100 Business Days Out: Day 65 - Idleness

We made the decision late last night with the doctor that surgery was the only way to go with Louie. He had lost nearly three pounds (he only started with 20 pounds) and the doctor said, he was "losing ground as a good candidate for surgery". As an aside, is it a ever a good thing to be a "good candidate for surgery"? Seems like a very bad description doesn't it? That said, we didn't sleep much last night and when we did it was fitful. And today, was about waiting for calls from the surgeon to determine what they would do, a call to tell us when they were doing it, a call to tell us how the surgery went, a call to tell us what they found, and a call to tell us how he was doing. What does one do between those kinds of calls? It was very interesting in how the brain takes over. Without saying anything to each other, Patti and I went after our own set of tasks that were of the filling the idle mind with mindless things. It was impossible to think of anything else or concentrate on something like a book to read. Rather, it was a great time to rearrange, clean, knock off things on the to do list, etc. The mind has a way of taking over and surrounding and squeezing to the back the big issue of stress so you can function. As I reflect on this, that happens at work as well but that can be a dangerous thing. I think back on the times when there was a big task in front of me like getting together a presentation or having to respond to a complicated email or question and instead of plowing right in, I would deflect and fill time with a bunch of little things that were easily moved out of the inbox and created a sense of accomplishment and momentum going into the big task. Sometimes that was helpful but more often than not it was a more sophisticated form of procrastination. Lots of books and classes have been created on this challenge. What seems most viable is to have a little of both. It's not bad to know that you are putting something off if you have a reason and a vector to get back to it in a way that was better than facing it front on first. If a time managment guru is reading this, I am sure I will hear that this is just not right, but I might respond to that challenge with it may not be right, but it is practical. Today, was different in that there was nothing we could do but sit and wait as the situation was out of our control and in those situations it is definately better to let the mind take care of itself and if yu get a 10 things knocked off the to do list all the better. It's definately better than letting the mind take over and give you the worst of thoughts. As a postscript, Louie came through surgery like a champ. There was nothing conclusive that they found but they will see what is going on at the cellular level from the biopsies they took and we will know something in a couple of days. In the meantime, as we wait until he can come home, we are busy bees going after the next 10 items on the to do list.