I don’t know how the conversation
started, but the gist of it was this--
“You mean you actually still think
about work AFTER you leave for the night?”
That feeling was expressed by someone
who’ll remain nameless. It stunned her that my mind is always “on”
as far as ideas and thoughts go, just as it stunned me that there are
people who leave work for the day and don’t give it a second
thought.
This person and I were discussing what
we do on winter weekends, and I was explaining to her how, among the
many things I have going on, I might spend a small chunk of a winter
evening or a weekend writing a blog or two, or come up with a few
things I might want to mention on air, or flesh out the details of
something we have coming up in the future. During the summer, not so
much because I'm playing outside, but the winter?
Sure.
Now, why do I think about the
aforementioned things on the weekends or at night after I'm off the
air? Well, there aren’t as many distractions, I’m not worried
about being on the air, and I can just let my mind “wander” into
some strange (and occasionally interesting) corners. She just
couldn’t comprehend that; in fact, she said that if she had to
think about work outside the 40 hours per week for which she gets
paid, she’d go “crazy”. For me, I think it would be the
opposite.
Like most people, I use the weekends to
“recharge” myself, but maybe I recharge something different. The
person with whom I was having this conversation admitted that she
doesn’t like her job; it doesn’t stimulate her, and it’s
basically doing the same thing day in and day out. I’ve had jobs
like that before. I know that if your job sucks, you need to use
the weekend to recharge your mind, to get it ready to face another
week of the “same old same old”. I use the weekends to recharge
my supply of ideas. I’m VERY fortunate in that I have a job that I
like, a job that stimulates me, and a job that’s never the same day
in and day out. I always get to branch out in different directions,
and I never know quite what to expect when I start a new week. So if
a thought or an idea happens to pop into my mind while I’m running,
or reading a newspaper, or at the grocery store, or cooking dinner,
or watching “Star Trek: Discovery” on Blu-ray, I embrace it.
After all, you never know where the next cool concept may come from.
I suppose it’s nice for some people
to have “work” time and “me” time, and not have the two
overlap. For me, those two “times” are just part of who I am. If
something good for work pops up when I’m not at work, I embrace it,
the same way I’ll take off from work for a few hours on those days
when it’s 80 and sunny and the beach is calling my name. I’m
lucky in that I can do that. And I know I’m lucky, too.
Oh, and this particular blog? In the
interest of full disclosure, I came up with the idea for it on Sunday
afternoon.
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