The times between

I stumbled onto something awesome recently in the ongoing quest for a work-life balance. I'm not sure what to call it, but it makes me think of that trick that turtles have of carrying their houses around on their backs. They have everything they need at all times, but can use it or not, as the situation warrants. It reminds me of the running around town I've been doing with my laptop bag, and how much of a life becomes possible when everything you need is right there on your back.

For the past two weekends, I have become a master at using the times in between the things I want to be doing to get work done. I have mapped out free wireless connections all around Austin, scouted cafes and made a mental note of accommodating park benches. As I go about my business, I am never far from a place where I can whip out my laptop or stack of grading and use the time to my advantage. It's been working like a charm. I get a surprising amount done in small intense bursts, then merrily speed off to my next extracurricular activity.

Take last weekend, which was a three-day weekend. Now, I still suffer from the delusion that I'm going to get a ton done on a three-day weekend, so I save up longer-term projects. Not the best plan. In this case, I had to prepare two presentations for a staff meeting, in addition to planning for the week and grading my first major test. Yeah. You can see the problem. I also wanted to go to yoga all three days, attend the Texas Book Festival and go to Spanish class. While Monday was reserved for work, I knew it wouldn't be enough. But I had stuff to do! I mean, really. The Book Festival! Author talks, book signings, yummy food! My personal version of nirvana, for free at the capitol building! The old me would have sucked it up and spent two full days at school. The new me...well, I was frankly flummoxed.

Until I started using those between-times to get stuff done. I didn't plan it--it happened that way because I just went ahead and did the fun stuff I wanted to do. I went to the Book Festival and spent all the time I wanted cruising the booths and eating chicken tacos. Then I took my computer to the lovely Capitol grounds and spent the 90 minutes left before an author talk writing my homework handouts and preparing the short activity the kids do at the beginning of every class. Afterward, I spent the 45 minutes between the author talk and yoga on a bench in front of Whole Foods working on Tuesday's lesson plan. (It was a three-day weekend, remember, so I had Monday off). The next day, I spent the hour before church at a cafe, sipping a cappuccino and grading the last of my tests. By the time I went into school Monday to prepare my presentations and finish everything up, I had done enough in between times to be able to leave at 3 p.m.! Since yoga wasn't until 6:30, I could go home, put my feet up and watch a movie. True, I had to watch the movie to write a lesson plan for our Saturday School film study, but, hey, it didn't feel like working.

This weekend is shaping up in much the same. After Saturday School and Spanish class, a time-sucking double whammy, I went back to Whole Foods and got in about an hour of work before yoga. Tomorrow before church, I'll be back in the cafe.

Now, you, dear reader, might think it's a little sad to be pulling out work to fill every free moment. I mean, here I am, flush with excitement about this brilliant efficiency when I am literally carrying my job with me wherever I go. But I don't see it that way. Maybe it's because I'm most accustomed to working alone in my classroom for hours at a stretch, relentlessly producing the needed materials for the week and hardly blinking until it's done. This new in-between-times thing seems like a vacation by comparison. I can still work with intense focus (and it's true, as the security guard at Whole Foods informed me, I don't blink a lot), but the work occurs in the context of a life that is actively taking place beyond four classroom walls. Which is a huge step in the right direction, or so it feels.

Now, all I need is a name for this time. In-between time is descriptive, but not particularly inspired. Getting-a-life time? Pocket time? My personal favorite is turtle time, though I know it evokes a different image than the one I'm after, the one of me with my job neatly contained on my back, and my life rolling out ahead of me.