Quote:
Originally Posted by Milo Riano  Don't say your day was a waste. Once every quarter I would always treat myself to 1 to 3 days of bumming around. |
Well...the key there (to me, anyway) is to decide ahead of time that you're going to get that day off. Obviously there's nothing you can do about a lost day--beating yourself up about it after the fact doesn't do any good--but ideally, you bum around for a day or three when you've decided you're going to.
My current strategy for a big project I'm working on is to work a certain amount per day, every day (luckily the project is easily broken down into measurable segments). If I get ahead by a full day, I'm going to take a full day off--no thinking about this enormous project. That way I can actually enjoy it, rather than deciding one morning that I feel crappy and I'm going to get myself behind.
On a related note, I totally, completely agree about the wonderfulness of time-boxing. Really, anything you can do to get started--just a little teeny bit--is huge. I've had days where I bummed around for hours, then I forced myself to work for five minutes...and I kept working for ten more hours. That's rare, but momentum is everything.