Yang and I had a tense negotiation last night. We were frustrated that her current project 'Oasis' (http://www.yanghuang.com/books/main.asp) is not making good progress. For about a month, she has been stuck at Chapter 11. We started negotiating ways I can help. These days I come back from work after 8 PM. Yang does all the cooking. She suggested that I prepare Victor for bed after dinner: brushing teeth, washing, and storytelling. Then she won't be too tired, and can find some time to work on her book for one or two hours. The only issue is that I occasionally have conference calls with my India colleagues at around 10 PM. This seems to be impractical at first. So we continued our negotiation. Eventually, we decided that I will prepare Victor for bed on four nights a week: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I can have my conference calls on Tuesday and Thursday. This arrangement works for both of us. Yang will actually get to spend time on her project. Hopefully she will complete a draft before Living Treasures gets published and requires some promotion time. The truth is that I really enjoying the assignment. Some of the most pleasurable activities for me are taking a walk, playing with Victor, or bathe him. So the negotiation yielded good outcomes for all three of us.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tense Negotiation
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1 comment:
Oh dear, do I get an F?
It seems to be my fallow period. Back in the three years when I got an average 4-5 hours sleep a night nursing my babies, I had been able to crank out a chapter a month. Now I can sleep 6-7 hours a night, why do I feel so tired and unproductive?
I should maintain a tunnel vision, focus on my project and ignore the distractions from the web and TV. A mom should have willpower. How else can she teach her children to grow up and be strong and independent?
I remember what you said: writing isn’t all about me. It’s also about the people I want to help in the world. For them I should work hard and give unselfishly.
By the way, I’m working on chapter 12. Thanks for cracking the whip.
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