Make Days Off Grand
Disclaimer: (I often like to start with disclaimers because this medium lends itself to easy misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Here, emotion and spirit are not easily conveyed.) The following does not mean to complain about yesterday, the day before, or any other day in history. I simply mean to reflect and look forward to opportunities that may be eventually come again.
It is my belief that the socially accepted pattern of 5 days of work and 2 days of ‘weekend’ bears down on humans more than we’re meant to withstand. Many of us, too tired to complete household chores after work, end up turning weekends into work days just to attempt to catch up with the rest of our lives (it’ll never happen at this rate).
Yesterday was a company holiday. Alas! A perfect way to round out Easter weekend and recover from the last eleven or so weeks (since the last vacation day). An opportune time to catch up on the things that have been piling up since the Big Move. Not my best idea. I really needed a Sabbatical. The (obvious) goal of GTD is to actually do stuff, but at the core of human mental and physical health is the fact that we really need to take a break from time to time.
Ideas for making this happen:
- Every ten weeks or so, take a day off from everything. Schedule this in a clever way. It could even be a weekend day. Make sure the affected people know and are willing to help you make the day work out (by leaving you alone).
- On these days (5 a year certainly doesn’t sound like an awful lot but it will serve you well if done effectively) don’t glance at your lists, email, calendars, and only answer the phone if it isn’t going to make work or seem like you’re working. Friendly, pleasant conversations only.
- Make sure you hit the ground running afterwards. This mini-retreat should refresh and invigorate you to be insanely productive for at least the next week and should keep you going without dread and heartache until the next one.
If you’re anything like me, you could use one of these days immediately. Id est, go flip through your calendar and find the day now. It could be your next company holiday, your birthday, or this coming saturday. Remember the rules and stick to them. It’ll be grand.
April 7th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
Great idea. I’ll be sure to give it a try real soon and share my opinions in my blog. Thanks for the motivation! ;]
-Rob
April 29th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
[…] F space-age wasteland � Blog Archive � Make Days Off Grand space-age wasteland � Blog Archive � Make Days Off Grand This sounds like a good idea. […]
May 11th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Sounds like the Orthodox Jewish Sabbath.
September 14th, 2005 at 2:03 am
Reminds me of Peter from “Office Space.” What would you do if you had a million dollars. Nothing. I would sit on my (butt) and do absolutely nothing.
Righteous.
October 18th, 2005 at 12:05 am
Absolutely
I’ve gotten into a habit of doing this over the past few years, and knowing that you’ve got a nice 3 day weekend coming up because you’ve arranged to take one day off can make all the difference, especially if you schedule them at least once every 6 weeks. And yes, as you said, they have to be fun and a real break, not just a chance to catch up on chores.
The only problem I’ve noticed is that you tend to run out of annual leave a bit faster than everyone else, and it’s hard to take more than a solid 1 week break per year that way. Solution - talk to your work about lowering your pay a little and increasing your annual leave by a week or more. It doesn’t make much of a pay difference per paycheck, but it makes a big difference in time-out opportunities each year