The most productive thing I did all week involved paying someone to plant a garden for me. (Cringe.)

Now, there were other things I did this week that could be seen as potentially productive. I wrote 5,000 words on my book manuscript. I relaunched the online productivity conference that 20,000 of you have taken. I gave a live webinar. I had some phone calls. I read two books. But the garden. THE GARDEN was my big accomplishment. And I had almost nothing to do it with it at all.

For some, this whole story likely verges on heresy. After all, gardening is a worthy hobby that helps to decompress, destress, and calm down even the most frazzled among us and should probably be taken up by all. I know this well. Indeed, I have had personal dreams for years of following in my father’s footsteps and being an accomplished gardener. It seemed like exactly the kind of thing my overloaded brain needed. Free and beautiful produce! An excuse to be outside! Daily time in dirt!

So I bought the books on gardening. I went to the nursery and asked what I’m supposed to plant in this hemisphere at this time of year. I put a whole lot of mediocre effort into starting, but not finishing. Ultimately, save for a brief period tending to a mediocre lemon tree on a city apartment some years back my overall ability to turn this dream into a reality over the years has been nonexistent. Again and again, I have deferred my gardening dreams. Until I have more time, I’ve always said.

The question of if I will have more time in the future is a funny one. As humans, we have the tendency to put things off for a future wherein we imagine that time will be more abundant. After the new year. When this season calms down. Not surprisingly, studies say that by and large we overestimate the amount of time we’ll have in the future.

But studies also say that moms with small children at home read less than women with older kids. I am such a mom. So this suggests that time may to some extent open up a bit for me.

Unfortunately, I’m not willing to put off my dreams of organic tomatoes for so long. This week I pulled out my pocketbook and hired someone. Specifically, I hired a non-profit in our area that runs a beautiful (circular!) community garden who also specializes in home visits for aspiring gardeners with an inability to execute. A home visit is what I needed.

The team started my garden on Monday and have promised me that with their ongoing maintenance I will have very little chance to kill all the plants. I feel on top of the world.

They planted me a garden!

What have you done (personally or otherwise) this week that has been strangely productive? 

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