Case Study: Environmental Productivity
Just in case you think I am knocking life out of the park, today will be a case study of environmental productivity. Or lack thereof.
Last month our oldest got an apartment of her own. Not a dorm room, not campus housing. The kind of place where you have to furnish it yourself. Which cause a mass exodus of furniture from our house.
Which is absolutely ok and what we planned for. We raised our kids to become independent young adults. But this rite of passage has left left a hole in our environmental productivity. We are slowing puttering our way through this home makeover, but it has left my environmental surroundings unsettled.
- We moved beds around so I no longer have a bed in my office. Yay!
- There is a closet I could podcast from, but there I no power in the closet. Boo.
- I now have more space for craft supplies and activities. Yay!
- There is no budget for purchasing furniture to reorganize supplies and activities. Boo.
I want to use what we have in our home to creatively furnish these repurposed spaces instead of buying new. I am less excited about the hassle of navigating used purchases from Facebook Marketplace or yard sales.
So this is the current state of things – podcasting from the floor.
I can make it about 5 minutes before my foot falls asleep and I have to pause the recording and change positions. My back hurts the whole time I am sitting here. I certainly won’t be able to have guests over to record with me on the floor. But I am not sure where I want what activities to happen so I am trying to be patient and let the solutions evolve.
It reminds me of the story I shared in episode 24 of the Sustainable Productivity podcast about physical clutter. A university task force could not agree on where to put the sidewalks for a new construction project. Finally they decided to just wait to see where people walked and put sidewalks there.
I am going to stop worrying about finding the perfect space for things or perfect things for the space and just live with what I have for now. Sometimes Sustainable Productivity is about accepting the current status.
Sustainable You Reflections
- Is there something in your environment that is making you uncomfortable?
- Do you feel uncomfortable NOT making a decision and just sitting with several options? Why do you think that is?
Until next time remember to create productive results in a way that you can sustain and that work for you.