Don’t Mind The Cannon Fire

I can’t recall the last time that I took an entire week off from work like I did last week. While I did work from home and been out of the office for an extended period of time I was nevertheless still working. It was quite the shock to the system getting up this morning and having to drive to the office rather than the next place to visit. It was equally a drastic change to leave my son for the day after being able to spend a week and a half together.

However, I can’t say that I complete cut out work for the week. While I didn’t receive the deluge of emails that I usually sift through each day, I still had to reply to a number of requests as well as keep current on the plethora of projects always in the rotation in one form or another. And, of course, there were the calls that I had to either listen in on or provide direction on certain weekly campaigns. Thankfully no one seemed to mind the cannon fire in the background. I may have been on vacation but, as it turns out, I was still able to put in a fair amount of hours into each of the accounts.

Thankfully, I was able to schedule much of the needed work activity into small breaks throughout the week or while walking from one place to another. That is really the only way to do it as this was first and foremost, family time and I wasn’t going to ruin it for everyone else because of my corporate addiction. What really struck me about this was a conversation I had with my dad toward the end of last week when I had to stop and answer a few emails before dialing into a weekly call. In response to apologizing for the distraction his said “been there”. As if I needed the proof… I have finally turned into my father.

While it was a bit of a pain jumping back and forth at times, it paid off today as I was up to speed in about an hour rather than falling a week behind. The other benefit is that I am reaping the rewards of taking those calls and reading those emails because I am able to resume keeping work at the office and focus all of my attention when I get home on my wife and son. It may still be far from ideal and the whole thing may not seem like its balanced but it actually is working out well. 

Looks Like It’s Going To Be A Full Fall

Over the past couple of weeks my schedule has gone from fairly open to being a cluster of conflicting meetings. When you factor in the whole vacation situation that man of us are facing at the office with just under a month to go until renewal along with the anticipated uptick in the work load, it really isn’t much of a surprise that the office calendar is filled with countless scribbles. However, my personal calendar is leaving me with few options and nearly no flexibility when it comes to finding time to partake in some of my more relaxing activities.

Today was a particularly interesting day as I was the only person on a couple of accounts that was actually in the office slamming away at the keyboard. While one project got cancelled a number of other items almost immediately filled my inbox. Albeit delayed since my email was acting up again. This, as many of you know, completely stuffs the rest of the week full of catching up and trying to make headway on projects that, for one reason or another, were not completed previously. Needless to say, I am going to be exhausted by the end of the week.

I don’t expect things to move any smoother as the days flip past as there are countless emails seemingly hanging in suspended animation just waiting to be returned to me with some unknown list of things that need to be done right away. Unfortunately, these personal correspondences requiring my attention will have to be written about in a future post as there are items in there not ready for dissemination.

On top of all this I am bouncing back and forth with lodge communications. Many of these I have fallen behind on but others are just the natural result of another stated meeting. This has actually been the fun stuff as of late since they are relatively easy to answer and require just a little effort to check another item off my list. Hopefully, they don’t stall on the other end or next month will simply be a repeat.

And finally we have the other fun things that I enjoy on a daily basis one of which you are reading now. This is the time when I can vent all of the aforementioned frustrations and also have a little fun in the process. By writing and researching without deadlines or expectations beyond those that I have personally set for myself, I am able to relax while remaining productive. Odd when you think about it but very gratifying at the end of the day. Unlike previous years, I always make the time to write. So, with a few things left to do and a list that it slowly getting paired down, I end this post knowing that tomorrow I will begin the process all over again.

Sometimes I Have To Work To Relax…

I have a huge problem… don’t all chime in at once… in that I can’t seem to turn off my mind during my days off. For the first time in a long time, I took a day off today with nothing on the calendar. I didn’t have a specific place that I had to be or event that I had to attend. It was a bit of an odd feeling.

Without something to keep me occupied, I found myself getting up early, a little later than usual due to my not wanting to get out of bed, and almost immediately getting on the computer and sending emails. While there are a few things that had to be taken care of that carried over from the work week, there wasn’t too much that was pressing. However, while there is no doubt that I was working, it didn’t feel like work. I was in a completely different headspace while my fingers scurried across the keyboard.

