Mad Motivation

I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as Friday mornings. My little one is at daycare on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and those are the days I usually work on blog posts, and other ongoing projects. This Tuesday I was visiting relatives in Philly, which I really needed to do as some of them are quite old. I was going to do some work while I was there, but there were just too many visits to be made in the limited time. The Thursday before, I ended up doing family stuff with a different part of my family, which was supposed to be mixed with work but there wasn't any time for more than an emergency email.
I think that I've gotten pretty good at going with the flow, knowing that I'll get more out of whatever I'm doing then, and knowing that fighting it is often counterproductive. But even as I did this, it made me mad that I wasn't getting any work done. I wanted to post. I wanted to work on some projects I'm busy with. But you know what? That's ok for two reasons:

1. Being mad means I want to do my work. That's a good thing. It means I like what I do, and it's important to me.

2. Being mad can focus and motivate me. I noticed that back when I was writing a master's thesis; I was balancing part-time work with the thesis, and after a while of not being able to get focused time on it, I'd get annoyed. That's when I could cast other things aside and get a bunch done.

I'm not saying that anger or frustration are healthy long-term strategies for focus, but they are reasonable as indicators that it's time to buckle down, and useful sometimes to get your mind on a certain task for a while. Do they work for you, or does focus backfire when you're mad about not having time to do something you want to do? Do have other seemingly odd strategies for focus and getting things done? Please share in the comments!

Comments

[brenda]

hi becca,
just saw your blog for the first time and
really enjoy it..i usually get flooded with
emotions and can't do anything when i get
mad..i now know besides being a.d.d. i'm a
highly sensitive person and feel things a
lot stronger than most people..it is so
great to start to understand these things
and learn what works for me..i would immed-
iately feel embarassed and guilty and be
paralyzed like a deer in the headlights..
now i sometimes recognize that that's what
it is and can let the feelings simmer down,
realize other people don't even know that
i'm mad and not get paralyzed and then get
the endless thoughts about the whole situat-
ion..it is so nice to read about all these
things and not feel like somethings wrong
with me and defective or something..
thanks,
brenda