No one likes dealing with the unexpected.
For example, it’s hard to run an online business during a prolonged widespread power outage when covid restrictions and a baby prevent you from just settling into a coffee shop as a makeshift office.
But that’s exactly what was happening to me when this blog post was first drafted. It gave me a good opportunity to reflect on the meaning of productivity (with grace) while dealing with the unexpected. I wanted to share those reflections here.
[Note: This blog post lingered half-finished on my phone for several months, likely because my phone finally ran out of battery during the power outage and it got pushed to the back of my mind by the time power finally came back on several days later.
But I found it recently after a trip to the emergency room landed my son in the hospital for four days while he got over a norovirus infection.
Looking back at what I wrote before, I’m encouraged that my reflections from before resonated strongly with this new unexpected situation. I guess that means I was on to something!
So I’m finishing up the post and publishing it now. When relevant, I’ll add reflections from “current me.”]
Grace when dealing with the unexpected
I’m a firm believer in giving ourselves grace rather than holding ourselves to unreasonable standards of get-it-all-done productivity. Those times when something truly unexpected happens are exactly the times when we most need that grace.
Without internet and with a phone battery limping along during our long power outage, there was just no way to accomplish as much as I had planned to do. I therefore needed to give myself the freedom not to hold myself to my original idea of what the week would look like.
The same goes for other unexpected situations that derail our plans, such as a loved one getting sick and needing care, a missed connecting flight, or the sudden delay in an important delivery. Sure, we should try to anticipate and prevent these situations, but we also need to realize that we can’t anticipate everything.
[Note from current me: Sooo true. There’s no way I could have anticipated and planned around my son’s trip to the hospital. My husband was sweet, and a little naive, and brought my laptop to the hospital. But I gave myself permission not to use it. It was enough to just try to sleep and try to let my active 11 month old get tangled in his IV line.]
Suggestions for creating a plan B
We might be tempted to just throw in the towel on these days. But even in these unexpected circumstances, we can still find ways to be productive. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
Get creative
This may sound like a minor annoyance, but I’m sure it’s one that’s familiar to most of us. We plan out a trip to a coffee shop to get work done… only to find that the wifi there is terrible or non-existent.
In those kinds of unexpected situations, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t do the things you’ve planned. You might just need to get creative.
Do things on your phone. Type stuff out in an offline word processor, then copy and paste into your email or Google Doc or whatever during the split second that you are able to get your computer to connect to the wifi.
For me during our power outage, I’m drafting this blog post in my phone’s Gmail app as the draft of an email to myself. Later on, when I have wifi again, I’ll move it to Google Docs where I usually do my writing. [Note from current me: Full disclaimer that this step didn’t quite pan out as expected. That power outage was close to a week long. So I’m forgiving myself for not prioritizing a blog post when my real priority at the time was keeping myself and my son warm and fed.]
Water under the bridge
This is a stress reduction strategy I use with my tutoring students all the time, especially the ones who have test anxiety. When they encounter something difficult or unexpected on a test, or just otherwise feel like something is going poorly, I suggest that they take a moment to reset. I give them the following script: “What has happened, has happened. It’s water under the bridge. The best thing I can do right now is to focus on what’s ahead.”
This same script is helpful when dealing with the unexpected in our home and work life as well. Our original plan might not be possible at the moment. But instead of lamenting that or obsessing over how we are later going to make up for the lost time, it’s better to be zen about it.
(Re)define your values and focus for the time being
We are complex human beings who play multiple roles in our lives. We may be business owners AND mothers, or we may work from home AND study. It’s false to imagine that these roles need to be always balanced. Especially because there are some seasons in which it makes more sense to focus on one role than another.
When the unexpected arises and you have to shift plans, take a moment to decide what areas of your life and which of your values make the most sense to focus on in the present circumstances.
During the power outage I shared about above, I couldn’t really focus much on my online tutoring business. Instead, I choose to spend most of my time focusing on my role as a mother. And when I WAS able to do some work in my business, I was strategic about it through a new plan I created.
[Note from current me: Same. My son was my priority during his hospital stay, obviously. Business-wise, I took the time to send emails to cancel meetings, but everything else waited.]
Take time to create a new plan
When dealing with the unexpected, it’s tempting to throw planning out the window and to work reactively rather than proactively. But when we do so, we may not be actually doing the things that matter. And we’re usually also acting in a state of anxiety or stress.
Stopping to plan helps us make sure that we’re maximizing our effectiveness, doing what really matters, and approaching the situation more calmly. This is the second part of the “water under the bridge” attitude I mentioned earlier.
[Note from current me: Once we were discharged from the hospital, I was able to create a new plan for the week. There were some business tasks in there, but I also set aside about a day to do a deep clean and to sanitize anything our kid could touch or put in his mouth.
My first business task was to do a planning session for the following week, even though the current week hadn’t actually ended yet. I found it easier to start with a fresh to-do list for the week and get a bonus couple of days to tackle that list rather than to stare at the list of my original intentions for the week only to get discouraged about how much was left on the list.]
Think about what’s possible rather than what’s impossible
In order to create the plan, we need to consider what is actually possible in the situation. It’s easy to stress about the things that aren’t getting done, but that really isn’t very helpful.
For times without internet, maybe it’s a great opportunity to map out that new project you were going to start or to do some reflection and business planning. Maybe it’s time to finally reorganize or tidy up your workspace like you’ve been planning to do for a long time.
The more that we can think of these disruptions as opportunities, the more we’ll be able to still make the most of the time we have available.
Final Thoughts (from “current me”)
I think the key thing here is to treat your unexpected situation in the way it uniquely deserves:
- Does it require a creative approach to getting your originally planned tasks done?
- Does it require you to redefine what it is you want to get done?
- Or does it require giving yourself permission to put non-relevant things on hold for a while?
It all depends on the nature of the unexpected situation – how much of your attention it demands and how much it temporarily causes your priorities to shift for a while.
So think positive, and play it by ear. (And file this blog post away somewhere in case you don’t have wifi during your unexpected situation…)