Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: rest

  • Make Your Weekend a Weekend!

    The weekend is upon us. Or is it?

    You may have already left the office. Or have you?

    Just a friendly reminder to make your weekend a weekend.

    I like playing cards with friends and will be doing so later this evening. I let down, relax, and thoroughly enjoy the company and competition.

    What activity or lack of activity helps you relax and let down after a busy week?

    We all need our weekend.

    The mind needs a break. The body needs a break. Our souls need a break.

    When we keep pushing all of the time, our capacity to continue at the same levels of effectiveness diminishes and diminishes.

    Not only do we become less effective in the short term, we deplete and exhaust ourselves in the long term.

    So do yourself a favor this weekend and give yourself a weekend.

    Gather the friends for cards or games. Get out on the golf course or the frisbee golf course. Spend a day at the beach, in the mountains, or at the lake. Curl up with a good book. Try cooking something new. Build something with your hands.

    Whatever you end up doing, please, on behalf of all of us who have to face you on Monday, make your weekend a weekend!

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

  • Loving Monday: Recovering From a Busy Weekend

    loving_mondayNormally we associate the weekend with rest. This time “off” work is our opportunity to refresh, recharge, rejuvenate, and restore our energies and spirits.

    Some weekends, though, are so busy that—even if most of our activities were great things—rest was not one of them.

    Which brings us to the interesting situation of finding ourselves needing a break on Monday morning instead of ready to dive back into work.

    I suppose we could push on through as if it were any other Monday morning. Or we could broadcast the news of our exhausted state to everyone as a way of lowering their expectations.

    I’m guessing that neither ignoring the reality of our weariness nor expecting others to compensate for us will work very effectively for us.

    What if we chose tasks and chores that don’t take a lot of brain power or inter-personal energy as a means for both working with the reality of your tiredness and ramping back up to full engagement?

    Organize your desk, sort through old email, finish your expense report, catch up on paperwork, or take care of a couple of chores. This way you’re not wasting time trying to focus on efforts for which you haven’t yet recovered your ability to focus. (Ever read the same paragraph repeatedly without any comprehension? –Waste of time!)

    It’s a matter of being able to recognize and assess your frame of mind, energy levels, and responsibilities, and then choosing the activities that are most constructive in light of those assessed realities.

    It’s Monday. We can begin by second-guessing our busy weekends, or we can move forward in light of them.

    I’m exhausted. I think I’ll take care of some filing.

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • Loving Monday: Especially When It’s a Day Off

    loving_mondayI somewhat violate the spirit of this column to be so excited about having a day off. After all, we’re trying to find work we love where we can apply ourselves with enthusiasm and love going to work each Monday morning.

    Having said that, though, “All work and no play…” You know how the saying goes. (And even if you don’t, you probably have no problem filling in the rest of that phrase.)

    Hence the importance of enjoying our holidays and other days off.

    Jumping for JoyFor those of us who feel guilty, we need to cut ourselves some slack! It’s not human to value work higher than all other aspects of life. The best part of a day off is the culture-wide permission to do something for yourself. Far from being selfish, enjoying a day off is the very best form of self-care.

    For those of us who are work-aholics, we need to expand our repertoires of validation, value and self-care. Leaving work at work is a helpful tool to force us to practice doing something else. Built right into the system, we have these holidays where so many around us are thrilled to be anywhere but the one place that we cannot imagine not being. The new forms of activity, relationship, and interest will serve our souls well.

    So what do you have planned for your day off today? Something personally rewarding, I hope.

  • Loving Monday: Holiday Hangover

    loving_mondayBack at it after a long holiday weekend.

    Remind me where my desk is, please. What was I working on? And you are…?

    It’s so nice to have a four-day weekend. (I hope you got one!)

    Getting back into the swing of things can be a challenge. The key is to bring the benefits of any rest and relaxation you experienced over the holiday back to the office.

    When we leave the good feelings at home, we end up resenting the return to work.

    In other words we want a holiday hangover.

    But only if the break is a blessing that propels us forward and not an escape whose inevitable end depresses us.

    There’s another break coming up this week. If the Christmas break didn’t work well for you, is there something different you can do to make the New Year’s holiday different?

    What are three benefits you want to experience from the time off this week? Maybe reconnect with an old friend. Get some time to yourself. Read a book. Throw a party. Reflect on the lessons learned this last year.

    Next give yourself permission to pursue those three outcomes. Be intentional. Pick up the phone today. Make them happen. If an initial idea doesn’t pan out, then adjust it and try a modification.

    Finally, go back to work next week with a holiday hangover! Bring the blessings of the break back to work with you. Let the rest, reflections, and relationships spill over into the energy and enthusiasm that makes work rich and meaningful.

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

  • Loving Monday: Renewable Energy Source… a Vacation

    loving_mondayIt doesn’t seem fair to write about loving Mondays while on vacation.

    On the other hand, it is because of these occasional breaks that I come back to Monday refreshed and renewed enough to keep making a contribution.

    Vacation is not merely is not merely an act of getting away. It is a movement toward.

    Yes, it can seem enough to get away from work. Away from the pressure, the complaining co-workers, the blaming boss, the tight schedules, the scarce resources, etc. Our step feels lighter and unconsciously we’re doing a fist pump on the way out of the building.

    But an additional and important gift we can give ourselves on vacation is to take a step toward something that renews us.

    The key is intention. Being intentional about knowing what refreshes us and taking action to get ourselves into that place.

    Some vacations are more work than rest. Our bodies may cry out for quiet, rest, or no agenda; and instead we might choose to race between tourist attractions. We got away from work, but we didn’t go toward what would renew.

    Task one is to take a regular vacation and get away from work. Task two is to make that vacation something that will replenish and renew our energies.

    Toward what renewable energy source will you be heading on this year’s vacation?