It has become increasingly clear to me that I am living a rush job life. That is to say, the kind of life that requires things to happen NOW and, as a consequence, I am dedicating my efforts to doing things that make things happen NOW.
I'm not too worried about it at present. But I am starting to see the impact it has on the quality of my work, to pick one example. I have four features and two pages of news items (about 7,500 words) due in on Wednesday. While I have been doing research for these stories for a couple of weeks now, it has all been done in an ad hoc way because I simply do not have the luxury of sitting down and dedicating myself to one story. My time is too fragmented.
What ends up happening is that I start to rely more and more on the interviews I conduct with experts, which means less and less of what I write is genuine research on my part and more use of paraphrased mouthpiece. The only thing that's keeping me on track is the fact that I believe I'm doing a good job with the interviews so am producing copy fit for publishing, and of value to the readership.
But this 'rush job' style has also started to infiltrate other parts of my life. My novel, for example, would never progress were it not for monthly meetings with my writing group at which I am expected to produce new work.
Then there's planning that I've wanted to conduct with regard to going to Melbourne (I'll be leaving for the airport in about an hour), Brisbane (late March) and Japan (early April). Melbourne is turning out to be harder than I thought, which it shouldn't be. I'm hanging out with my cousin on the weekend, and managed to score a table at The Langham for high tea on Sunday, then on Monday I'm seeing a few Melbourne affiliates to consolidate editorial relationships, then on Tuesday I have the export conference.
What's the trouble? Well, if planned better, I would have been able to properly identify the affiliates where I could form the deepest relationships and have secured meetings with them. Instead, I kind of scanned my brain for a bunch of Melbourne people - who are not unworthy of a visit, just not the most important - and asked if they were free. Hopeless.
Brisbane will be the same. I'll get to the last week of March and then I'll frantically ring around, hoping key people are free. And Japan - I haven't booked any accommodation whatsoever, the reason being that I don't even know where I'm going other than entering Tokyo on the 31st and leaving Osaka on the 15th April. Sigh.
Why is this happening? Because I don't have the time to see anything other than what will affect me this week. I know in the back of my mind that things are coming up and that to avoid problems at that point I should head them off now, but that kind of planning is just not possible when there are too many things clamouring for my attention right now. Mark Latham's term 'ease the squeeze' comes to mind.
Anyway, help is on its way. I am having a meeting with my editor next week regarding my workload, which will probably mean a couple less features to do each month (besides which, I'm sure readers are sick of seeing my byline) and that would be a welcome relief. As will having a holiday in April.
I'll try and blog on Monday as per usual - this is just a rant rather than a proper dissection of my week - but I can't promise that I'll be able to as I may be exhausted having bunny-hopped through Melbourne to meet eight people, before doing the networking rounds at the pre-conference dinner. Hope you have a sweet weekend.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon
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