Unscheduled work retreat
This week, we're getting a nice retreat at work. Not everyone thinks it's nice, but I have found some genuine peace and enjoyment.
You see, our Internet connection has major problems. We were down from 7 pm Friday to 5:30 pm Tuesday, and then we went down again at 1:30 pm today.
No email.
No Net connection.
No voicemail (we have IP phones).
Aaaaahhhhhhhh. So quiet and focused. I have gotten several things done surprisingly quickly, which I'm sure would have taken longer if I had been "multitasking" with my email dinging and the phone ringing. This is how it used to be 25 years ago before email was popular. I am highly skeptical of these "productivity increases"; I have been plenty productive on some of my projects this week.
That's not to say it's all roses. We are very dependent on this technology now. It is frustrating not to be able to pop a file over to my colleague down the hall (we have resorted to "sneaker net," carrying files on USB sticks). And of course I need to look things up online, although I have been using my home computer for that.
And of course, everyone else is still operating in hyper-speed mode, which means that we all look like flakes for not replying to email within 93 seconds. I'll have to make some apologies when we're finally back up and running.
Still, it's real food for thought. It's worth getting past the frustration and cussing at the network service provider long enough to observe what is really happening, and how in some ways it is better to slow down.
This is exactly the philosophy of a meditation retreat. Stop. Just stop. Stop doing so much stuff, and just be for a while. It's nice to slow down, not fill every moment with reading, writing, talking, and thinking. You can find out interesting things about yourself and your life.
Sure, that might not be appropriate for the work world. I'll be pleased when we're back up and able to really do our jobs effectively. But I see the technical troubles this week as quite an interesting opportunity for observation. We don't get this every week!
You see, our Internet connection has major problems. We were down from 7 pm Friday to 5:30 pm Tuesday, and then we went down again at 1:30 pm today.
No email.
No Net connection.
No voicemail (we have IP phones).
Aaaaahhhhhhhh. So quiet and focused. I have gotten several things done surprisingly quickly, which I'm sure would have taken longer if I had been "multitasking" with my email dinging and the phone ringing. This is how it used to be 25 years ago before email was popular. I am highly skeptical of these "productivity increases"; I have been plenty productive on some of my projects this week.
That's not to say it's all roses. We are very dependent on this technology now. It is frustrating not to be able to pop a file over to my colleague down the hall (we have resorted to "sneaker net," carrying files on USB sticks). And of course I need to look things up online, although I have been using my home computer for that.
And of course, everyone else is still operating in hyper-speed mode, which means that we all look like flakes for not replying to email within 93 seconds. I'll have to make some apologies when we're finally back up and running.
Still, it's real food for thought. It's worth getting past the frustration and cussing at the network service provider long enough to observe what is really happening, and how in some ways it is better to slow down.
This is exactly the philosophy of a meditation retreat. Stop. Just stop. Stop doing so much stuff, and just be for a while. It's nice to slow down, not fill every moment with reading, writing, talking, and thinking. You can find out interesting things about yourself and your life.
Sure, that might not be appropriate for the work world. I'll be pleased when we're back up and able to really do our jobs effectively. But I see the technical troubles this week as quite an interesting opportunity for observation. We don't get this every week!
