It’s Oh So Quiet

Not my empty office I should point out, we’re not that old skool at Globrix.

I’m going on vacation tomorrow and I really, really, want to just relax. I don’t want to schlep all the way to Israel to switch on my cellphone and start working. If I book a week off work, I want my week off work dammit! But I realised on Friday as I was tying up all my loose ends in preparation for a week sans responsibilities, that I hadn’t quite got everything done. “Meh,” I thought, “I’m taking the MacBook, I can just log on when we’re away.”

The alarm bells started ringing

When you take time off, it should really be just that. I want to be able to drink cocktails, eat falafel, swim with dolphins, go off-roading in the desert and float on the Dead Sea without giving a crap about anything other than my own well-being if that’s quite alright. So instead of taking my responsibilities with me on vacation, I’ve come into the office today, Sunday, to finish all my duties and handovers so the whole world doesn’t dissolve whilst I escape cold, rainy London for a week.

And I have to say, I recommend it

Being in the office on a Sunday afternoon is pretty weird. My huge building which is usually buzzing with people is practically empty aside from a couple of hard working journalists from other companies. The cafes and sandwich bars which serve us hungry office folk Monday to Friday are all closed and I almost had to wake up the security guard to even let me in. But once you get over the quietness (and steal some candy from a colleague’s desk) it’s actually a very productive way to work. Without the distractions of ringing phones and office banter you can get an alarming amount done in very little time.

Give it a go

So if you work in an office and often find yourself falling in to the trap of taking work home with you to finish up then try going to the office at a funny time instead. I never have much luck working at home, I have a TV, an extremely comfy couch and a boyfriend who always seems to need feeding. It’s much easier to go in to the office early or go in for an hour on a weekend then it is to stay late I find, by 7pm you don’t want to be in the office having been there all day…and if you’re anything like me you’ll be starving hungry ready for dinner! Of course if you work from home anyway then this doesn’t really apply, but those with offices to hide in may find they’re a nice quiet place to be when you need that extra hour to work on the weekends.

I have a plane to catch

Tomorrow I can get up at the crack of dawn and head to the airport knowing that the MacBook I have in my carry-on is purely for watching the boxset of Lost Season 4. With the holidays around the corner, it’s really important that you remember how to relax and put yourself first. If you don’t you’ll probably go mad, and then you really won’t be very productive 😉