As self-employed gurus (everybody’s a guru nowadays), we’re supposed to embrace the concept of overwork like we do the idea of 24-hour connection.
“At least you’re not starving” is the uncharitable response from friends and colleagues when I mention it’s been busy, but these are the same people I taunt when taking a weekday off to go fly fishing or hiking, so it’s likely I’m simply getting what I deserve.
Still, this is more than a few late nights. I’m facing the Harmonic Convergence of Overwork (Harmonicconvergenceofoverwork.com is available for anyone who wants to start a whine blog). Pretty much every major project I pitched the past couple months sat right on the knife edge of “almost ready.”
Then all started simultaneously.
And yes, I’ve been piteous as of late – until I read this Writer’s Almanac passage about Underground Fave short story writer John Cheever, who struggled with far bigger demons than overwork:
Bailey said: “Cheever’s comfort zone was his imagination, this alternative universe where his fiction came from. When the morning was over, when he had finished his writing, he had to enter the real world. And that was frightening to him. He lived with the terror that he thought his children would discover his sexual life. He felt like an impostor. He despised himself. And it was assuaged only by the next drink.”
In the context of choosing between overwork or abject self-loathing, a little too much work suddenly seems OK (thanks John Cheever, for more than just the words).
The Dangers of Too Much
The danger of a Harmonic Convergence of Overwork is simple; you’ll do an obvious rush job on an important project, or worse, disappoint the hell out of a client.
And while this isn’t meant to be a “how to” post, I will offer this nugget; there are times when you have to suck it up and tell a client their project has to wait three weeks.
If you start their project now, it’s going to finish badly. And besides, projects being what they are, it won’t get done any sooner anyway.
Clients are never happy – and you may lose the project – but I’d rather somebody else did it right for them than have me do it wrong.
Keep writing (as whining won’t help anyway), Tom Chandler.
