The colour of blue

I sat at my paper-littered desk, scribbled notes in my terrible handwriting, specification charts, plans and the customer's email I'd printed for reference scattered around me. My computer screens displayed digital versions of similar documents, spreadsheets, government documentation outlining regulations on length and weight limits for heavy vehicles, pricing charts and supplier parts manifests; I wondered to which level of hell I'd descended, a thought that deepened when I realised my coffee sat beside me, untouched and cold. The quote was taking forever, or so it seemed. I looked around seeking an escape and then...saw the colour of blue...the ocean.

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Today was one of those forgettable days, or should I say, one of those days I'd prefer to forget? It started well and I'd expected it to unfold in a predictable and controlled manner but my customers had other ideas. What ensued was an endless steam of quote requests, some easy and some complicated and...that resulted in a messy desk, cold coffee and a yearning for the blues; the blues of the ocean that, through the window of my minds eye, I saw so vividly.

I should probably confess here that the influx of quote requests wasn't endless at all and my minds eye was actually my computer screens. Having said that, as I sat there virtually buried neck deep in costing up quotes my imagination took me to blue seaside-places and, in some small way, that was enough to get me through the hours I spent at my desk...I guess the memory of something beautiful can indeed make one's thoughts and attitudes take an upward turn.

The largest quote, a complicated $130,000 nightmare quote, beat me today. It sits on my desk about two thirds the way to being complete. No judgement here ok folks, I've done my bit on it and am waiting on component suppliers to return their quotes so I can complete the whole thing..That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it anyway. It will be there in the morning though, as will I, and I'll get it completed and sent to my customer by mid morning.

Thinking about today though, I know, I'm supposed to be forgetting today, but, thinking about it nonetheless I'd have to say it was one of the most annoying I've had in the last four or five months. It seemed like I was baulked at every turn and, with little prospect of forward motion, I let it get to me just a little bit. It felt decidedly uncontrolled which, for me, doesn't sit well. There was a little light to be found in the darkness though and it was the colour of blue.

I made, what I can only say was a great decision, and closed down all the windows on my screens with the press of the Windows+D keys and sat staring at the desktop until the screen saver came on and...just like that, I had the blues...I mean a series of images that float across my screen depicting a place I sometimes visit to find a measure of peace. I've put three into this post.

What's really cool is that the images took me back to this day; I could smell the ocean, hear the birds calling overhead, feel the breeze in my hair, cool and refreshing. I could hear the waves hitting the rocks, the fizzle-sound as the whitewater bubbled up around the rocks then receded, the sound of my boots crunching the small pebbles and shell grit laid upon the clifftop trail and...I felt better.

I stayed there for five minutes, lingered in that comfortable place, then got up, remade another coffee and Windows+D'd my keyboard bringing the spreadsheets back. I got back to work. productively.

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This is one of the ways I reset myself when I'm feeling unsettled, out of control and unproductive. It provides me a moment, nowhere near as good as the real moment of course, but still, a gap in which to find a central point and re-find the solid platform I need to launch into productivity.

What about you? How do you do the same in those moments at work when you feel you're getting nowhere? How do you find your mojo and get yourself back into the zone and productive? Tell me below in the comments.