Meeting mixup

Had one of those heart stopping moments yesterday. It is the last week of the school holidays, and I had taken a day out from work to go out with the family. Mobile phone rings. It is one of my clients. He asks "are you nearly here?"

Now I have a meeting scheduled for the next day, which I point out. Reply is "no definitely today. The guy from the Netherlands has arrived to see you."

Anyway, turns out the email I received said the meeting was on Wednesday 31st. Should have said Wednesday 30th. What interests me is why I latched onto the date and the client latched on to the day, so that neither of us realised the error.

Being freelance, I don't tend to work a standard week. Work comes in small bursts, and I had recently been doing some work over the weekend. I don't have any particular reference points related to the day of the week, so probably consider the date more.

In contrast, when you have a 'proper job,' life is much more closely related to the Monday to Friday week. Hence, I can see that the day is of more interest.

Equally, when I got the phone message, I did wonder if I had made a mistake. I remember making a mental note that the meeting was on the last day of August, as a way of remembering. It would have been quite easy for me to have made this note for a meeting on the 30th, as I usually have to give some thought to which months have 30 and which have 31 days.

As it turned out we managed to cover everything important on the phone. I spent the day with the family and avoided a drive across country to go to the meeting.