Working freelance full-time, I never realized how busy I would be with “all of this extra time” during the day I thought that I would have. It’s been hard to find a routine when each month is, admittedly and indulgently, divided with travels and the resulting recuperation days; the laundry and unpacking and reorganizing a small enough Brooklyn apartment; the cleaning; the distractions of just being at home during the day and the TV in the living room which not only serves purpose as entertainment, but as company and background noise.
I have always been one to multitask and have operated on the basis to check tasks off the ‘to-do’ list. From the moment I wake up, it’s go-time. In order to get my brain in check for the day, this summer, I made it a habit to work out first thing, then make a pot of coffee and journal a few pages to get anything off my mind that might hinder me for the day. Truly, nothing in the morning feels better than that first sip of coffee. Thankfully, I have my OXO Pour Over Coffee Maker, which can make my coffee the perfect strength and flavor. In four steps including the obvious putting the grounds in the paper funnel and boiling the water, my coffee is set to go in the mug and all, while I get started on all the other things that have to get done.
Some days are harder than others. It’s easy, especially in the winter, to find reasons to stay inside and not leave the apartment all day. In the period of Christmas through New Years, being home in an empty apartment after spending night and day with family, I realize often that I haven’t spoken to anyone the majority of the day. Why get bundled up to head out into the cold to a coffee shop when my couch is much comfier, the coffee’s great (and free) and there always seems to be something else I need to do?
Some days it feels harder to complain about it. It’s almost a too good to be true situation. I’m doing what I love and I’m making a good living from it. I have the flexibility to not go into an office and report to someone else. I have this time to expand my creative urges and experiment with my craft, food, photography and anything else. But as it has become more evident to me lately, the grass is always greener where you’re looking out onto, not on the spot you’re standing on. And the effort you put into each thing is precious enough.
My first New Year’s resolution that came to mind this year was to think less. To stop overanalyzing the minutia, weighing both sides intricately, deliberately and thoroughly and not waste my breath in places, projects and people that don’t elevate me and make me happier. While my schedule this year will still be sliced by travels and the inevitable laundry and cleaning that come in the recuperating days following, I’ll instead be focusing on how I can get more done in the small amount of time the day holds, not worrying if I’m on a projected schedule to success and climbing a ladder of promotions, worrying about if this year will put me behind schedule of my peers. I will pour myself into my own work, on myself and sharing it, because that’s what makes me happiest.
Because you can’t control anything else.
Thanks to the OXO Pour Over Coffee Maker, there will always be an easy, great cup of coffee waiting for me in the morning, and it’s the small things that make you smile that make a lot of this all worth it. Some days it feels harder to complain about it. It’s almost a too good to be true situation. I’m doing what I love and I’m making a good living from it. I have the flexibility to not go into an office and report to someone else. I have this time to expand my creative urges and experiment with my craft, food, photography and anything else. But as it has become more evident to me lately, the grass is always greener where you’re looking out onto, not on the spot you’re standing on. And the effort you put into each thing is precious enough.