Triple Six

Today is the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year (technically fifth, but numerically the sixth, so who’s being technical?) of the new century. Apparently, in the town of Hell, Michigan, there is a big celebration, where t-shirts and mugs are being sold for $6.66. I’d imagine it’s fairly warm in Hell this time of year, though not close to what it is here (we’ve hit 115F the last four days in a row), indeed, I’ve heard Hell is one of the colder towns in Michigan in the winter time, providing ample opportunity for the “When Hell freezes over…” comment.

The last couple of days have been hectic at work, but at the end of each day I feel as if I have not accomplished that much. This is a situation where there is a ton of ‘backlogged’ work waiting to be done, and I also have ‘daily’ work that needs to be addressed immediately. The amount of ‘daily’ work varies based on my email load, number of operations or operational tempo within the AO, etc. What I’ve realized is that regardless of what I accomplish in terms of immediate support, I ‘measure’ the productivity of the day by how much of the ‘backlogged’ work I was able to address—I feel discouraged if I go ‘home’ several days in a row without being able to diminish the long term pile hanging over my head. I don’t want to cut myself too much slack, either, or the pendulum will swing too far over to the non-productive side…. Unfortunately, it’s not a question of balance in my life, it’s a question of getting the job done…

Semper Fi, Jon G.