My daily ritual is quite simple. I wake up, say good bye to
my husband as he heads off to work, let the dogs out, chase the cat who has sneaked out of the house
when I opened the door for my dogs, get frustrated with him and just let him go
on his happy little way, feed the animals (the cat comes back when he hears the
can opening), have some coffee, check my email (get caught up in the many jokes
and links within), take care of phone calls, then wake up my son and get
started on home schooling him. Most days I get so caught up in checking my
email that I forget about making the phone calls and wake my son up a little
later than I want.
It’s funny how doing something like checking your email has
become so important in life. I remember when I first moved from New
York to Minneapolis
to live with my husband. One of the major qualifications I had listed on my
resume was the ability to do email. Oooh! If you could only see the faces on my
perspective employers, boy were they impressed. That simple thing enabled me to
name my salary and get a fantastic job within days of moving to a new state.
Today email is more common then a phone number. In fact,
when my son met a girl at the swimming pool this past summer he didn’t get her
number, he got her screen name. What is that???
I guess many of us, me included, use email as an easier form
of communication. Why waste money on long distance or use up your phone
minutes, to speak to a loved one when you can just type what you want and click
a button? The best part is that if you don’t feel like talking to anyone that
day, you just click the invisible button on your IM and pretend you’re not
home. But what happens when email becomes the enemy without your even knowing
it?
There are many nights that my husband says, “I just need to
check my email and then I’ll be off the computer.” Three hours later I’m saying
goodnight and the only thing I’ve seen of my husband that night is his back.
Email has a tendency to distract you. Not because you get so
much of it you’ll never be able to read it all (let's face it, we can't all be Tila Tequila), but because it seems to lead to
other things. When was the last time you hopped on your computer and just
checked your email without clicking on a link, or remembering something you
just had to check online? I have no clue how I can go from “quickly checking my
email” to playing 5 Card Slingo, but it happens quite easily.
Today I did things a little differently. Instead of checking
my email first and getting distracted, I thought I’d bake my son something
special for breakfast, cinnamon rolls. It takes about 3 hours to make them, but they’re
definitely worth it.
As the rolls were rising, I walked right by the computer and
took my cup of coffee outside with my study unit. Fortunately for me I live in
a state that is still getting some warmth during the day. Today is one of those
days. As I sat back on my patio chair, I forgot about the 46 pieces of spam and 3 legitimate emails in
my mailbox, and just absorbed the information within my study unit. My dogs sat
quietly on the grass with their faces to the sun, and I sat with my feet up and
my head in a book. It was great.
Taking thirty minutes for myself this morning really seemed
to help me. I made it through quite a bit of my study unit. I didn’t have to
fight with my family for some quiet time, I didn’t have to slack off on one of
my domestic goddess duties, all I had to do was put off checking my email.
Do yourself a favor today, forget the email and pick up your
books instead. You won’t regret it.