1 April 2008 126 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

As I’m typing this, I’m sitting in an airport waiting for a flight. I’m sorta, kinda on vacation, as you can tell by the fact that I’m working. I’m not the biggest fan of the full-out vacation. I find myself worrying about little details of my current projects and wondering if I’m missing some news that I could turn into a future project. I certainly don’t mind relaxing, but also enjoy my work.

Rather than taking a major vacation once a year, I much prefer the sort of lifestyle discussed in The 4-Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferriss’ book on, essentially, lifestyle management). I’d rather live my life in such a way that I can enjoy every day. I’m more than happy to work every day of the week, if that means I get to knock off work at noon. This trip is a prime example: yes, I’ll be spending a couple of hours each morning working, because I do like eating, no matter which time zone I’m in. But I did do a little work on Saturday and Sunday (two days that I normally take off) so that I wouldn’t be working all day long.

A trip even a few minutes out of your normal routine is an opportunity. I’m flying halfway across the country, and even though it isn’t officially a business trip, I plan to fully take advantage of that fact. I’m taking the opportunity to meet up with someone that I’ve worked with online for a while, but never had a chance to meet in person. I even asked someone else who lived relatively near by to travel to my destination to meet up with me. While I’m not going to be spending most of the day at my computer, I will be moving many of my projects forward.

I’ve taken a few steps to make sure this trip is enjoyable even while bringing a bit of work along:

• I’ve asked my contacts to meet up for coffee and other social activities, rather than focusing on creating a business environment.
• I refused to take on any new projects during traveling; I don’t want to have to concentrate on trying to figure out how I’ll attack an entirely new project.
• I’m taking my laptop to ‘fun’ places — I’m going to work near the pool, at a cute coffee shop downstairs and other places where I’ll get to enjoy the fact that I’m not at home.

I had to do a little planning ahead, but I think I’ll actually enjoy this vacation more than the ones where I’ve left my computer at home.