Of Going to Bed and other Delays by Konnie Enos

 

Recently something was going around on Social Media describing a couple going to bed. They are watching TV together when the woman says she’s going to bed. She gets up and does several tasks preparing for bed and the next day so it takes her at least half an hour to get into bed.

Soon the man decides he’s going to bed too. He turns everything off and goes climbs in bed and is wondering why his wife isn’t in bed yet.

I assumed this was the sort of thing that ‘pokes fun’ at people and not a factual account of how things are.

Then last night happened.

Since I had spent much of Monday night, into Tuesday morning awake, rather than getting the sleep I needed, I was determined to go to bed at a respectable hour last night.

When nine o’clock hit I told myself that I had to be done with everything and put it all away so I could get to bed in just one more hour.

I pulled out my to-do list, marking off things I knew I’d done. Then I started double-checking those things.

Did I move it forward to Wednesday’s to-do list? Yes. Next item.

Did I complete it? Yes. Mark it off. Next item.

Not done yet. Do them. Mark them off.

Now I checked to make sure Wednesday’s to-do list was complete. Check to make sure I did complete a few assignments or move them to Wednesday’s to-do list. I checked at least two such things I hadn’t done yet.

I worked on both.

I checked my assignment schedules on the website and confirmed that the finished ones were marked off and those still needing doing were on Wednesday’s to-do list.

I have assignments that require me to write something. I have one Word document open for one of those. I have another Word document open to start this post. I have three documents I’d opened for the saved information to do my homework. I also have several other Word document drafts started because of assignments.

On top of these, there are three Excel spreadsheets open, two for school and one because I’d needed the information.

I type a couple of sentences for my post and my assignment but realize I don’t have time and now I had a pounding headache. I decided to quickly check three of my email accounts.

I open one, click on just one email. It wants me to double-check an account.

I do that.

It took me at least half an hour to figure out how to fix the one issue and all the others that cropped up. It’s now past ten.

Then my husband decides it’s bedtime.

He turned off his computer and crawled in bed while asking me if I still needed the light on.

I still had things all over the bed and was knee-deep in fixing those issues.

“I still need the light or I’ll lose something. I’m getting ready for bed though. Just have to complete a couple of things.”

He curls up in bed, saying his goodnights. He is soon snoring.

I finally fix the issues that came up and go to look at the blog post I’d started but glance at the time. It’s now a quarter to 11.

I have multiple things open.

I close all the previously saved Word and Excel documents making sure to save changes.

I go to my internet pages and start closing those, triple-checking so I don’t forget anything.

I eventually close all of them. I still have several unsaved documents to deal with. Both the assignments I’d started writing are only a sentence or two and I’m going to have to start over on them. I close them both.

Now I check my phone to make sure I have alarms set for the next day, including to get me up in time to write this post.

Then I check the next documents. I have to save one of them but the others I no longer need and just close them.

I still have stuff open.

There is an open PowerPoint I can just close.

I’d opened Quicken at some point. I suppose to work on finances since it is on my to-do list but I never got to it. I close that.

There’s another random app open, mostly because I think it opens automatically when I turn on my computer. I close it and finally turn off my computer and put it away.

Then I get ready for bed, turning out lights, using the bathroom, and turning on my CPAP.

It’s now 11.

So it’s real.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.