Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about time off. It was Recently brought to my attention that I don't take a lot of time off. And looking back at it, it's been for a couple of reasons. So for the past month, I have been trying to take Sunday as my day off where I don't do I don't respond to emails. I don't look at business stuff. I might dabble with some new software, but I generally get up late and let the day flow where it may.

I mean, I generally don't have to cook because we've gotten takeout for the whole weekend. I might bake, but because I enjoy doing it, there is nothing that is specifically calling my attention. My mind can wander where it wishes and I can do what I feel like. I could get up, go out, take a walk, exercise all that stuff. I could stay in bed and do nothing. And depending on the weeks I have done many, all or none of those things.

There was also one week where I did work on that Sunday as a favor for somebody, and it ruined my week afterwards and from then on, because, you know, when you take time off, you don't realize how beneficial it is. So you think, oh, no, it's OK. Like just this once it will be fine. No, never again. It ruined my week afterwards. So I then realized, OK, this is something that I need to keep, which is great.

But Sunday is just one day. And as someone who no longer does nine to five, I forget, you know, it didn't really do not have long enough. I forget that a lot of people have two or three days off a week. And when you're running your own business and your computer is always on and everything else, you kind of don't. And I know I talk about having better boundaries. So this is this is a thing. And I've talked or will be talking about how how I'm going to separate my computer.

But let's talk about days of actual full days off. So I don't think I can figure out in my calendar two full days off that would disrupt me and all my clients. And I don't think I'd get the full benefit from it. I love Sundays A because I Sundays B because other people aren't going to be harassing me on Sunday. But also it's a time in our household where, like I said, this food already sort of have to think about cooking and other stuff.

But I think for another full day off, I don't think it would work. But I'm quite happy to take maybe two afternoons off a week, and it doesn't mean I won't work. It just means I will maybe ignore business stuff or I will only work on or read stuff or just, you know, try and meditate or do stuff for me and my mental health and my physical health.

So I was looking at my calendar and trying to figure it out and along with fitting in with meetings that I already have a lot of standing meetings. And so this also came about because for the past couple of months, you know, with everything that's been going on in the world, I haven't had as intense work as I would normally. And that now seems to be back on the upswing. I've got maybe three or four projects that in the next will be finalized in the next week.

That could make my life very busy. If I am not organized and me being me, I will take on these projects and then not have time off or just, you know, power through which can be done, but isn't necessarily the best thing to do. Also, over these past few months, I've discovered better ways of working and that I need like a two hour block to get stuff done. If I'm doing hotchpotch stuff, I just I don't feel as productive.

I'm not working as well. So I need like maybe block out my clients two hours for this client, two hours for that client to hours for the other client. And that should work better for the kind of work that I want to do and mentally keeping me like sharp. So my plan is to have my one day off a Sunday, which I currently have for various reasons, and then to take two afternoons off a week. Now I say afternoons for some of you that mean from midday.

But as I don't really like to get up before 10:00, that would really be like a whole day off.

So I kind of me from like 4:00 in the afternoon, which does count as a half day because some of my clients are in California. So, yeah, still a half day. That's what I am thinking of doing. If you do not work nine to five and you do work for yourself, I'd love to know when the last time you took a day off was. Do you take half days off in the middle of the week? Do you take full days off in the middle of the week?

There is someone I know that is taking weekend Wednesday and having Wednesdays off in the middle of the week also. And I hate to say this because I don't really see this in my future, but when's the last time you took a whole week off and the world did not burn? I would love to know. Please message me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Thank you for listening and have a great week.