![\"Winking](\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile.png\")
<\/p>\nThis is a personal post \u2013 if you\u2019re looking for something technical feel free to move along <\/p>\n
I wrote a post recently complaining of writers block<\/a>. I wrote the post as a way of giving me a kick. It didn\u2019t have the desired effect in the way I hoped it would but it did<\/strong> get me thinking in more general terms. <\/p>\n I mentioned in the post that it wasn\u2019t just blog writing that was suffering, but writing in general. I realised that there was actually more to it than that. <\/p>\n My productivity has also been through the floor. Tasks that I should be getting through easily (personally and professionally) were dragging on and I\u2019d been putting off anything that required extra effort. After a day at work I\u2019d get home and my normal routine is to do something<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t matter what it was and could be reading, , gaming, spending time with Bryony, whatever \u2013 the point is it\u2019s doing something with my time at home. Instead my routine was replaced with collapsing on the sofa and channel hopping for the whole evening which is something I rarely do as I usually only watch TV when there is something specifically I want to see (Dr Who being a current example!)<\/p>\n It was only on the run up to some time off work I realised I was burnt out. <\/p>\n I had two weeks off work organised for the start of August and I realised it was the only time I\u2019d taken off all year. I then realised that babies and knee operations aside since the business started the most I\u2019d ever had away from work was a week. <\/p>\n I\u2019m dreadful at booking time off work and if my good wife didn\u2019t give me the occasional reminder I probably wouldn\u2019t have any! It\u2019s not an intentional thing. I\u2019ve usually got so much going on elsewhere I don\u2019t think far enough ahead to next break. <\/p>\n You do need to switch off some point though and I think I\u2019d gotten to the point where I had nothing left and was \u201crunning on empty\u201d. <\/p>\n One thing people talk about is work\/life balance and while I know mine needs some improvement I thought<\/em> I was doing ok.<\/p>\n A typical work day for me looks like this:<\/p>\n Get up between 6am-7am (depending on how I\u2019ve slept! A topic for another time.) <\/p>\n Arrive at the office between 7am-8am \u2013 getting to the office early generally means I get lots done while no-one is around. <\/p>\n Lunch \u2013 no fixed time. 99% of the time involves sandwiches at my desk<\/p>\n Leave work between 6pm-6.30pm<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is an average <\/em>day. For example, If I have a BNI meeting I\u2019m up around 5.30am and on AMITPRO<\/a> nights I\u2019m not home until much much<\/strong> later. <\/p>\n That\u2019s actually quite a long day when you write it down, especially since lunch usually means eating sandwiches at my desk. When I think about it there have been particularly busy days where I\u2019ve not moved from my desk at all!<\/p>\n So that\u2019s work \u2013 where is the life balance? <\/p>\n On an average day I make sure I\u2019m home to put the children to bed as a minimum<\/u>. We chat about their day while getting changed, brushing teeth, etc and always read bedtime stories together. <\/p>\n I rarely ever bring work home of an evening and ActiveSync (push email) is actually off on my phone by default. I don\u2019t need it on when I\u2019m in the office so I specifically turn it on during work hours when I\u2019m doing something away from the office. This means I should the evenings to do whatever I want. <\/p>\n Again, just an average. There are some occasions where I do work at home but I do keep it to a minimum. <\/p>\n Weekends are also work free. This is family\/personal time. Email rarely gets checked and it\u2019s common for me to leave the office on a Friday and not check it again until Monday morning. <\/p>\n I thought I\u2019d got a reasonable balance. I thought I\u2019d got enough time away from work of an evening and weekend to keep me fresh and make sure I was splitting my time time between the business and my family. <\/p>\n I was wrong<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n We don\u2019t really switch off properly during those evenings and weekends. Modern working life blurs the lines between where work starts and stops and while I may not be checking email of an evening and weekend that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not thinking about stuff I\u2019ve got to do the following day, ideas to flesh out or solutions to problems. In the same way while I\u2019m in the office I\u2019ll be thinking about that dripping tap in the downstairs toilet when I\u2019m supposed to do doing a quote or how much new school uniform is going to cost while I\u2019m looking at a PC that won\u2019t boot. <\/p>\n Both areas of our lives are fighting for attention and you need to make an effort to stop and have some time where you\u2019re not thinking about your work or your home life. <\/p>\n As I mentioned earlier I had two weeks away from work arranged so made sure I used that time as well as I could on relaxing, spending real quality time with my family and taking a proper break. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A week in Center Parcs<\/a> followed by a couple of days in Wales was just what I needed. <\/p>\n It was great seeing so much of the girls and Bryony for an extended period of time and I came back refreshed.<\/p>\n I am a realist though. My phone wasn\u2019t off the entire two weeks. For a start I\u2019m a geek. I can\u2019t do without my Internet connection \u2013 in my work life and my personal life but email stayed off and everyone in the office were told I was only contactable as a totally last resort. Everything else would have to wait. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, I made one small adjustment that had the biggest impact. <\/p>\n I turned my \u201cout of office\u201d auto-reply on.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never turned it on before. Normally if an email comes in when I\u2019ve been on holiday I\u2019d either reply to it or delegate it to someone in the office. <\/p>\n This isn\u2019t really switching off from work is it!<\/p>\n One of the main reasons I never use out of office is that I feel uneasy with email automatically responding for me. Susanne wrote a very good piece about it recently<\/a>, she said<\/p>\n Having led a life in sales, I have always loved receiving out of office messages \u2013 they are typically a wealth of information such as mobile and landline numbers, job titles, and correct spellings of names that I can access should I be looking for ways to get a foot in the door to your business. You tell me that Janice Jones is in charge in your absence and hey presto, I have another contact to add into my CRM system\u2026 very useful if I\u2019m being told I have to have at least 2-3 contacts per company on file.<\/p>\n And if I\u2019m a spammer, well, all I need is your out of office to kick in and I know you\u2019re there. Which suits me fine since I can sell on my data to someone else knowing that your email address is live. Maybe in this instance it would have been better to have not activated your out of office in the first place?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n People always look me like I\u2019m a lunatic when I say I consider out of office messages a security risk. What Susanne said feeds into that for me and have a look at some of the results of this search.<\/a> I\u2019ve always been sufficiently paranoid to leave them off. <\/p>\n However, I bit the bullet and made use of the out of office feature and it worked exactly as it should. I received several emails that didn\u2019t need my specific attention. The auto responder let that person know I was away and they got their problem sorted by someone else in my absence.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been back in the office a couple of weeks now and I can report I\u2019m feeling much better about things. Writing has come back to me (if you\u2019re still here after the length of this it won\u2019t be a surprise!) and the inclination to plonk myself in front of garbage TV has gone. I\u2019ve gotten into some bad habits during my \u201crut\u201d but I\u2019ll get those kicked into touch soon enough. <\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t placed enough value on taking a real break. <\/p>\n I was at a Comptia meeting recently and we were all invited to suggest a idea for \u201cbest practice\u201d. Something we\u2019ve done to improve our business. <\/p>\n Jat Mann from PC Pal<\/a> simply said \u201ctake a holiday\u201d \u2013 he told me afterwards he was joking as he couldn\u2019t think of a suggestion but it\u2019s no surprise that after the voting his suggestion came second!<\/p>\n Rob Franklln from JPT Solutions<\/a> also wrote a post called \u201cDowntime is good\u201d<\/a> which is about taking a break. Rob talks about making use of his network so that he can have that downtime.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just me then!<\/p>\n So after all that waffling my message in short is. <\/p>\n\n
![\"WP_000174\"](\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/WP_000174_thumb.jpg\" "\\"WP_000174\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n