The subtleties of time management

I did want to mention, in reference to my long post about my first week, that my one-time client did pay me after all – which is great! I’m very appreciative of that. There was nothing I could have done if she hadn’t felt like paying. Totally my mistake for failing to bill her ahead of time. I’ve certainly learned that lesson the hard way – several times – a lot of years ago when I was a newbie coach.

Then today I just realized I hadn’t billed another client who’s got a session tomorrow. I need to get my act together here! Since my time is going to be tight with a full-time job and this many clients, I need to stay organized and structured. Typically I bill everyone at once, but these were both new, incoming clients and they came in after my regular monthly billing date.

It’s interesting being this busy. After I quit my last job, it seemed like I started doing a lot of waiting for John to get home. And calling him and leaving messages. I was definitely doing the vast majority of the “bids for interaction” as they say in relationship theory. It didn’t help that I was doing a lot of things like the remodel and the purchase of rentals, that needed input from him. So it’s not like I could just tell myself to just leave him alone and focus on my own stuff. The dynamic of trying to get his attention, or his input on decisions, wasn’t a good one for me. It’s so nice to just be able to go to work, and get my own work done, without having to constantly try (and fail) to bring John into it.

I had an unusually high number of clients last week, and I’m not settled yet, so I’m still running around trying to make sure there’s food in the fridge and other basics. So John was the one calling and leaving messages. It was kinda nice for a change. And then he was clearly happy to see me on the weekend!

When people are apart, it’s not just about being apart – it matters who is the one who is gone. Usually, John is gone. And he doesn’t notice his absence because he’s busy doing stuff.  This time I was gone, not noticing my absence, because I was busy doing stuff. And he was sitting at home with the dogs. I think it had a real balancing effect.