Who Says You Can't Play Hooky on Monday?

by Joan Friedlander

I applauded - on the inside - when a colleague of mine wrote to me on Monday to say she'd be out for a few hours, not because of any emergency or for some important meeting, but because she was pulled to get out of the office and do something fun. It raises fewer eyebrows when someone takes time off just for the heck of it on Thursday or Friday after putting in a full week, but to start a workweek with time off, just because, is downright contrary.

So, I thought, is this not another opporutnity to bust apart the rules and standards of business that have been running our lives for years on end? Who the heck says you have to report to work on Monday morning and hit the ground running? Who says you have to start working at 9 am if you like to stay up until midnight and sleep until 8:30? Who says that if your body awakens at 2 a.m. that you can't go to your "office" and get to work on your projects and then stop working at noon because you are truly done for the day?**

I don't have the details to explain why my colleague was drawn to take some time off to play on this fine Monday. Perhaps she put in a full day of work on a project on Sunday. Maybe she started working at 5 am, and heeded the call to take a break with a good friend. Or, perhaps she did because something came up and she decided to do so. It doesn't really matter why. The point is this; she felt the pull and heeded the call.

Would you do that? If you would, how much, how long and how loud would your inner critic protest such an action? Would you fully enjoy your time away, or would you worry that you'd be "caught?" Would you tell anyone, or would you go quietly? Would you say you were off to a meeting, implying you mean a business meeting rather than a play meeting? Would you use words like "bad," to describe yourself, as in "I was bad today?"

There does seem to be a movement underfoot to break some of the working rules that we've all subscribed to for a good hundred years. It could be that I'm very interested in breaking as many "success" rules as possible and so I'm tuned into them. Either way, I feel a bit like Tinker Bell - or is it Peter Pan? Everytime someone breaks form I applaud, even if it's on the inside.

Now, excuse, me if you will. I'm off to buy a camcorder for a new project I'm toying with, and to purchase some new winter shoes. Back later, time unknown.

** Caveat: my audience for this newsletter is primarly self-employed entrepreneurs with a great deal of say-so about when and how they get work done. If you work for a company and this degree of flexibility is out of the question, think about what you can do. Notice if you'd like it to be different for you. I remember a day, about 19 years ago, when on a lunch break in Century City, California. I was working for Brentano's books (loved that job), which was situated right next to a movie theater. People were lined up for this, that or the other movie, and it was only noon. I said to myself, "One day, I want to be in a position when I can go to a movie smack in the middle of the day if I want to." That day came when I started my business. Need a little more encouragement? Read "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferris.

 

by Joan Friedlander, © 2009. All rights reserved.