Tag: schedule challenges

Schedule

I recently switched to a slightly later schedule at work. It is amazing what a two hour difference makes. hehehe For you long time readers (if there are any left), you’ll remember how much I just loooooove day shifts.

Having worked swing shift for roughly 12 years, I made the jump to an earlier shift for the previous project I was on. It wasn’t as early as our normal day-shift so it was bearable. It was also very flexible. [1]It gave me a huge advantage for travel when The Pup and were still courting. After finishing the project I opted to go to our normal day-shift, which is 0700-1500. That means getting up roughly 0530 to 0550 to get the Cooper fed/walked and then off to work. Since The Pup has almost identical hours, it made sense. And as much as I grumbled, it was an easy sacrifice to make.

Sadly, I just couldn’t keep up with the hours. I’d come home tired pretty much every day. Motivating myself to do the gym or anything beyond sofa lounging was always a challenge. I am just not a early morning person by nature. It’s not so much the getting up as getting to bed that is the problem. And unlike a lot of folks, I simply do not function well on a lack of sleep.

The later shift is also 10 hours instead of 8, which is another reason I was reticent to switch. The 2 hours later/2 hours longer makes for a 4-hour chunk out of our ‘home time’ during the week. It doesn’t seem like much but trying to sync gym schedules or even dinner is a bit of a chore. The upside is I get an extra day off every week. The Pup has already commented on how much more energized I am when I come home. lol

Ironically, his schedule has become more fluid so between both our schedule changes, we still see each other plenty enough during the week. Call me silly but I still rush home every day to see him. We end up lounging or playing video games but the desire to be with him is still very very strong.

 

References

References
↑1 It gave me a huge advantage for travel when The Pup and were still courting.

Survived

I survived my first week on the new schedule. Well, sort of. I’m completely run down today. I’d planned to schedule a bunch of stuff to do but I just don’t have it in me right now. So today is gonna be a lot of down time and sitting in front of the tv watching movies and catching up on tivo.

The biggest struggle has just been my schedule. I fought all week long to get up in a timely fashion and be on time. This week was super important as the developer/training team from the company was there teaching us how to change, set, and read system metrics for the software. The next few weeks are just the local team doing work and review. And to give you an idea of the scope, this effects not only the dispatchers but all of the police, fire, and parking/traffic employees who use the system. That is thousands of people and thousands of vehicles and equipment. Anyway, I’m getting off topic, I’m hoping next week I’ll be a little better with the schedule. I’m hopeful as today, the one day I wanted and could sleep in, I promptly woke up at a little after 8am and couldn’t go back to sleep. There is hope I guess that I am and will adjust.

Some things have had to give to make it possible though. I’ve barely even touched Facebook, twitter, or google this week. lol To be honest, I don’t even miss it. I popped in a couple times in moments of down time but otherwise, the interwebs have had to go on w/o me this past week. Even emails and text messages suffered. I get up, go to work, come home an spend quality time with Cooper, gym, a little down time, bed, and repeat.

I can say I made it to the gym every day I was supposed to this week! Granted my intensity suffered a bit but I went and worked out. And it could be a part of why I’m so drained today but I need to keep on a schedule otherwise I’ll end up blowing it off too often. And we can’t have that now can we!? And having not blown off the week schedule, I can move today’s normal workout to tomorrow w/o skipping anything.

As to the project itself, now that I have an idea of the project workload I can tell ya I have my work cut out for me. There is a lot of data entry that will need to happen on top of all the system changes that have to be uncovered, vetted, and possibly enacted into policy for our dept(s). Beforehand, I was thinking there was no way this would take 5 months. Now I’m not sure if that is a long enough. lol Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited and enjoy the work. This will effect us for at least a decade an having a chance to mold our software in advance to fit our needs is awesome. On top of that, I just like having my fingers in the pie, so to speak. And of course, my inner geek is thrilled to learn about the inner workings of not only the software but all the pieces of hardware and other systems that integrate and/or connect to our system. I find it completely fascinating. So far, no complaints on the project itself.

Anyway, don’t be sad/mad if my blog posts become sparse for awhile. Lord knows I always have something to rant about. But until I adapt better to the schedule, I have to prioritize real life over cyber life.

Wish me luck.