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Weekend? So What?
Another weekend is upon us and I ask: “So what?” Most people are in job mode, whatever that job is. You’ve got Monday thru Friday at the office, warehouse, school, factory or whatever. Come the weekend, you’re going to be anywhere but there. Some of us are not in job mode.
Not necessarily because we don’t have jobs, but rather because we’re on an odd schedule. Some people work exclusively on the weekends. Some are two days on and two days off. Some work odd hours. Some are out on an oil rig, fishing ship, construction crew or gosh-knows-what. Folks with that sort of situation keep working for weeks straight and then have off for months until the next project, contract or season.
Some of us are simply in cat mode. Everything is now. The weekend is both irrelevant and generally non-existent. It’s just another couple of days. We never get a case of the Mondays. If we Thank God It’s Friday, it’s because we’re grateful to God for another day of life that just happens to be Friday. We can go to the amusement park on a Wednesday. We can work our fingers to the bone on a Saturday. We can do what we want when we want. You genuinely forget what day it is, because it pretty much doesn’t matter.
💖 I love being a cat. 💖
Finding my groove
Okay, so I’ve got 100 articles around the preparedness / simple living topics that my demo niche site is based on. I’ve got something of a template-driven assembly line for converting the articles into branded YouTube videos. I’ve got a channel trailer and six of the hundred articles up and posted. All I’ve got to do is get at least one video per day posted until I get the rhythm and I can get two or three per day in order to get the full hundred online.
Some More Rules
Rule #211: Employees are the rungs on the ladder of success, don’t hesitate to step on them
That’s just horrible! Unfortunately, this perspective is all too common in big business. They won’t say it plainly like this, but the sentiment is clearly there. This is no way to treat your people. If you’re going to treat your subordinates like crap, they’re going to perform accordingly.
Rule #212: A good lie is easier to believe than the truth
Here’s another sad but true. Fortunately, one way or the other truth has a way of shining through the muck. Another thing that the truth has as an advantage over a lie (no matter how “good” it seems) is that when you tell the truth, you don’t have to track back. Lies lead to more lies and more and more until you totally lose track of which lies you’ve told.
Rule #213: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. ~Alfred A. Montapert
This is a thoroughly badass approach to productivity. Problems are going to happen. Tackling them straight at the offset and considering them the wheat germ on your yogurt is a very aggressive and effective way of condensing the nonsense. People tend to get thrown for a loop when their plans don’t pan out. Some people crumble at the first obstacle. I’ve had that many times.
On the other hand, taking this approach makes it part of your daily task list. It acknowledges that a problem is likely to occur one way or another. If it doesn’t, you can consider it a freebie. If it does, just get it sorted out and move one. Check one box on the daily checklist of things to get done. That totally kicks ass.
Rule #214: Never begin a business transaction on an empty stomach
Okay, I’ll buy that. Any kind of distraction will cause you to be unnecessarily hasty. You’ll want to take shortcuts in order to hurry up and go get something to eat. A similar rule that I always cited at the office when I was a programmer is:
Never start a meeting with a full bladder
Rule #215: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity ~Leo Tolstoy
Jacob Marley said much the same thing to Ebeneezer Scrooge during his famous Christmas Eve visit.
But you were always a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business! cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.
Even in the torture of eternal condemnation, Jacob is still straining to have a positive effect on his former partner. The ghost claims that the tormented host of condemned spirits wish to interfere for the good of mankind, but they’ve lost the ability to do so. By some miracle of the season, Jacob has been granted an audience with his friend and former business partner to warn him of his impending doom.
It’s a cautionary tale from the prolific Mr. Dickens that has become a holiday staple. It hits us where we live. It reminds us of the danger of getting so wrapped up in ourselves and our own business that we forget that by giving value to others, we discover the best part of ourselves. Our best work is that which lifts others up.
I always felt most fulfilled by making people’s jobs easier. That was job number one. Sure, the program had to execute some business function but the thing was that the business function in question was already being executed manually and laboriously by somebody who had much better things to do with their time. By making a magic button that would execute the process in seconds instead of hours or days, I was freeing somebody up to do more valuable things. The collateral impact of that was people who had been wasting time doing a boring, tedious task could now do more with the time that had been reclaimed. The net gain was a cascading wave of good. That’s a really good feeling. It made my job worthwhile. See how you can implement this philosophy in your own work.
Unlike many of you, I’m actually looking forward to a lovely long weekend working hard to get these articles converted into YouTube videos. If you’re looking forward to some R&R, I hope you find it.