We used to take Mandatory Quarterly Vacations.

 

This year, we’re trying something new.
We’re taking Mondays off.

 

For two reasons:

 

1.
To take part of the day to better ourselves.
In a busy world, our time is becoming more and more valuable and accounted for. We take pride in being good at what we do, but we know if we don’t consistently refine ourselves (personally and professionally), we risk becoming stagnant.

 

2.
To help us stay focused and efficient while we’re at work, based on Parkinson’s Law (the adage which states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion). How does this help us stay efficient? When working within a shorter week, we deduct the distractions and focus on producing.

 

There are a couple stipulations. Just because we take Mondays off, doesn’t mean our clients do. We have to all be available by phone, and we need to check our email once at 11am and once at 4pm. This is to make sure we are there for our clients.

 

At the end of our research or learning sessions on Mondays, we post on our board:

• What we learned.
• How we’ll implement it in our work lives.

 

We do this for 3 reasons:
1. Keep us all accountable.
2. Inform each other, so we can learn from and inspire each other.
3. Show us if this is truly worth taking the Monday off.

 

We’ve done this for 2 weeks now, and the results have been incredible.
We hope to share some of the progress after a month or so.

 

One thing that’s been confirmed since doing this, is that I love working with such a talented, thoughtful and intelligent team.