Completely Frittered the Day Away...or Did I?

The weekend news was all weather-predicting the first big storm of the (early) winter.  I went to bed last night with a flurry of text messages about the possibility of the office closing, as so many staff have young kids, and we want to discourage clients out in bad weather.  There have been times when we didn't close, but should have.  A text first thing confirmed we were erring on precaution and the office was closing.  In hindsight, as we never got quite the storm predicted, it was maybe better to just allow people late arrival, or early departure depending on their commute.  I actually was quite under the weather when I first woke, and was probably going to either go in late, or attempt to work from home, any way, giving me time for the bug to pass.  I spent several hours dealing with issues remotely that arose because of the closing, and then had good intentions to do a lot of catch up work from home.  I should have been able to knock off a lot of desk things, but instead, knowing it was now an unexpected holiday, I rested, and I blog hopped.

I got caught up on a what all my favorite bloggers are up to.  Vintage shopping with gal pals, successful and unsuccessful home made bread baking, upcycling a table and chairs for an early Christmas gift, creative ways to make money on the side, and weekend travel get aways made for a lot of busy reading.  I made a few comments, and received  few as well.  I was reminded of the early days of Facebook when you could spend hours looking up friends and getting caught up on the months and years you missed in their lives. I was terrible clicking links, and other recommended blog sites. I was lazy and unaccomplished.  It was fun.

While running my daughter to basketball practice, I made a stop to get new ice scrapers.  The ones we had from last winter were crap, and barely took off the sleet we had coating the car windows. Staring at a wall of ice scrapers of every size imaginable, not yet picked over,  I started thinking about how rested I felt.  For the most part, I had over half a day with no one needing anything from me, no one (other than pup) dropping into my work space wondering what I was doing and could they ask me if I was busy.  No one remembering they forgot something and could I help them take care of it. No boss popping in my doorway with the random thought of the morning, that he needed to share in person just because he wanted a stretch so chose to walk down the hall instead of just picking up the  blasted phone.  At one point I put an old episode of Doc Martin on, fell asleep, and woke thinking I had just vacationed in a seaside cottage.  It was lovely. 

So what I had, was a day of playing hooky, but without the guilt. I woke not feeling well; some dry toast and tea helped calm things down. I didn't call in sick when I wasn't, though by the way I napped, I sure must have needed it.  I didn't hang out for an extra hour in a coffee house before heading home, just so I could get through e-mail uninterrupted.  I didn't even bother to shower, but stayed in comfy sweat pants, t-shirt, alternated with throwing a sweatshirt on, and felt no need to look presentable, though I did comb my hair and brush my teeth before running into Target. So was my day a waste of opportunity or good for my soul?  I had thought I'll be energized and just work late tomorrow, then learned they changed practice times so I'll have car pool duty at 6:00.  Still, I feel ready to get in the office early, and tackle what I would have done half heartedly had I tried today.  I was dreading the work week when I first woke up, and now I am excited to get things done.

I won't be making this a habit, it is not really my nature, but I don't think the day was wasted after all. I once had a staff person that every so often called in and just reported she was taking a mental health day.  We didn't have a policy about what constituted being sick to use a sick day, and I never pushed.  To this day, I still feel she was one of the most productive and talented staff I ever supervised. What about you?  Have you ever literally just phoned it in, and gave yourself a day off?  Were you later more productive because of it?