Dead Time Until Labor Day
Well, it's finally here: the last week of August. If last week was relatively quiet in your business, then this week should do you one better. If you're not on vacation, this week should at least give you a bit of respite from the daily grind. If not, you're either working for a business whose growth has exploded exponentially and can't keep up with new customers and orders, or you're totally disorganized and behind the eight ball so you've got to play catch-up, or you work for a jackass boss who can't stand to see anyone relaxed in the slightest because he or she is totally unhappy, neurotic, and/or psychopathic and wants to keep his or her minions close at hand to share the pain.
As for the rest of us, it's really a blessed week, perhaps not quite as quiet and peaceful as the week between Christmas and New Year's, but close enough. While once I took vacation time the end of August, that's not true this year, but I will be easing up, taking a step back from the fray, and with a bit of luck taking off a day or two ("off" being a relative term when you run a small business, as you're virtually never really off, or at least if you are, you wind up keeping one eye and one ear on the business, just in case).
In a recent conversation with a client, the subject of working from home came up, he being in the position, as am I, to be able to work from home at times. He wondered whether I had any trouble keeping my nose to the grindstone. I chuckled at this. If anything, my challenge in my home office has consistently been taking a breath here or there, getting up so my frame doesn't freeze up from sitting glued to my laptop screen, and cutting off the work day before it takes me up to and beyond dinner time - and I eat late. I suppose I should count my blessings, that I don't struggle to keep my concentration, but like many virtues not practiced in moderation, they can turn into vices. Given the general lack of understanding and appreciation for the terms "virtues" and "vices," I'll put this another way: If you're not careful, you become obsessive about your business. Which leads to the end of your personal life, whatever little you may have salvaged when you decided to run your own business.
But all this does become easier during the last week of August - the moderation part, that is. Unless I want to be a real pain in the neck to my clients (who are probably equally looking forward to a respite from the quotidian - or at least I hope they are), I'll probably minimize my contacts with the outside world, read only the necessary, and just remain as always on call and available to address any urgent items. In addition, there could and should be time for the True, the Good, the Beautiful, whether that takes the form of the written word, music, visual art - whatever.
So what are you planning for this quieter, more peaceful time of year? Whatever it is, I hope you find it refreshing and reinvigorating.
As for the rest of us, it's really a blessed week, perhaps not quite as quiet and peaceful as the week between Christmas and New Year's, but close enough. While once I took vacation time the end of August, that's not true this year, but I will be easing up, taking a step back from the fray, and with a bit of luck taking off a day or two ("off" being a relative term when you run a small business, as you're virtually never really off, or at least if you are, you wind up keeping one eye and one ear on the business, just in case).
In a recent conversation with a client, the subject of working from home came up, he being in the position, as am I, to be able to work from home at times. He wondered whether I had any trouble keeping my nose to the grindstone. I chuckled at this. If anything, my challenge in my home office has consistently been taking a breath here or there, getting up so my frame doesn't freeze up from sitting glued to my laptop screen, and cutting off the work day before it takes me up to and beyond dinner time - and I eat late. I suppose I should count my blessings, that I don't struggle to keep my concentration, but like many virtues not practiced in moderation, they can turn into vices. Given the general lack of understanding and appreciation for the terms "virtues" and "vices," I'll put this another way: If you're not careful, you become obsessive about your business. Which leads to the end of your personal life, whatever little you may have salvaged when you decided to run your own business.
But all this does become easier during the last week of August - the moderation part, that is. Unless I want to be a real pain in the neck to my clients (who are probably equally looking forward to a respite from the quotidian - or at least I hope they are), I'll probably minimize my contacts with the outside world, read only the necessary, and just remain as always on call and available to address any urgent items. In addition, there could and should be time for the True, the Good, the Beautiful, whether that takes the form of the written word, music, visual art - whatever.
So what are you planning for this quieter, more peaceful time of year? Whatever it is, I hope you find it refreshing and reinvigorating.
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