The realities of creating a guilt-free work week — Week 4
Reflections from my 12-week Investigation Day experiment
Week 4
Well, I’ve made it to the end of week 4 of the experiment. This week had me out of routine— which I always find a bit of challenge when it comes to productivity. Flights, a different time zone, a new environment and a commitment to spend some of my “work week” dedicated to family time all left me a bit topsy turvy when it came to achieving the goals for the week.
So let’s get into it…
Do I feel less guilty?
Honestly, I don’t feel like I had time to think about guilt this week. I crammed 4 days of work into 3 days to allow for the travel and family time. The context switching required plus the time zone changes has left me pretty exhausted and unsure of what I’ve really achieved this week.
I woke up this morning and my mind was racing with client work. I caught myself in that cycle with a reminder that it’s Investigation Friday. It took all the self-discipline I had to switch to the reading I promised myself that I would do today. The only way I could make it happen was to open my task list and carry over some pretty significant pieces of work into next week. Somehow the act of moving the due date allowed me the freedom to stop thinking about them and, while it helped me keep the discipline of Investigation Friday, it didn’t feel good to leave them undone. I wouldn’t describe it as guilt — more like disappointment.
Despite feeling really tired I did manage to do those readings and I also met another of my weekly commitments — to write some personal reflections — which has become a really important part of my week.
What observations have I drawn from today?
Having ticked off those important items (before 7 am), I spent the rest of the morning with my parents. I turned off all my devices and spent about 3 hours sitting and talking with them. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t solving world peace, but it’s a rare thing for the 3 of us to be able to just sit and chat in an uninterrupted, relaxed way. I am incredibly glad to have had that opportunity — especially as I’m not sure how many more of them we’ll have.
I’m currently on board my flight home. My “unread pile of guilt” is now a “read pile of trash” (woohoo) and I can now turn my mind to the rest of the afternoon, which given current energy levels and the 3-hour flight time, I suspect will involve a late lunch, a nap and some in-flight entertainment. The change of environment and time zone plus the emotion of dealing with some sick family members have left me with nothing in the tank this week.
I did promise to include a review of the first month in this week’s reflection. My overarching feeling is, this week’s challenges notwithstanding, I really like structuring my week in this way and, most, importantly, I don’t feel the same sense of guilt that I used to. I am more productive between Monday and Thursday and I’m making good progress on some longer-term projects that are really important to me. I suspect I’ll have to find some techniques to help me manage the “abnormal” weeks a little better — because I know that even with great planning, they’ll happen — and I want to manage them better than I did this week.
How will next week’s Investigation Day be different?
Looking ahead to next week, I am fully booked with client work from Monday to Thursday and I have four really interesting conversations planned for Friday— which won't leave much time for project work. Not great planning on my part — but it does give me a chance to experience an Investigation Friday that is different from the ones I’ve had so far. I’ll also need to spend some time planning my Fridays for the rest of March to make sure those projects stay on track.
Thankfully next weekend is a long one with a trip down the coast planned, so I’ll have a chance to re-charge the batteries.
