Taking responsibility is efficient

Theo was happily working away in the room next to me, making music with a spoon and coffee mug he found under the couch. His “focus face” is one of my favorites, and while he’s in the zone, I can ease into some AM email action.

I received a voice message from Beth at the farm. Since it was laying on the desk, hitting the “play” button began blasting the speaker. At the sound of his mom’s voice, Theo came running over, losing all interest in his musical instrument and now upset. He eventually settled down and into a new task. About 20 minutes later, another message comes in, I play it, and Little Man is thrown off again.

So, my first instinct was to tell Beth, who’s deep in the market gardens, to just type out messages if they’re short enough, because it’s upsetting our son to hear her when she’s not here.

But then it occurred to me that this is something I have control over. By simply lifting the phone to my ear before starting the message, it plays through the earpiece instead of speaker. Doing this instead requires no more time or effort. It is definitely less work than determining and explaining best practices for messaging at different times of the day, and much easier than trying to manage another person’s phone habits.

When owning an outcome is far more affordable than delegating and managing, be thankful for the bargain.