I have been thinking about this piece for about a week now. I had one of those days where it seemed like I could never get to the things on my list. I had some long unscheduled phone calls, dealt with unexpected computer issues, and had a few other surprise work pieces pop up along the way that needed to be handled. Granted, my work days are a little short currently because I’m coaching track, but it still seemed like I should have accomplished much more. Looking back, I saw very little to show for the hours I had spent “working.”

This is frustrating because I pride myself on being efficient when working. I’m easily distracted and often can’t sit still, but when I do, I expect to get a lot done, which wasn’t the case on this day. I used to have a lot of lost days, but I have learned how I work best and, as a result, have become more efficient with my time. People are my biggest distraction; I tend to talk to them. Creating a home office five years ago meant I could work, removed from my biggest distraction.

While recording an episode of Drip, Trickle, Flow, Flood, the podcast I co-host, I realized that I have other lost days, or at least hours, that I hadn’t realized before. Melissa, the other co-host, talked about how she vets projects before she dives into them to prevent wasted efforts. I realized that I’m the opposite. I often dive into a project without much thought.  Hours later, I come up for air, realizing it isn’t actually something I want to pursue.

For me, this is a different kind of lost day. Did I get what I had planned on getting done that day? Likely not. Was it a total waste? Likely not. At the very least, I probably had fun pouring myself into whatever the new idea was or a piece of writing before abandoning it, and a day spent having fun is always well spent. There’s also a good chance that I learned something as I went down whatever rabbit hole. There’s also always the chance that I will return to that idea and continue it in the future, or it could be the impetuous for something new.

The question I have been asking myself is, how do I keep from losing days? Are losing days actually all that bad? Removing more of the distractions from the scenario could help. Scheduling my time may help. Melissa’s strategy seems like a good one. Now the question is, is it bad to lose the occasional day? While it can seem frustrating and may add some stress, the opposite could be true. Maybe the unplanned calls are beneficial, and perhaps the unexpected issues being dealt with stave off future problems. Maybe that day of digging into something new, while it wasn’t materially beneficial, was good for the mind. I’m having a hard time finding how the computer issues are good, but you get my point. Out of the unplanned and unexpected, good things often come, and sometimes, our brain needs an abnormal day.