As someone who works remotely, I know it is important to show progress. I basically have three regular clients: my family and two people for whom I write software. This week all three clients had critical deadlines. To be frank, this week I was not the example telecommuter. Working for yourself requires discipline and a fair degree of perfection. This week was the opposite of that. One, I overloaded myself. Two, all three clients had really important stuff that needed 100% of my attention (that’s 300%). And three, stress makes things worse. The stress reaction must be fine if you are a zebra on the savanna encountering a lion but when it comes to computer programming, stress just makes one distracted, flighty and generally unable to think/perform well. That’s why I want a Tibetan singing bowl! And a Mulligan. I want a do-over! Mostly I want to stay up for the next 40 hours straight and make-up for the lost productivity of this past week.
On a side note, I did actually make a lot of progress for all three clients but just didn’t cross the finish line for any of them. sigh
