The Nature of S-Days
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:49 pm
I've been pondering S-Days, goals and structure recently.
I've completed my first year as a self-employed freelancer and it's been mostly successful. Certainly successful enough that I am not looking for a "real job", so I suppose that's pretty darn positive.
I've noticed something consistent in difficulties with several sorts of self-discipline problems. They are areas in which I do not take S-days.
I was starting to stagnate in writing and in my business. It wasn't that I wasn't working but that I was working like someone with an eating problem is permasnacking. There was no real structure to my work habits. Sure the stuff was getting done, but after awhile my brain was starting to stagnate. Now, I'm a writer. My brain has to be sharp. Nothing really matters to my client but the quality of the output.
Even though no-one in their right minds would ever call me a religious woman, I started taking a "Sabbath". On that day I would not work: No answering business calls, no writing business emails, no bookkeeping, none of that. Then I discovered this amazing concept. WEEKENDS! I'd take a *gasp* weekend and... get this... NOT WORK!
This didn't hurt my output. Far from it. Did you know that the brain is sharper if it's gotten a rest? Whoda thunk it? My output and motivation were actually better if I really did keep office hours. That office is a laptop, but even so corralling my work to no more than a 45 hour week made me more productive than yawning at a 60 hour one.
My next goal is to do something I didn't used to to, work out on N days and take S days off from working out. I had set myself a stupid goal of trying to work out 6-7 days a week. Fine, if that's what it takes to be a fitness model. I'm a writer. I need to the blood flowing hard enough to keep my brain sharp and my back from aching from sitting so much (I have a really sedentary job, after all). That's really all I need and five workouts a week is plenty for that.
I've completed my first year as a self-employed freelancer and it's been mostly successful. Certainly successful enough that I am not looking for a "real job", so I suppose that's pretty darn positive.
I've noticed something consistent in difficulties with several sorts of self-discipline problems. They are areas in which I do not take S-days.
I was starting to stagnate in writing and in my business. It wasn't that I wasn't working but that I was working like someone with an eating problem is permasnacking. There was no real structure to my work habits. Sure the stuff was getting done, but after awhile my brain was starting to stagnate. Now, I'm a writer. My brain has to be sharp. Nothing really matters to my client but the quality of the output.
Even though no-one in their right minds would ever call me a religious woman, I started taking a "Sabbath". On that day I would not work: No answering business calls, no writing business emails, no bookkeeping, none of that. Then I discovered this amazing concept. WEEKENDS! I'd take a *gasp* weekend and... get this... NOT WORK!
This didn't hurt my output. Far from it. Did you know that the brain is sharper if it's gotten a rest? Whoda thunk it? My output and motivation were actually better if I really did keep office hours. That office is a laptop, but even so corralling my work to no more than a 45 hour week made me more productive than yawning at a 60 hour one.
My next goal is to do something I didn't used to to, work out on N days and take S days off from working out. I had set myself a stupid goal of trying to work out 6-7 days a week. Fine, if that's what it takes to be a fitness model. I'm a writer. I need to the blood flowing hard enough to keep my brain sharp and my back from aching from sitting so much (I have a really sedentary job, after all). That's really all I need and five workouts a week is plenty for that.