As I finish up my workday and settle in to compose this post at 10:12 PM I remind myself that I did arrive in the office a bit late today. It was almost 7:45 AM which helps me feel a little better about the hours worked today. And of course, there was that breakfast meeting that lasted almost two hours. Well, it did at least include food.
As I listen to my own rationalizations, sometimes I wonder if I have gone mad. Then as I look around, I think the whole world has gone mad with me! The increasing time investment in the workday seems to be a problem not only for the self-employed types, but for my internal colleagues too. Everyone today seems tethered by the technology that allows us to extend the workday to include our drive time, home time, even vacation time. There seems to be little true “down time.”
A recent post by Management Issues notes that even the French (one of the few civilizations that still knows how to really live) are concerned that they may not work enough!
Well, according to the “Take Back Your Time folks, we here in America work more than medieval peasants did, and more than the citizens of any other industrial country. In fact on average, we work nearly nine full weeks longer per year than our peers in Western Europe do!
Are you feeling tired lately? Or worse yet, do you feel guilty about feeling tired? Be honest. If so, you need to order a copy of the Take Back Your Time book and perhaps start a support group with your work friends who are probably feeling the same way. As one of my favorite speakers Jim Rohn says, “Life is not a practice session.” This is it friends; it is ours to choose how to spend it. But, when it is gone, it is gone.
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