I have a feeling that today's post would be very suitably titled "Drifty", but since I am going to start off by moaning about minutes, perhaps what I have typed up there won't be too far from the theme, or the main theme if I do drift away.
In my last employment one of my jobs as company secretary was to produce the minutes of board meetings. Those meetings were invariably held in the morning and I liked to get the minutes written up that afternoon. At the latest, the job had to be done the following morning. There was no particular reason for such promptitude; I just preferred it that way. Besides, for some strange reason, the longer the job was left undone, the greater was my reluctance to start it. That might have been the thinking behind my action the one time I wrote the minutes before the meeting. All I had to do was ensure that the chairman steered things the way they had been written. It worked pretty well and there was little that need re-writing.
I am currently minute secretary for Brighton Lions Club. Our monthly meeting was held last Wednesday evening and in the usual way I would have written the minutes on Thursday morning. But on Thursday morning I had to take part in the annual staff appraisals for the Housing Society. That took all morning. After lunch I had to walk the dog, then the Old Bat and I had to go out to buy a birthday present for the grandson who was 5 yesterday. I did make a start after that - I got as far as listing those present and the apologies - but then No 2 Son and granddaughter came through the kitchen door. Oh well, I thought, Friday morning will do. But on Friday, the Old Bat wanted a lift to the MS Centre and for me to do the shopping. Friday morning gone. Walk the dog, fire up the computer, with just enough time to write a little more before taking the Old Bat to the doctor. Bang went the rest of Friday afternoon - and I was blowed if I was going to write minutes in the evening. Anyway, that would not have gone down too well with She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Saturday dawned and there was just the dog to walk, library books to change and a hot water bottle to buy. (That latter was the doctor's prescription for curing the Old Bat of her painful back. He did also provide a prescription for painkillers but finished by saying that time is a great healer. In other words, there wasn't really a lot he could do.) In between, I managed to write a bit more. But now it's boring, a real chore rather than just one more thing to be done - if you know what I mean. If you don't, well, don't let it worry you.
So here we are. It's Sunday morning and I still have those wretched minutes to write. Once that's done I have the notes of the staff appraisals to write up, letters to be sent to all staff as three-quarters of them (that's three out of four staff) are changing their hours and all have salary changes.
Then there's... You don't want to know what else is on the list. I'm trying to forget it as well.
Hey, I've just realised. I haven't drifted!
I'd be perfectly happy if the minutes of Lions meetings would write themselves. I found they were a delightful distraction when I was working and could write them instead of doing whatever it was I was supposed to be doing. But now that I'm retired, I find there are lots of other things, like blogging, that I'd rather do.
ReplyDeleteI certainly hear ya about tasks becoming more odious the longer you put them off. Procrastination was the bane of my existence while I was working and it seemed like I was FOREVER coming up on deadline with too much left to do. It's a wonder I usually managed to meet due dates without extensions. Pressure works, though. ;-)
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