How?

For over nine years, I’ve made it a practice to be at PJP six out of seven days with limited exception…and then on the seventh day, there’s still food deliveries to order and more to work on from home. And I don’t share our six day schedule to humblebrag about our dedication because it is less dedication and more necessity to make this all work. The trade off of working for yourself is that it is never 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, so while the perks are solid…the schedule can be total garbage.

And I only mention this here because for the past month or so, we’ve made a concerted effort to not work on Wednesdays. We use that time to either work on our PJP Chesterfield plans or do all the normal things people with two days off each week do, like errands and cleaning the house. And look, this change is isn’t because I’ve had some sort of epiphany about the long term sustainability of working six days a week, but rather because if we are going to have a third store two hours away, we’ve got to figure out how to divide our time. Not working on Wednesdays has helped us find all the weak spots in the way we do things at PJP. It requires others to open and close the stores, plus handle any issues that arise. Watching how this goes helps us figure out where we can improve.

This is just a lead up to say that for the past month, I’ve been garbage at this practice. I spend most of the evening before feeling guilty for not being there, alternating with anxiety that something will go wrong, all rolled up with an unhealthy dose of self-consciousness that everyone will think we don’t care about our sweet PJP if we aren’t there every single day. Do you know how embarrassing that is to share with the Internet? I had to run to Hyvee early this morning and I felt guilty even looking at PJP Nifong. I did a slow roll by to look in and assess the activity. SO PATHETIC.

Because he is a much mentally healthier individual, Jason thinks Wednesdays are great. He sees them as an opportunity to learn and adjust how PJP operates as we contemplate another store. He’s literally never worried or guilty or stressed about taking the day and he certainly can go to Hyvee without a one mile an hour drive by assessment. (Wait, before he sounds perfect, he worries and stresses about an entire litany of other PJP things, just not so much the six day a week schedule. Thankfully, I tend to not worry as much about the things he does stress about and it all balances out.). Likewise, my kids think it is great. Hayden was still on the schedule at West this morning and Ellery has little tolerance for my overthinking. Jeanne could literally go two weeks without going to either PJP and she would have no worries at all and all the the faith that it was trucking along with no problems.

So there’s no point to any of this, but to save it in our archives so one day when we have 50 stores, we can look back and remember that I could barely leave two stores for two days a week…even if one of those days is a day we are closed. And honestly, it will likely only last through the summer before the fall baking schedule comes back with a vengeance and then there is no option but to be there every day. But then that brings up the whole issue of how to we grow our stores in other places if we are in our current stores all the time. HOW DO OTHER PEOPLE FIGURE THIS OUT? Forget Taylor Swift, I really think I’m the problem.