By now, you’re probably aware that I usually wake up at 5 am and do a number of things before I wake up my kid around 7:15 or 7:30 am. I have a very bespoke schedule in the morning that I have cultivated to help me reach my goals and be the best I can be.
But lately, my kid has been waking up at 6:15 am. And he won’t go back to sleep. This obliterates my workout, leaves me with a half-written blog, and overall puts a wrench in the rest of my day.
The morning tasks I have that are left undone need to be shoved into my usually busy days. It kind of sucks.
That’s the way life goes, though. It’s messy. And $h!t happens.
Variability in any process is inevitable.
If things always worked out, if there was never traffic, if clients never backed out, and if no one ever got sick or messed up, we’d all be lean, mean productivity machines. But, we’re not. And whether we like it or not, life will throw everything at us including the stainless steel Kohler sink.
The best thing you can do is to roll with the variability as best you can. And you might just find something new and exciting under the annoying crap.
So, today I didn’t get to work out because my kid woke up early. So, instead of working for the first hour of my day after dropping him off, I went for a run to a coffee shop near where I work. It was a lovely run, I got to see some parts of the city I hadn’t seen in a long time, and I got some sun and some cardio. Sure, I probably won’t be as productive today as I had hoped, but I found a new alternative activity for the next time my morning goes to hell in a handbasket.
Now, I would not have been able to do that if I did not have my variability emergency kit in my trunk.
Variability emergency kit? Yeppers. There are a few things I keep in my car so that I can take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. Here is everything in my variability emergency kit.
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