The Importance of pool time

Yesterday I had 6 work calls. And these weren’t the type of call during which you can multi-task. Bear in mind that I am supposed to be semi-retired and taking it easy. In my prior work environment, I would have called a 6 meeting work day a light day for me. As a colleague many times told me, “Meetings are up. Productivity is down.”. I started to research meetings and the need for them…I’ll put together a post on that one of theses days. I am not opposed to meetings, but I do want them to be meaningful. I digress. So yesterday was a lot of meetings. The last one was a little contentious. I am charged with implementing a workflow that is ruffling a few feathers at my client. There is one person in particular who is passively aggressive…or maybe just aggressive. She likes to talk over people which is one of my pet peeves. I do love a conversation that has ping/pongs back and forth of ideas and solutioning. That’s not what this person was doing. She was being an office bully.

When the call ended I was a little irritated. Maybe a lot irritated. And then something wonderful happened.

My sister and her daughter (my niece) came over to use my neighborhood pool and they cajoled me to come along. After that call, I was going to dive into work. But I chose to take a break.

And that, my friends, is Mary 2.0. I spent most of my professional and personal life putting work ahead of anything and everything. All that got me was a pat on the back and more work. Ultimately it led to exhaustion. Humans (or at least this human) are not machines that can run continuously. Heck even machines get downtime to get cleaned and oiled and back in working order!

NOW – I put my needs ahead of the client’s, which ultimately will benefit the client. I spent the afternoon floating around in the water, having splash battles and talking girl talk with my sister and my niece. This break from work rejuvenated me. It helped me regain perspective and course correct to the right priorities.

Pool photos are from hotels I’ve stayed at over the years!