Barred owl, Time experiment, 25 hours and counting.

 Just under 25 direct hours to go. 4 full weeks to go. 17 clients scheduled for next week. Probable outcome: done with all my hours before Thanksgiving. Great news on getting my hours it. A bit intense though, having that may clients per day, and that many notes to complete. I'm going to be grateful for my break coming up.

Interesting thing: I don't dream of having vacation time to goof off, I dream of having vacation time to go through my backlog of tasks, at a leisurely pace. I will never run out of things to do, and it is satisfying, getting them done. Dangerous though, to do that long term, as it's got no prioritization on it, and so the important things can fall by the wayside.

I've been thinking about the illusion of not having enough time. Sometimes it is simply true, you have unavoidable responsibilities, and they take up basically every waking moment.

But mostly, they are optional things, even if they feel urgent. And because they feel urgent, we (meaning I. Not sure if others do this, though I would assume so.) try to cram as many as possible into each day. Much more than will fit. And having 10 tasks assigned to oneself, even if self assigned, and only having time for 5 of them, feels like not having enough time. The illusion being that only maybe 1 of them is actually essential, and the other 4 are really optional. That perspective feels much more spacious, but for some reason it's hard to cognitively shift into that viewpoint. Maybe I should try literally doing that, for my time blocking. Just schedule the one thing. Do that and say I'm finished, and then start working on the bonus things. Worth an experiment, I guess.

I heard a Barred owl hooting it's "who cooks for you" song as I was coming into my house tonight, and this morning, I saw the same two deer I've seen before, sleeping right outside the fence by my sit spot. It's cozy, seeing them there repeatedly. They're starting to feel like friendly neighbors. I know gardeners hate deer because they eat everything, but I think they are very beautiful and graceful in how they move. The weather has been very nice, crisp but not too cold, with clear skies allowing for beautiful sunrises.

OK, time to dive into another week!

Wishing you all well,

Isaac