Becoming a believer

It's true- this summer I became a believer.

I guess it all began about 2 months ago when I applied to a temp agency for summer employment. After being subjected to a series of tests which test one's ability to type, spell, add, multiply, match numbers, navigate spreadsheets and fasten a screw into a piece of wood, they promptly placed me at a technology co-sourcing company where I became a "quality assurance associate." It sounds all professional but really it's just the p.c. way to say "someone who sits at a computer all day long and tries not to zone out or get a backache while they are clicking the computer mouse a lot and looking for other people's mistakes." To be a bit more precise, my job was actually to sort through thousands of scans of government documents and make sure there were no bent, fuzzy, upside-down, blank or damaged pages. Or as my supervisor liked to say, "our job in QA is to move images."

Besides not being all that intellectually-stimulating, the job began at 5 a.m. in the morning and was organized into 4- 10-hour shifts a week. So four mornings a week I was dragging myself out of bed at 4 a.m. to get ready, eat breakfast and drive 30 minutes to work. The early mornings were brutal sometimes (especially since I have traveled 6 out of the last 7 weekends and like to spend time in the evenings with the handsome fiance as well as other friends/family; plus somewhere in there we are supposed to be planning a wedding).

Okay, so the stage is set; I walk into work at the dot of 5, clock in, sit down at my computer and start to move images. About 16 minutes into the morning I start to feel tired, 2 minutes later my eyelids begin to feel extremely heavy and a few minutes after that my brain gets a bit fuzzy, though not too fuzzy to realize that I am approximately 3% done with my work day and already I have switched into zombie mode. I tried all the tricks- tapping my knee on the floor, chatting with my co-workers, listening to loud music, munching on carrots (my boss quickly put a stop to that as food is not allowed near the documents due to danger of soiling them; he stood firm even when I mentioned that carrots contain vitamin A which helps your eyesight and hence would help me do my job better). One morning I even let myself close my eyes for 3 seconds every time I came to a blank page, which quickly became an exercise in willpower, namely having enough to open my eyes again at the end of the 3 seconds.

The best solution I found was to stay mentally tough. I would break the day into 5 parts, 2 hour increments each. So 18 minutes in I can do the mental math and tell myself I am actually 15% of the way done with my first increment which makes it easier to not despair. And then, the most beautiful part- during my 10-minute break at 7 a.m., I put my head down on my cubicle, set the alarm on my cell phone and slept. I think in the business world they call this power napping. Research says it's supposed to increase productivity and relieve stress, but for me it became part of basic survival. I woke up after my 10-minute power nap able to put in another two hours and if I needed it, I could catch a few more winks at my 9 a.m. break.

I realized this summer that for most of my life I've been spoiled. I have had many jobs that I enjoy and all have started after 7:30 a.m. This summer changed my perspective on the world; I become a believer- a believer in attempting to be grateful for what is and a huge believer in power napping!