picking up the work that has been waiting for me and a lot of it is merely which is boring but necessary.  Oh and there is a large box of shred waiting for me too.  We shred everything in our department and normally when you do it daily it's no big thing - but after two weeks it looks monstrous. 

I've gotten my required cup of joe and my stack of "to-do's" is neatly stacked in one corner away from me and now I turn on the computer.  Let the games begin.  I don't know how many emails you all get in a day and since I'm not a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief I don't get as many as some people; but I get my share.  First, in true efficient form starting from the oldest emails I work my way up slowly deleting past calendar entries, bulletins and other messages that have nothing much to do with me.

Okay just by doing that I drop my email count down to 155 - the goal for the day - down to zero unread.  Again, starting from the bottom I begin to print out emails and attachments as fast as both the computer and printer can go.  Meanwhile, I make a list (yes folks I'm anal) of files I need to work on and gather them up while all the electrical devices are doing their thing.  This is efficient use of both time and machine.

I worked diligently for hours and matched paperwork to files, made new labels, created new files, answered the phone, opened the mail, processed invoices and even found time to chat with my friends about the last two weeks - theirs and mine.

At the end of the day and my fanny was dragging just a bit, I only had 5 emails left in my inbox!  Pretty good for an old broad.  Today, will be a more relaxing day for me as I have gotten over that "first day" set of nerves that I always get when I return to work after an absence.  Well, not a Saturday, Sunday absence; but time off after being sick or out somewhere living it up.

Today's challenge - the shredder box!  If I get to work super early again today, I could shred tons of paper before anyone else was in and found the noise of near-constant shredding like white noise in their ear.  That sounds like a plan.  Guess I'd better hurry up and get dressed after all it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm nearly late.

I found a quote yesterday about happiness that I want to share:  The essentials to happiness in your life are: something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

I hope that everyone reading have all three essentials in their life.  Enjoy Tuesday.

P