topaz: (hair)
Tim Pierce ([personal profile] topaz) wrote2003-11-14 11:13 pm

missteps

I worked late tonight.

So, yeah, yeah, everyone stays late to finish up some work every now and then. But my "normal" office hours are 8:30 to 6:30 anyway. And I got there at 8:10 this morning. There is just no conceivable explanation for my staying in the office until almost 7:45.

It's just that I was this close. I said this morning that I'd have the machines ready for a testbed release by the end of the day. And by 6:30 I was most of the way there. I just had to fix one misconfigured NAT system so I could finish it up, and man, it just took forever to get to the root of the problem.

Staying in the office an extra hour longer than the already severe schedule means that I barely got to see the kids tonight, and didn't get any relaxing time at all with [livejournal.com profile] keyne, time I've been needing badly. And I can't blame it on anyone else -- just my own misguided drive to overachieve.

On the plus side, I spent a lovely hour over hot drinks with [livejournal.com profile] ectophylla. And bumped into [livejournal.com profile] mizarchivist on the red line at Alewife -- bonus!

[identity profile] kcatalyst.livejournal.com 2003-11-15 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
It may have had unfortunate consequences, but I wouldn't call misguided to stay late to get something done that you wanted to get done and that you said you would. Not that I would recommend it on a regular basis (or even at all) in your situation. But it's a well-guided drive, imho. :-)

[identity profile] docstrange.livejournal.com 2003-11-15 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with [livejournal.com profile] kcatalyst. If the work was also in some way fulfilling, then the positive boost will spill over into your other activities. Certainly, with your heavily-subscribed schedule, it's not something to do often, particularly since it touches your time with [livejournal.com profile] keyne. But how much worse to come home, task hanging over your head, incomplete, knowing you were so close? Wouldn't the memory sit picking at you between your shoulder blades? I did just the opposite last night, making a scheduled family gettogether with [livejournal.com profile] tezliana, but leaving myself two tasks that will come back to haunt me for late completion. Were it not to see her uncle, not visited in 20 years, I'd have wrapped up first.