homeplaceofthefuture daily log 5198

​Thoughts today from the homeplaceofthefuture and the reason why I had to go for an hour long walk yesterday to get away from computer and try some blood pressure lowering techniques.

Is it too much to ask that if someone is supposed to do a job and you ask them to do that job that they would actually do that job? Call me a simpleton, but I really thought that people generally do work.

The above scenario happened yesterday and immediately after I sent the email to this person (to do their job) they IM'd me and said they couldn't do it and then proceeded to have a 20 minute conversation with me about how busy they are. Do you know how long it takes to do the job that I asked?

Try 5 minutes.

If there was a way to teleport even my hands over the internet, I would have slapped this person in the face and then proceeded to show them how to do their job. Yesterday was one of those days where I was very glad to be virtual because I was so angry that in normal working scenarios I would have been in the managers office finger pointing & cussing.

The hour walk seriously felt great though!

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4984

I'm just going to put this out there and it's very hypothetical, working from home in the homeplaceofthefuture can really warp your sense of time. I don't leave the house much, the weeks fly by and so do the hours -- you look up and it's 6:30 PM and you're still saving lives one email at a time. Rinse & Repeat week after week wearing the same clothes.

I would not have said this years ago when I was in the cubicle farms of the past, but vacations away from the home really do seem to last a lot longer now that I'm in the future! I took some vacation in March to a far away land and it really, honest to God felt like weeks. I couldn't believe it and I didn't want to believe it because we're trained to live for the moment and enjoy that fleeting vacation time because it goes fast. Reflecting back and even during our time away I was struck by how slow time seemed to be going.

I realize vacations aren't that common especially here in the states, but my takeaway from all of this is to somehow make the weekends feel like a vacation -- maybe by purposely going somewhere and not spending more time in the home that I also call an office.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4905

Whether or not you like someone you always, ALWAYS start an email or conversation in early January with Happy New Year. Awkward - Check! Tradition - Check! Do I really care if they have a Happy New Year, I leave that to you......

In my 4905 (give or take a few thousand) days of working from home and dealing with emails & calls, I've never experienced so many emails and calls that don't begin with this customary greeting. Is it a sign of the times? Are we tired of Donald Trump? Do people hate their lives & careers that much that they cannot change the typical "what's up" or "Hey Dummy" with a simple "Happy New Year"?

I'm sensing a trend and I don't like it. The New Year is our once a year chance to get a clean slate via a fresh calendar year. We get chances all year, but if you are a perfectionist like me, this is it - the big show!

It's a good thing I work from home because things like this have a tendency to make me bitter and say a few choice words that would normally land you in HR's office. Case in point I got an email from Scrooge (an unnamed client) on January 3 (no joke) and simply said this:

status?

I died a little bit when I read that. status? Seriously you sat around the entire holiday season waiting to email me with one word, status?

I've got a status for you, but first it's time for lunch!

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4862

​Laying in bed sick as a dog last night I turned to my wife and said I think I'll stay home tomorrow. That rib breaking laughter was the best I felt in days, but it got me thinking that really there is no such thing as a sick day when you work from home.

I thought I did all the right things to take a sick day, but the phone still rings, clients still leave voicemails and if you're dumb enough like me they all have your mobile number. It's so nice to be wanted for all the wrong reasons!

In-between the phone calls and cleaning up the DVR my mind still wanders to the fury of emails coming to my work machines. I smell smoke....that computer is literally going to catch on fire if it gets one more URGENT***** email! 

Some people can just shut the door and ignore their home office when off the clock or sick -- after 4862 days give or take a few years I'm almost married to this desk, these walls and the feeling of having to be responsive even when I feel my worst.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4855

In case you haven't heard it's a holiday week this week here in the USA. If you're overseas (not in the USA) I'm sure your American colleagues have let you know it's a holiday and told you all about their food plans. It's a time to give thanks and eat as much food as humanly possible...a trait that us Americans are known for - we don't take anything for granted and we eat like children every chance we get
                      .......see my earlier posts about high cholesterol and the ever increasing waistline.

Holiday weeks are some of my favorite weeks to work all year long. I know it's so anti-holiday, but hear me out. All year we fly the urgent flag, deal with hundreds of emails everyday and nonstop calls and if you're like me there is a pile of notes on my desk. Throughout the year you get glimpses of actually doing work uninterrupted and its glorious (as it relates to work) -- if there's one thing we can all agree on it is we all like to work with limited interruptions. 

This my friends is the holiday season and these next few weeks.....limited interruptions. Enjoy it and be vigilant because all life distractions (kids, spouse, online orders coming in, activities) are amplified during this time especially here in the homeplaceofthefuture.

Also as an added bonus all your colleagues take vacation during this time and while it would be nice to be off too, it's much better to be off when work is busy and your colleagues are miserably busy.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4829

I've always hated when blogs start with "it's been awhile", it's so cliche....so easy. There's no need to justify, but in the spirit of being open & honest I'm a perfectionist. If something is going to be tough or require commitment I have a tendency to drop off the face of the earth after I miss a day or miss the mark. The homeplaceofthefuture blog and movement (yes I said movement) suffered because I missed a few days and then I started to rationalize why I was missing a few days and just kept going into a 2 week spiral of self doubt and frustration and that wasn't even related to the my normal self doubt and frustration with my day job, aka the land of urgent.

Over the past years I have started to learn, not fully learn yet mind you how to combat perfectionism in a lot of areas with my life. My best advice is when you miss the mark is to question the mark in the first place. Home repairs fit into this category nicely -- Mrs homeplaceofthefuture would like wooden floors throughout the house along with some fancy floor moldings. It seems easy enough, cutting wood and some knee pads or I could pay some shady contractor to be in my home and charge me the price of an Audi for 2 days work. So Mr. homeplaceofthefuture would like to try this himself because it's just cutting wood and some knee pads right?

Fast forward a few years and we still have carpeted areas in the house because I'm afraid to try because if I make a mistake we have to look at my uneven floors for the rest of our lives or until I swallow my pride and call Mr. 2 days for an Audi contractor.

Point of the story -- bite it off in small bites. I'm not going to re-do the entire floor in one sitting/one afternoon, but maybe I'll try a closet first, or practice cutting in the garage and getting the tools ready. As it points back to this site, the plan is provide regular "work from home content" that's odd, creative, thought provoking, funny and maybe even useful. If we miss a day or 2, we'll be back because we're building something here and most likely I'm in the garage practicing.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4807

There are definite ups and downs in the virtual working world. Somedays you've worked out, showered and made coffee all before 7 AM and then there are other days where you've been wearing the same clothes for 3 days, forgot to brush your teeth and barely have gotten out of your office except for using the bathroom and grabbing everyone's favorite vegetable: chips & salsa!

As much as I'm conscious of which version of myself we're working with, the past week has been a cluster. Like most once I get going it's hard to come back down and realize there's a life outside of the home office. Tonight I made a conscious effort to shut the office door, take a shower, grab some ice cream and then walk around the neighborhood with a cup full of beer - the neighbors will never know!  Life is good and I've had to remind myself we're not saving lives here.