A Multi-Tasker’s Arithmetic: Sally By The Numbers
A Multi-Tasker’s Arithmetic: Sally By The Numbers
Managing a renovation project requires a lot of multi-tasking, moving things around and doing your dead-level best to be in two places at once, even when the laws of physics aren’t exactly on your side. Those with kids will note that the above job description nearly matches that of being a parent. Does being a single mom make me uniquely equipped to be a project manager? I’m not sure, but it has certainly given me some perspective on what can actually be accomplished in a day.
In an average day my hours add up like some crazy word problem that would cause my kid’s math class to quake with terror. Figure a six-mile run, three plates of eggs with bacon, twenty minutes dropping off two kids at two different schools. Six phone calls, two cups of coffee, seven dozen hand-painted Italian tiles, two General Contractors, twenty-six miles of in-town traffic, and one fantastically complex youth soccer carpool phone tree later and we’re at lunch (one salad, one cup of soup, six architectural renderings). Take two clients, twenty-five hundred miles away at a California resort and multiply them by two phone calls lasting twenty minutes a piece. Add eight members of a construction crew, seven soccer moms, six clients, four painters, three plumbers, two electricians and an artisan metalsmith with a giant beard and great sense of humor. Next up, there’s another thirty miles on the odometer, three shopping carts full at two different hardware stores, eight hundred pounds of granite, two grumpy adolescents and one set of braces. Several soccer balls, three pairs of cleats on six smelly feet, four more phone calls, two custom light fixtures and eighteen wordly-wise problems totals dinner for three at my kitchen table.
At the end of the day, I’m just happy when all of my numbers add up to a little downtime with my family and a few much appreciated hours of shut-eye before the meter resets and tomorrow begins in earnest. The challenges are plenty, but the rewards are often exponential.
They keep me smiling.
