Slow Down!
The last couple of months at work have been rough! Never a dull moment. Lots of moving parts. Challenges, changes and complications galore. Every email – urgent; every phone call – important; every meeting – critical! (Or at least it seemed.)
So I decided to take a week off… Well, sort of. I worked half-days for a full week to try and bring it down a bit. But at the end of that week a friend and advisor commented that my stress level was off the charts and that I needed to go on spring break. Not two days later my business partner ordered me to go on vacation. Message received.
Clearly, I needed to slow down (*singing* in my best Loose Ends interpretation). In the midst of this, something unusual occurred… We had an email server change.
Not normally that eventful an occasion, but in this case it caused my Blackberry to stop receiving emails. PANIC!? Surprisingly, no. Given that I needed to de-stress a bit anyway, I decided that it was ok.
And now, for the third consecutive week I’ve permitted my only partially functioning Crackberry to be devoid of email. What a difference it’s made!
I am noticeably less tethered to my phone and less concerned about providing an instantaneous response to the issue of the moment. As it turns out, every question is not urgent, every problem is not an emergency and every meeting request is not a good use of my time.
I am not yet free of my addiction, far from it. But, I am learning to slow down – just a little. A round of golf, a leisurely drive down to Florida, a couple of afternoon naps, a book by the
pool and a broken phone did the trick this time. And having a “laptop only” email policy hasn’t cost me much more than a little less stress. I’ve found out that if it’s really important people will pick up a phone and call or come find me – the old fashioned way.
The lesson may even be sinking in. I’ve already scheduled time off in each of the next few months. I’ve gotta slow down.
And you may need to do the same. Sometimes to XEQTE you’ve got to take it easy.
A hard lesson to learn? Yes, but let’s work on it.
