Tomorrow's To Dos

Back in the mid-80s, when my brother was born, my mother was working full time at a bank.  She saved up all of her sick and vacation days, and managed to get take six whole weeks before she had to go back to work.  Ah, the days before the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Fast forward to 2015, when TLG was born: I was able to patch together short-term disability, sick days, vacation days, and (by the grace of Washington State) unpaid days to give myself four full months off.  Of course, by the final few weeks I was actually paying my company rather than receiving a paycheck (in order to keep my benefits), but for our family the expense was worth it.

Not too long after I returned to work, my company realized that their Parental Leave Policy wasn't exactly in line with their espoused values re: maintaining a work/family balance, and changed it so that primary caregivers get sixteen weeks off- fully paid- to bond with a new child.  At the time I was glad to see them make the change (if a bit rueful that they hadn't done it six months sooner), but now I'm absolutely ecstatic about it, because here I am, reaping the benefits.

Of course, the situation is slightly different this time around; in 2015 I was the Admin Guru, whereas now I'm the Financial Advisor, and therefore have a lot more flexibility with my job (in other words, I can work from home as need be).  So even tho' I technically have four months wherein I'm not required to so much as look at the stock market, because I have a sub in place... realistically I don't have it in me to keep my fingers out of work for that long.

I'm nearly halfway through my third week of Parental Leave, and I've already dipped a toe back in (primarily just checking my email every other day).  I must say, it's nice to be able to do it on my own terms, rather than because I have to.  And honestly, I'm pretty physically/mentally/emotionally wiped out by about 1pm, so I'm not good for anything else just yet, anyway.

Unfortunately, my deeply-rooted psychological desire to Be Useful and Productive doesn't care that I'm still physically/mentally/emotionally recovering from Giving Birth*, and so in an attempt to keep myself sane, I've developed the following Coping Mechanism:

Every night, after writing in my journal, I make a short To Do List for the following day.  Sometimes there's just one item on the List (Saturday: attend nephew's birthday party); today I had eight (one got added after I did something I decided I deserved credit for); but most days it's three-to-four easily-achievable items.  So when I get up in the morning, at my Peak Energy for the day, I can tackle those tasks, and get the satisfaction of checking them off.  And then if I get nothing else done that day, it's okay: because I finished my To Do List!  And if I do get additional items done, well... I add them to the list and check them off and feel ultra accomplished.

I'm not sure how long I'll keep this going- maybe until I hit the six week mark.  Maybe forever?  It really is doing wonders for my mental health, which is especially important right now while I can't get in a good workout.  We'll see.  In the meantime,  I'm going to wrap this entry up, so that I can check off the final item for today:

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*(and Jerk Brain makes it difficult to accept "keeping infant alive" as An Accomplishment, although obviously it totally is)