Peace of Mind Organizing

Don't squander the holiday

28 May 2010

It’s a long weekend in the U.S. Memorial Day weekend typically marks the beginning of summer. It’s been feeling like summer here in St. Louis for the past week or two, so it feels like it’s about time.

As a self-employed person, I get to decide whether to take Monday off. (Since I’m not the mother of small — or any — children, I really get to control my time.) The boss side of me suggests that I use the day to work. I have a long to-do list (including working on the technical side of launching a new products section of my website; not exactly fun, but indeed important, stuff). That to-do list isn’t going to get any shorter unless I pay it focused attention.

The employee side of me says I should take the day off. If I worked for a regular employer (assuming I wasn’t working in retail or food service), I’d get the day off. And I’d get paid for it. Holidays are important for rejuvenating and re-energizing.

So what do I do? Invest in my business by treating it like a work day? Or invest in my well-being by giving myself the day off?

I’m not exactly sure the answer to this question. But here’s one thing I do know. The worst thing I can do is waffle on it. In the past, I’ve taken a day like this, told myself I needed to work, then spent the day dragging my feet about it. The result: I got neither the benefit of a day off nor the benefit of a day of work.

I see this in my clients who feel like they can’t have any fun until they get their homes organized. But that task is too overwhelming, so they don’t actually work on it. Instead, they spend all their free time sitting in their homes feeling guilty about the clutter. I blogged about this in one of my favorite blog posts, called Self-care.

So this weekend, I’m going to vow to go one way or the other: On Memorial Day I’ll either focus on getting some real work done or give myself a good break and have some fun. I could do a hybrid: work part of the day, then take the rest of the day off. What I won’t do is waste the holiday by piddling around pretending to work and not getting anything done!

Tagged with: holidays, self-care, time management

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