Jonathan Dodd‘s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
So. Another week has gone by, my feet have hardly touched the ground, and I feel as if I should be panting and wiping the sweat from my brow, when all I want to do is sit and finish reading my current book. Thank goodness major and significant weeks come rarely rather than all the time, or I might not survive the pace of my life.
Of course, if every week was as busy and complicated as this one, then perhaps busy and complicated would be the norm, and they wouldn’t feel special or different. I shudder to think of what might then become the level of complexity that would qualify as a week of unusual business.
Get-on-with-decorating-the-house duty
I have managed to recover from a nasty bug whose details and symptoms shouldn’t become public domain. I’ve been at home on get-another-job and get-on-with-decorating-the-house duty, and I’m immersed in putting together another of my quizzes at Ryde Library. If you haven’t experienced one yet, it’s next Friday (11th April) at 7pm. Tickets in advance include a rather tasty fish and chip supper, all for £7 each. Details appear on Events OnTheWight.
One of the few advantages of blogging is the possibility of the occasional self-advertising. Come to think of it, perhaps the only benefit. I’m now the proud possessor of a new job, so I’ll be rejoining the daily hovercraft commute next week. I’m much better too, and I’ve even managed to do some decorating. But the quiz is taking more time than I would like. It’ll be all right on the night though. Because it has to be.
I don’t have a good attitude to work
It’s a sad truth that days or weeks spent not working are rarely the idyllic oases of calm and peace that they should be. I find I have to go away on holiday to get any relaxation. I need to be far away from the telephone and the postman and all those jobs that seem to need to be done and all those relatives or friends that need to be visited or – horror of horrors! – decide they need to come and visit us. Don’t get me wrong, I love all my friends and relatives, and I’m always very pleased to see them, but any visitor increases our workload. It comes with the territory.
On the other hand, I have to admit that I don’t have a good attitude to work. I’ve always hated working. I understand that it’s a deal I make with Life, or whatever it is. I agree to hand over a significant portion of my time to someone else and I agree to do whatever I’m asked, in exchange for money, so I can do at least some of the things I want to do in my own time. The things that make the having-to-work thing bearable is that I try to do as good a job as I can, and I move around a lot so I’m never in one place too long. Believe me, any time in some of the places I have worked is too long.
Unwilling participants can still enjoy themselves
Conversely, I do also know that if I were to be lucky enough to win the Lottery, I would be far busier than I am now, because I’d be freed from the necessity of working and I wouldn’t have to get up and go somewhere else every day to do it. I’d be able to do more of the things I want to do, and whatever time and trouble they cost me would be fun rather than work.
I’m a great believer in fun. Any activity should be enjoyable, and if the person responsible for setting it up doesn’t have a sense of humour, that shouldn’t stop the unwilling participants from enjoying themselves. There are various kinds of fun, and I’m talking here about being positive, as in doing the work as well as possible while adding in elements that make it seem easier and more enjoyable.
Blank cassettes and video tapes
I first encountered this idea while working nights at a Sony warehouse some decades ago during one of the economic dips that recur so often. There were sixteen of us recruited by the agency, possibly the highest-qualified chain-gang ever. We had accountants, solicitors, senior managers, computer experts, redundant company directors and even a dentist. We were assembled in order to unpack pallets of blank cassettes and video tapes (that dates this story!), then we had to take one sticker off each one, put a different one on, and repack the pallets. All night long.
The first night was agony, then on the second night a large South African turned up. I think he used to manage a vineyard or something. He heard what we were supposed to be doing and saw our weary faces, and said – ‘This could be fun!’ He asked the fork-lift drivers to deliver us two pallets at a time, got us in two teams, and we had a competition. We started joshing each other, we worked twice as hard, finished early, and the time flew by. We left for home the next morning happy and smiling.
You feel good about yourself
A couple of nights later I talked to him about it. He had a very simple philosophy. ‘Instead of thinking about how much you don’t want to do something, think about how well and how quickly you can do it. Time goes faster, you have fun, and you feel good about yourself’.
There are a surprising number of heroes out there. He immediately became one of mine.
If you have been, thank you for reading this.
Image: timothykrause under CC BY 2.0
Image: Tony Alter under CC BY 2.0
Image: Public Domain under CC BY 2.0
Image: skohlmann under CC BY 2.0
Image: L2G under CC BY 2.0
Image: Moonhouse under CC BY 2.0
