10 Things I Learned This Week

It's been a super busy week!  This week I learned...

1. That I love working.  I pop out of bed at 6am, watch the sunrise as I drink my tea, trundle to my office down the hallway, and get lots of work done before the emails and calls start.
2. That when I am so busy on my computer all day, I have no desire to be online afterwards so no doom scrolling, no online shopping, no reddit/weblist/Bored Panda/etc.  It's really nice and relaxing not to be online.
3. That when I did have some down time, after a week of not being online, I couldn't believe how awful nearly everything online was--depressing, sad, "news" that is really opinions, people being mean and angry about every little thing...I think in the future I will really limit my time online.
4. That the lady in the accounting department is a genius.  She is super helpful, super organized, and brilliant with numbers (my eyes started to glaze over when she started discussing the intricacies of taxes based on each line item but I digress...).  My job is so much easier when someone knows the answers to all of my questions!
5. That unraveling someone's life after they pass away in this digital age is difficult.  When my grandfather passed away many years ago (pre internet), my grandmother called the lawyer and the accountant and everything was taken care of.  Now that my friend's daughter is handling her mother's estate, there are hundreds of things to take care of (dozens of online accounts, changing the 2fa for several of her accounts to her daughter's phone, setting up an "estate account" at the bank, hiring estate sale people to deal with all of the stuff in her mom's house...every day it seems she has a new challenge to deal with).
6. On the flip side, work in the digital age is so much easier!  I've had a half dozen meetings in the past week that years ago would have required several hours of driving, a fancy copy machine, and a briefcase full of contracts/note taking supplies/other documents to get my work done.  These days I just hop on Microsoft teams, watch (or listen if I don't need to present anything) the meeting, and documents are shared/signed/submitted in minutes via email.  It's definitely a better way to work!
   
7. That the whole online meeting thing requires some planning and skill.  I need a quiet location, a good background, good makeup (those 1080p webcams show every little wrinkle!), good lighting (I don't want to be too washed out, too bright, too red-toned...eeekkk), and practice (I can now share my screen in record time instead of heming and hawing while looking for the right place to click on my screen).
   
8. That I am too old for some of the "woke" crap in meetings.  Like introducing yourself with your "pronouns".  These are science-based meetings...my pronoun is pro science.  ggrrrrrr
   
9. That I don't shop nearly as much when I am busy working as I did pre-job.  I haven't seen a Sam's Club or Costco in a few weeks, I don't shop for entertainment, and I don't shop online nearly as much.  Now shopping seems like a waste of time when I could be catching up on work.
   
10. Finally, I learned that I can be way more productive than I have been in retirement.  Before working, I thought about writing a book, starting a small business, or some other challenge, but thought I didn't really have enough time since our days are always pretty busy with activities. I have, however, been able to churn out quite a bit of work while basically doing the same amount of activities (now I work away on my computer at the bowling center when hubby bowls, do my work at the casino when hubby plays poker, get a few hours of work done in the early morning before heading out for a walk, etc.