I am pretty much at the end of my month long break. I think the most important thing I've taken away from this break is the need for a break. For 3 years straight I've been powering through with little to no breaks. After college I had a 5 week break before work, but since then I've just been plugging away. I just didn't take time off... Last year I actually cashed a ton of my PTO out just because I didn't need it. I've put a ton of energy and effort into a project at work. It was literally "my baby" for a while. I came up with the proof of concepts, pushed pushed and pushed. 3 years ago, I thought it'd only take a few quarters to complete. Well it's been a long run, but a good run. 3 years later, the push might be coming to an end. We got through the toughest parts of the project, started delivering quality, and getting the attention of even the highest levels of the company. Going into my break, I went in knowing that there's a strong possibility that I might be moving onto another project when I return.
My first two weeks of break was about removing work from my head. I did things like go snowboarding 3 times in a week, visiting santa cruz for breakfast, etc. But at the sametime, I had a really really hard time letting go of productivity. I mixed in things like coordinating my new carpet installation, refinancing my mortgage, financial planning for 2009, etc. I realized that I actually had no idea how to rest. After so much pushing, I truly didn't have any clue what to do with myself. I actually had to commit to myself to do nothing a few days.
I struggled with wanting to "accomplish" things for break. I struggled with this notion of performance. I wanted to be able to tell people I got this that and the other done after break. I managed to worry about
failing at taking a break.... Hindsight... how do you fail at taking a break? So I purposefully and carefully planned the rest of my break.
Yep... I actually planned productivity out of my life for a couple weeks. It's been fantastic... There was one day I did 10 loads of laundry, watched movies, and played a ton of video games, oh and woke up at 11:30am. My goal was to actually lose track of what day it was last week. There was something freeing about getting EVERYTHING out of my head. Having the hardest decision of that day be what should I watch on tv. I even beat the game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on hard difficulty.
I'm considering doing this every year... that is taking a break.
The last couple of days I watched and started to read "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I'm quite impressed and love it. I might actually finish reading this book! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
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Random...
Yes that's a wall mounted Guinness bottle opener... right next to the garage door opener... why? WHY NOT! It complements the manfridge very nicely.
Comments (4)
gotta paint that garage, bro! :) i'm with you. it's sometimes hard to rest and take a break, but i'm glad to hear you worked on it and recognized the need for it. happy new year and you!
glad to hear you got certain "things" "done" over your break! =)
props to you for doing nothing haha
and yeah for bottle opener! though i may never use it haha
Hello Bruceski,
You made your site so simple yet elegant. The picture is a nice touch. I see that you were working hard to get ahead! That’s the kind of world that we live in now, a world where we need jobs just to survive and become slaves to our work. Fortunately, it isn’t going to stay this way much longer!
I want to help people to really get to know Jehovah God, especially in these troubled times. The Bible contains many important message for us such as: "...The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you." (1Thessalonians 4:6) (NIV)