Thankfully, I did have a general idea of a few things that I wanted to do so by the early afternoon I was out the door and on my way to the range. I can’t just sit back and dwell in the apartment, I need to be social and one of my social hobbies was calling me. Heck, it is a great way for me to relax as well.

By the time my wife called me after work, I was feeling much more relaxed. Usually by the end of the day, especially at the end of the week, I am wiped out but with the laid back but productive kind of day that I had, I still had plenty of energy to drive over to the mall and get a few errands taken care of before we sat down for a fancy food court dinner. Now, we have one less trip that we have to make this weekend which frees up a few hours to get some other things done in the apartment. After all, we still have three days left in the weekend.

With an easy day leading into the night, I find myself with a little extra energy and focus to check a few other items off my weekend list a little early. While I can’t say, by most people’s definition, that this is going to be a relaxing weekend, it is just what I need to get back on track with just enough down time so that I can go into the three day week reenergized. I know, sometimes I am pretty good at scheduling.

Ever Lose Track Of Your Vacation Days?

That is exactly what happened to me this year. It has been tough to take time off this past year as business has been constantly busy and I really haven’t had a good reason to stay ways from the office. With that said, I find myself with a couple months to go before I get a new crop of vacation days. Well crap, I guess I am going to have to take some time off since they will not carry over. So, this past week I finally sat down and took a look at my calendar.

It is difficult for me to take the time for myself as, and I have been very clear about this in previous posts, I enjoy working. I like going to the office every day and making things happen. To do anything else would make the week feel a little incomplete. But I guess that is something that I have to get over especially now with how tired I have been lately and the massive changes that are on the horizon. Something has to give and if taking time off with help that situation then I am happy to oblige.

However, I know that the next couple of months are going to be critical to ramping programs back up for the busier time of year so my decisions on what days to take are influenced by that factor… no long blocks. Additionally, all of us that started around the same time are in the same position and we are making sure that our days don’t overlap… a few less options but nothing I was looking at anyway. What was left were a few long weekends that will do wonders for the rest of the year and while I don’t plan on using every one of my days (I might use about half of my work from home days as well), there are a few breaks that have been worked into the schedule.

There are a few days that I am taking off for the simple convenience of it (i.e. late night at the lodge the night before) but, for the most part it is going to be a few weeks of long weekends and doing my best to finally get caught up on everything else especially in the home office. Working in my favor I the fact that my wife just got a regular position in a local school district leaving me along for the day to buckle down and get things done. Maybe, just maybe, all of those projects that have been pushed back since I started working regularly will get done and we can go into the end of the year with a clean slate.

So, expect a few different posts in the coming months as I will have more time to enjoy and focus on other things. It will be an odd feeling not going to the office ‘just because’ but it give me an opportunity to relax, enjoy something else for a change, and record it all right here. Who knows, maybe there will be something that you aren’t expecting and if you want to get together during those days send me an email and maybe we can coordinate something a little different.

The Downfall Of The Long Weekend

For the first time in a while I was able to take a long weekend and not think about work too much. There really isn’t any way for me to get away from things so having a respite for a little while was a nice change of pace. Of course, being in the car for nearly fifteen hours over a two day span didn’t hurt my ability to turn things off for a while but it didn’t completely cripple my ability to get a few other things done. I guess I have to always be working on something.

Come Monday afternoon the tide began to shift and the undertow of emails was trying to pull me back out into the sea of work that awaited me today. Having taken Friday and Monday off to both head up to Erie and recover afterward, the mountain of projects, papers, and emails had grown at a rate that any weed would have been happy to achieve. Back in the office this morning, it was time to put my head down and dig as fast as I could before more tasks began filling my inbox.

Can’t say that I was completely successful but there has been progress made. What is really a bit annoying is the fact that I had finally gotten up to speed not long ago. This is a cycle that I hope doesn’t continue but I am not holding out for that luxury. For now, it is a matter of slowly plodding through the paper, scanning websites, and rapidly responding to and completing the projects that have been put on hold for just a small window of time. Some may see this as only a couple of days but that is a lot of time in my line of work.

