Ladies' Night

Eek, this is a short dress. I planned to wear this with black tights, but since it's day four of Already Pretty's Black out week, I paired it with grey microfishnets instead (if you look closely, you can see the tiny diamond pattern). I am wearing a slip up by bra line as well to smooth everything out. Perhaps I will end up popping another skirt under this dress, as I didn't realize quite on short it is until I uploaded the pictures.
Today was a very productive day. I spend a lot of my non-teaching days (and therefore all "work days" in the summer) fretting and worrying about my productivity. But I started reading one of the books on academic writing for early career professors yesterday, and that calmed me down. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be very productive 12 hours a day, and that pressure doesn't help me work. The book suggested that I set aside 2 hours to work, and see how that goes. I like these sorts of books because they give you behavior strategies for dealing with neuroses, and accept that most of us are just neurotic about writing. Like cognitive behavioral therapy for fretting pre-tenure profs. This "just two hours" strategy led to working about [interrupted]* 6 hours, then I went jogging, finally showered and dressed. I've tried to dress up for the home office before, but since I am person who responds to threats of punishment rather than rewards, forcing myself to remain an unpresentable bum until putting in my type at the desk worked pretty well. Also, having a social commitment in the evening (a ladies' night that a friend of a friend has organized) has also helped motivate me.
On less nerdy news, Buster and Lula had a short, more pleasant interaction. Lula remains a little spooked but curious, and instead of hissing, there was meowing. Multi-cat victory!

Also, he doesn't run or hiss when we enter the room anymore. To give you an idea how tiny he is, this basket is about 12" by 10".

Do you find that having evening plans makes your day more productive? Do you have any good strategies for self guided work? Can anyone else attest to the utility of self-help writing books?

Dress: thrifted
Tights: some Italian sounding brand, via Daffy's
Boots: Durango, via Beacon's Closet

**I tried to focus for long stretches but there's a 6 week old kitten in the house!