The realities of a guilt-free work week — week 10
Reflections from my 12-week Investigation Day experiment
The week between Easter and ANZAC Day is always a bit of a weird one, right? At least that’s what I told myself when I found it hard to concentrate this week. Bouncing back from a 4-day long weekend is never easy — but with the extra uncertainty and weirdness of the current times, I found it particularly difficult to settle into any kind of work rhythm.
Heading into Investigation Friday after only 3 workdays felt very strange, and while I had a heavily scheduled morning, this afternoon has felt a lot looser than previous weeks. Not necessarily a bad thing I suppose. In fact, it might be a sign that I am settling in to the new pace of iso-working…
Do I feel less guilty?
I would describe my level of guilt this week as ‘elastic’. I have to confess that one afternoon this week I got a serious case of the CBFs. I just got up from the desk, hit the couch and watched TV for a few hours, thinking it would make me feel better. It didn’t. By the end of the afternoon, I felt sluggish and bored and regretted my decision to avoid the work that was still waiting for me in my home office.
The next day I resolved to try a different approach if/when the CBFs hit. In fact, I proactively scheduled an activity in anticipation of their arrival. I decided to go for a mid-afternoon run, which is very odd for me. The afternoon that is, not the run itself. I’ve always been a morning exerciser (yep one of THOSE people) so heading out during the day felt very odd while it was happening. It wasn’t the best run I’ve ever done but it was a great circuit breaker for the day. Upon returning I was able to focus on a couple of key tasks for the remainder of the day.
So, yes, I felt guilty about the couch afternoon — but happy with the bounce back to a different mode the following day. It worked well for me and I have already scheduled an afternoon run one day next week.
What observations have I drawn from today?
Today I’ve done an online gym class, attended a 90-minute professional development webinar, done my weekly reflective practice, spoken with my mentor for 45 minutes while walking the dog, met with 2 colleagues for virtual coffee, recorded 2 episodes of the Remote Control podcast and written this article. Sounds like quite a lot when I put it like that. Almost makes me regret my introductory comment about the “looser” afternoon — although not enough to change it. It’s a good reminder that I can achieve an awful lot when I start my day very early — and that I shouldn’t kick myself if it feels like I’ve done a full day by 3 pm. Can you hear the ‘tchk’ as I open my first beer for the afternoon?
How will next week’s Investigation Day be different?
Next week’s Investigation Friday is looking wide open. With the exception of another professional development webinar and virtual coffee with one colleague, the diary is free. I admit, looking at that, I’m torn. One voice in my head says ‘if you don’t plan it better, you’ll waste the day’ and another says ‘this is meant to be an experiment so why not see what happens when you don’t plan it in advance?’.
I’ll admit that hearing that second voice makes me feel quite uncomfortable — which shows up in the pit of my stomach. I keep coming back to my limiting belief that Investigation Friday is a luxury. I’m trying to break through that to a more balanced view which reflects the learnings and progress that these days facilitate for me — but it’s not natural yet. Having said that, I know that the discomfort is a really good reason to give it a go. So that’s what I’ll do. Who’s going to keep me accountable?
If you’re curious about the background to Investigation Friday, what’s happened in weeks 1–9 or other topics I’ve written about, follow me here on Medium
