Take Time For Fun

Last Friday we did something wild and radical here at the office. . .

We took 2 hours off to have some fun.

Please don't misunderstand, we were busy. Busier last week than the average actually. You could feel the tension building while everyone rushed to meet our deadlines. The entire team was feeling overwhelmed, stress levels were rising - you know how it goes. Our IT department in particular had been putting in some crazy hours trying to reach the goals that were laid out for them.

We could feel this all building up. Instead of just waiting for it to pass over, or piling on more work, we decided to go let off some steam. Often when you are feeling overwhelmed, that's the best thing you can do. Go for a walk, forget about everything for a few minutes, meditate, whatever works for your personally.

Our answer? The surprise picnic! What a fun way to reduce stress on a Friday afternoon. We know not every company will allow this, but it works for us. A nice little thank-you for all the jobs well done and all the hard work, but also a great way to burn off some of that extra stress that was bringing us down.

Why not think of some things you (or your team) could do over a lunch to re-focus? The time you spend doing this is well worth it.

Just for fun, here are a couple pictures!

Remember the Good, Let Go of the Bad

On Friday I mentioned my recent trip to "paradise" with my family. It was indeed a lovely vacation - mostly.

Unfortunately, the last 2 days of our wonderful vacation were filled with stress and difficult feelings from a situation that we really had no control over. We all came home exhausted, stressed out, and focusing on how our vacation ended.

This leads me to today's blog post. Remembering the good, and letting go of the bad. It certainly is difficult to look back on that week and not think about the way it ended. Sadly though, it's easy to forget about the 5 GREAT days we did have!

Life is like that. If you do 10 things right and 1 thing wrong in a day, which one do you remember? Same things as this. So what can you do? For us, we are focusing on remembering all the wonderful things we did get to enjoy, and all the quality time we spent together. What a shame it would be to waste that experience by letting the negative thoughts take them over.

It's not easy, I'll admit. It is, however, so important to help us keep a positive attitude every day. Let go of the bad things that happened to you, the things that didn't go the way you wanted, and hang on to all the things that went right.

Take Time

I was fortunate recently to have a wonderful vacation with my family. We escaped to a tropical paradise for a week, and I was able to completely relax.

Then, something amazing happened. While I was relaxing on the beach watching the sunrise, I was hit with a flood of ideas for a new project we've been working on. There, in the middle of the sand and surf, I found inspiration.

Thankfully, this is not the first time this has happened to me, so I have learned to travel with a pen and my notebook whenever I head out to nature. I came back to work refreshed, and with pages of thoughts and ideas.

As much as I would love to escape like that more frequently, it's not exactly realistic! However, I don't think it was the beach that did it, I think it was the time. Time, doing nothing really, that allowed my brain to run wild. Now THAT I can do right near my home.

I really feel that it's important to allow yourself time to relax and recharge. Go out somewhere for a hike, go for a boat ride, or get up and enjoy the sunrise and the quiet the early morning brings. Allow yourself to just unwind.

You probably won't get amazing thoughts every day. Some days you'll just remember things you may have forgotten to do, and some days you'll just let your mind go. Don't forget the paper and pen though - you'll want to write down any ideas that do come to you before you forget them!

If you can't do this every day, aim for at least once a week. Trust me, you'll love it.