There’s a certain feeling that comes with the start of each workday that’s difficult to describe; I know that, because I’ve just spent moments trying to define it inside my head before writing this. It’s not anticipation, exactly, because that would suggest a sense of excitement about what’s to come, but it’s also not dread, because I’m not quite so downbeat about it, either; instead, it’s this acceptance and awareness that I have no idea what’s going to happen between now and the end of the workday, but I know something will.
What that something will be changes from day to day, of course. Today, I know that it includes one of my dogs having to have dental surgery, which I’m nervous about on his behalf, as well as a couple of drop-dead deadlines this afternoon, some smaller deadlines to juggle and the whole “getting back into the work mindset” in the middle of all of that. I’m sure there’ll be other things to poke and prod — there are emails I need to reply to, and plans that need to be made — and that’s kind of the point. At the start of each workday, it’s all potential, this massive mountain of To-Do List that seems entirely insurmountable, yet you know you have to do it anyway.
Here’s hoping we get to the end of the day in good shape.