With next week also being a short week, the new goal is to, hopefully, get everything cleared off by Friday but I am really expecting it to carry over into the weekend. Not the first time and certainly not the last. Somewhere, somehow I will also look for those small air pockets so that I might take a breath, take care of some personal and lodge items, before diving back down to the bottom of the pile. In the end, things could be worse. After all, this is the slow time of year. I don’t even want to think about what my days would look like if I had taken a long weekend in the fall or winter.

The Workaholic’s Dilemma

What happens if I turn one of the other two directions?

I decided some time ago that I was going to take today off. The problem that I am running into is that I really don’t know what to do with myself with this extra day away from the office. All of the other days that I have been out of the office had another reason behind them beyond just needing to take time off. I have taken a days off here and there because of holidays, illness, and other commitments during the day. I had something to do. Today I am not sure how I am going to fill the day.

There are a few options. I could go to the range. I could run some overdue errands. I could spend the time in the apartment cleaning or organizing. I could sit at my computer, get ahead on work, catch up on a few lodge tasks, and write a few blogs for future use. There is also a research article that I have to get done for the fall. Nothing seems to be jumping out at me at the moment. I know that my wife will be productive today but I have no motivation to get that much done. Maybe I should just let the day play out and not set an agenda for this rare time away from the office.

On the other hand, I might want to get things together now as this is the first of four consecutive weeks when I will have short weeks. That’s right from this week until the week of the 4^th of July, I will be working four days a week. Sounds like a great way to start the summer but if things continue as they are starting off today it may not be as nice as it sounds. I have to find a way to fill my days and be productive but also have the time off be relaxing as well.

The other issue I have with taking time off is that I have a check list constantly running through my mind of things that need to get done as soon as I get back to the office. I am also thinking of the possibilities of things that may come up that someone else will have to handle since I am not at my desk and, potentially, not at my computer today. And, no surprise, I am constantly trying to think about things that I may have possibly forgotten about yesterday that I should have gotten done before the long weekend began.

So, I guess I am going to have to work today as it is going to take some significant effort to calm my mind and focus on the day in from of me. I am going to just let the day play out and pretty much do what I want to do. All of this while staying out of my wife’s way so that she can get everything done that she needs to focus on. Will it be a successful day, I don’t know but I am going to try and see how things go. This might help though...

A Lazy Day Is Not Relaxing

 

The plan this Saturday was to head off to the lodge in the morning and take care of a few items that need to be addressed in the next couple of days. Maybe even get ahead of a few things. In addition to these weekly tasks, a clean out way loosely organized to begin in the morning and get some of the random things out of the building that have been doing nothing but taking up space for years if not decades. After that was going to be a quick lunch with my wife and maybe a small trip to Staples.

It was a reasonable plan but even the simple days sometimes get altered. Sometimes in drastic ways. What ended up happening today was sleeping late, eating lunch, and a long period of just doing nothing. I can’t remember the last time I just bummed around the apartment and relaxed. With everything that has been going on lately it was nice to not have to be anywhere. While I felt a little bad for not getting over to the lodge, sometimes I have to just step back for a day and try to recharge. Today was that overdue day.

While it was nice to take it easy and relax on the couch with my wife, by the end of the day I was left wondering what I had gotten done. In the past, I would have just sat back and enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to do anything. However, that is not who I am anymore. Not getting anything done by the end of the day just made me feel worse, increased my stress, and made me feel tired (more than I was before). I never thought I would be one of those people but the fact of the matter is, I need to keep working. My relaxation comes from the completion of work knowing that I got enough done during the day.

I know, I can sense my wife cringing as she reads this.

So tomorrow something is going to have to get done. If I have any chance of trying to relax this weekend, I can’t let projects and tasks get put off for another day. With that said, the agenda for tomorrow is still up in the air as I have a number of things that have to get done on the computer and at the apartment but we also have to get out and continue looking at apartments.

I have no idea what is going to happen so I guess I will just log off and write about it tomorrow. I know, I am such a come as it may person but sometimes you don’t have complete control over the next day no matter what you may think. So, goodbye today, hello tomorrow.