The Interruptions of Home Life

"The interruptions of home life are never ending"

wrote the famed author and abolitionist Elizabeth Gaskell in her Manchester home back in 1856. Oh Liz, I hear you. It’s like that here too. Lots of things have improved since the 19th century but that isn't one of them. A couple of weeks ago I received an invite to visit an AirBnB which a woman I knew, Deirdre, was running in Moyvore (right beside besides CenterParcs). I had met Deirdre O'Kane whilst doing a New Frontiers Programme in Maynooth/ Athlone just when I was starting out with WorkJuggle and we had bonded over shared struggles to get a business off the ground.

Deirdre had since started running an AirBnB from her own home, a beautiful Georgian rectory. I went down there for a couple of days to work and it was fantastic. The sheer joy of not being interrupted every few minutes was strong. Most of the time I work from home so there is an ever- pressing number of jobs to be done; bring kids to GAA, put a dinner in the oven, Jesus is that the DHL man at the door again, at this stage should he just move in?! That kind of thing. It is so rare to have uninterrupted time to just work and be. Rather than being hunched over the laptop I went for long walks with Aoife Garvan and talked about out plans for the business and where we want to take it. Longford Forest or to give it its proper name, Newcastle Woods is beautiful and the Royal Canal greenway cuts right through it, it was literally a breath of fresh air and a boost for the soul.

To be fair though you could book into any anonymous hotel in the county and concentrate on walks and work. But the difference here is I felt minded. There was a warm Aga in the kitchen and every time I came down from my room there were freshly baked scones with home made jam. I had a delicious dinner handed to me on both nights, the standard of which far exceeds anything served up in my house. There was a beautiful golden retriever called Saul and I didn't have to walk him or feed him, I could just enjoy him. Most of our training courses come complete with a reading list and Cal Newport's “Deep Work” is almost always on it. The impact of doing uninterrupted deep work is long lasting in a way that firing off a flurry of emails never is. If you need a short escape from real life, need to get some deep work done or are just tempted by the thoughts of home made scones by an Aga then I highly recommend.

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Reading

Am reading two books this week, one of them life changing.

"How Big Things get Done: The Suprising Factors Behind every Succesful Project from Home Rennovations to Space Exploration" by Prof.Bent Flyvbjerg If you have ever worked on a complex IT roll out which involved millions of dollars, was littered with expensive consultants and ultimately delivered nearly nothing of value then this is the book for you! I also suspect it could be very useful to anyone working on the new National Children's Hospital (if nothing else it might make you feel better, you were pretty much doomed from the start).

The other is literally life changing; The Seven Day Sleep Prescription by Dr Aric Prather. If you suffer from insomnia or just poor sleep then this could make a real difference. I slept through the night for three nights straight last week based on his advice and on the third day woke up feeling like I had won the lottery.

Listening To

I recently discovered the Slate How To: podcast series and I am loving it. The premise is to solve lifes problems with a person and their (always interesting) problem being worked through in an episode. This week I was listening to How to Face your Kids Future. A thoughtful and considerate piece on how to prepare your children for a future in quite a scary world. I loved how the Keith the man with the concerns spoke about his sons with such love and worry and hope all mixed in.

Watching

Watched two things this week. One was Outer Banks, Season 3 (Did I mention I have teenagers in the house?). The other was an exploration of narcissism, the danger of hubris and how deadening the lack of purpose in life can be. Quite a complex film it also delved into the larger existential questions of what does it mean to be alive, how can we live knowing we could die at any moment? It was also very funny. If this sounds like your kind of thing then I highly recommend Puss in Boots, The Last Wish.?

Till next week,

Ciara