homeplaceofthefuture daily log 5106

We all know there is a fine line between work & life when both of them occur at home. As the world shrinks and I have more & more clients all over the world.....I find myself checking and thinking about work at hours that I promised myself I wouldn't work (at least while working for someone else). It might not even be clients - our busy culture is one that should not be envied. More often and prove me wrong I'm finding that people wear busyness as a badge of honor and nothing makes me more upset than checking emails from colleagues that were sent over the weekend!

Case in point this past Saturday. I woke up at 7 AM with a list of personal things ready to tackle including a canoeing trip. I'm making coffee, fixing breakfast for the kids and my phone lights up with a LinkedIn message and new connection request from a new supplier who I can tell already wears busyness as a badge of honor. Let me say this now - connecting with people on LinkedIn over the weekend is useless and I won't honor it nor will I accept your invite!

I typically blow them off and move on with real world stuff, but this one really got to me. I am an over-thinker and I over analyze everything, which can be debilitating. Why would anyone be thinking of connecting with me at 7 AM on a Saturday in July? Will there be awkwardness because I WILL NOT accept the invite? So many questions that will remain unanswered as I start another week here in the homeplaceofthefuture.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 5089

Is it really Friday? Someone smack me....oh wait no one else is here! Okay it is Friday and Fridays are particularly more exhausting on a re-entry week. 

What's a re-entry week, you ask? It's the first full week back in the office after a holiday and/or vacation. 

5 full days in the homeplaceofthefuture dealing with hundreds of emails and hundreds of out of office messages from my European colleagues. I often feel that in the summertime the Americans (me) are keeping the world running while the rest of Europe takes a 5-week vacation to some random coastal city we've never heard of. I generalize of course, but you know its true. Here in the US we take a 4 day weekend and worry about how many emails have piled up or if we'll even have a job when we return on Monday. The Europeans and especially the Dutch, yes the Dutch just don't care. I had a Dutch colleague who in the middle of a large re-platform project (that she was running) decided she needed a 4 week African safari -- and not the chintzy ones that you drive through, she took a legit 4 week vacation in the jungle and left us all hanging! I hated her and envied her at the same time. 

Where am I going with this? I don't know, but please for everyone's sake if you have vacation time USE IT! Regardless if you get 2 weeks or 8 weeks, take it all.

Anyways......it is Friday and I'm exhausted. I find myself already blocking my calendar to avoid any calls and most likely I'll start compiling my to-do list for next week. Not saving live here, but it sure felt like it this week.

​Cheers to a summer weekend!

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 5087

When you work from home full-time and take a staycation, you have to be intentional about the places in your home you go and breaking up your routine. Instead of crying in your home office at 8 AM everyday take some time with your spouse/dog/kids/partner/whatever on the porch enjoying coffee. I found myself having little to no desire to do anything on my PC and that includes posting my comments about the homeplaceofthefuture and social media. It was a wonderful break until that feared re-entry of email barrage on Sunday night!

Turns out being intentional for a few minutes everyday really does make the homeplaceofthefuture a wonderful vacation destination. Quick snippets of things we chose to do over the past 2 weeks.

• We had a catered summer party with friends
• Some good friends of ours came into town for 5 days and we did all the touristy things in __________ (insert your town here) that locals never do!
• Resurfaced our back porch in an effort to use it more often
• Yardwork! Lots of yardwork
• Took the kids to a waterpark where I felt thin....very thin!
• Went out to dinner every night to leave the house
• Left my phone on airplane mode for a good part of a few busier days as Q2 ended
• Unpacked a few boxes from our move here (4 years later, right on schedule!)

Past 2 weeks or so I started to see the homeplaceofthefuture in a new light and for the moment I see a fine line between work & home. Ideally my home office would be cut off during non-working hours, but it's not realistic with a smaller house and limited rooms. Setting up some things to do to keep me out of this room was a great plan.