Mommy's Project 52: working

Well I'm almost a week late with this post, but better late than never.  The holidays and vacation relaxation were upon me and I definitely wasn't thinking about the topic of this weeks (last week's :0) Mommy's Project...Duh,duh,duh,duh: working. Working is something I generally like to do.  I like that I work part time and have the best of both worlds: being mom and being professional.  However, this part time work thing is sometimes hard to juggle.  My mom is famous for saying don't do something "half ass", and unfortunately working is sometimes a "half ass" job for me or at least I feel that way. When you work part time I feel you miss out on part of the working environment.  My knowledge base at work sometimes feel less than other colleagues/coworkers.  I wonder if this is because I'm only there part time or my noggin just isn't up to their noggin's abilities.

Working  hard is something I've had to do my whole life when it comes to really wanting to be good at something.  I don't have one of those insane abilities to just pick something up.  I always have to work at it.  When I finished getting my master's in nursing and passing my pediatric nurse practitioner boards I was happy to see the work had paid off.  I had found a job in pediatric cardiology that allowed me my dream life of both being a professional and using my MSN and being able to stay at home with my kids part time and work my second job (or is it my first job) as a mom.  I don't think I would make a good full time working mom or a full time stay-at-home mom.  Working is something I need. 

With the ringing in of the New Year I have wanted to look at goals for this upcoming year both professional, personal, and family.  My professional goals include being more efficient when at work.  I want to be able to get more done in a day at work so I can actually leave work at work.  I may not take actual/physical work home with me, but I have a running list of "to do's" clicking in my brain as I run to pick the kids up from daycare/school.  If I were more efficient at work then maybe the "to do's" could be left at work.

I also feel like there are always things I could be better at and know more about when it comes to the kids I care for.  Instead of wanting to know more I want to put that into my work day as another task/goal to accomplish- this would entail reading all those articles I cut out about topics related  to my patients, not just putting them in a pile.  This would involve continuing to be active in organizations/groups that focus on care of kids and health care of the children I take care of.  This work is needed and important to improving my overall work life.  By focusing and being more efficient I hope to  be a better working mom and nurse practitioner.  Doing both jobs half ass is never fun or fulfilling.  I also hope to weed out parts of work that don't give me any fulfillment: people who suck the energy right out of you, jobs/tasks that are tedious (I need to be even more efficient to get these things done so I can work on things I really want to be working on).  Work is an area that could be improved this coming year and I hope to make some strides to improving my feeling of working in a "half-ass" way.