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Soggy, but Productive

July 17th, 2014

Working from home provides many benefits, one of those being the ability to work during the hours of your choosing. There are times when I have specific deadlines and I must do certain things on specific days, but for the most part I make my own schedule. I have a list of tasks that need done each week and I can pretty much do them whenever I want to during that week. Since I am a gardener, that means I work in the office when it rains and when it is dark outside.  There are lots of early mornings and late evenings spent in front of a computer around here.  If we don’t have rainy days my office work will pile up sometimes, because I will, on occasion, go a week without doing any work.  The rainy days always seem to come just frequently enough.  In the last two days we have received five and a half inches of rain – it’s soggy in the garden, but I have been able to catch up on all my work.  I have managed to do an entire week of work in two days, two LONG days, but two days nonetheless.
rainy days 1
For me, rainy days mean bookkeeping, numbers, invoices, receipts, printing, stuffing envelopes, red pens, checkbooks, e-mails, fundraising, donor relations, organizing events and so much more. They also means writing articles along with editing and organizing photos. Rainy days are never wasted, they are spent madly working as efficiently as I can to maximize my every single minute so I can spend every warm, sunny day working in the garden. I read this article a few month ago about a four day work week and how people are just as productive when they work four days as they are when they work five.  This idea rings true for me. If motivated with an extra day to spend in the garden, I can get almost a week of work finished a few rainy day.
rainy days 2
Even though I always think about the words of that Karen Carpenter song when it rains, I’m happy to get all caught up on my day job.  Rainy days are the days that pay for my sunny days after all, so I can’t be too down on a rainy day. Perhaps if you haven’t been reading here for long you’re not quite certain what my day job is. I manage a charity that my parents started over 40 years ago and I also write articles and sell garden related images to various magazines.

What do rainy days mean to you: rest, housecleaning, working, feeling down? 

7 Comments to “Soggy, but Productive”
  1. Jennifer Fisk on July 17, 2014 at 7:08 am

    Rainy days are usually productive in terms of bill paying and business book work and I don’t feel guilty about not being outside weeding, mowing etc. The part of rainy days like the last spate is I feel bad for my meat birds living under a tarp which has some holes worn in it from Hurricane Arthur. The good news is they don’t seem to mind.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  2. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on July 17, 2014 at 7:39 am

    I don’t mind rainy days, rain mean good luck at a wedding!

    And I couldn’t agree more on the 4 day work week, everyone benefits!

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

  3. Myra S. on July 17, 2014 at 9:45 am

    I love a good rainy day. I am much more productive!

    Reply to Myra S.'s comment

  4. Sarah Kincheloe on July 17, 2014 at 10:07 am

    That sounds nice. I’m a therapist, so kind of important for me to keep a schedule. I do get bummed about going in to work on certain cool mornings, a rarity here in hot Texas.

    Reply to Sarah Kincheloe's comment

  5. Henry on July 17, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Rainy days ussually mean working in the wood shop, or working on house renovations.

    Reply to Henry's comment

  6. Kyle on July 17, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    OUt here, rainy days means life is “normal.” It’s this “sun” thing that is confusing.

    Reply to Kyle's comment

  7. KimH on July 20, 2014 at 8:26 am

    I love rainy days… I just feel better than I do on clear sunny days…
    funny but true…

    Reply to KimH's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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