When I thought about all the things I had to do today, I didn’t know where to start. The Boss took care of that problem for me. First thing this morning, he faxed me a request for a cost report. Suddenly, I didn’t have to wonder. I didn’t have to worry about how to pay bills (or whether to get started on the interim six-month financial report he asked me for in June that I haven’t got around to yet).

It was going to be a heavy data-entry day, and that suited me fine. I didn’t have to do much thinking, just typing. I did have to get all the digits in the right order, which is sometimes a challenge. It was like this: do the check record, do the cost record summary, do the cost report. I knew it was going to take all day (and I was going to make it take all day even if it didn’t). It was the best thing that could have happened, on a day when I had lots to do and no power of concentration, not even enough to decide what to do first.

It did take all day, but I should have let it take a little longer. I faxed the cost report to the Boss at 5:00 pm, and I got it back at 6:00, with jottings and scratchings and questions that he wanted answered and changes that he wanted made. If I’d done it an hour later, he might have been gone, and then I wouldn’t have had to look at it again tonight. When will I ever learn not to be so diligent and efficient? Doing the work only makes more work, and that’s the last thing I need right now.