I Love Fridays. And What’s Not To Love

I have always loved Fridays.

Maybe it’s because I always believed in the 4-day work week. Or maybe it's just a pattern you drift into when you more or less have control of your work schedule.
When I worked in the agency business, the tribe of creative people I belonged to always made it a point to catch the 1:00 Friday screening of whatever movie we all agreed was worth catching. Movie popcorn and Diet Coke for lunch was the order of the day, and we all used to scramble like crazy on Friday mornings to get our work done so we could manage it.
In my current business, relatively little happens on Fridays, especially at this time of year. It seems that most people in my town (Toronto), head out around noon and are nowhere to be seen until Monday, unless you are flying in a chopper over the thousand lakes that riddle central Ontario.
A few people find this frustrating. These people are the A-Type workaholics who believe the only quality time that exists out there is the time they spend making money.
But, let’s face it, whenever really old people get interviewed about what they would have done differently in their lives, you don’t hear anybody going on about how they would have worked more.

In my world, anything that’s due on Friday is pretty much OK to leave until Monday.

Because even if you deliver it on time, the likelihood that someone will actually deal with it on Friday is minimal or non-existent.
But that doesn’t mean I get to goof around and do whatever I please.
First of all, there’s the domestic chores. Since I work at home and my wife works elsewhere, and also does the books for the business, I am pretty much in charge of running the house. This entails a stream of activities that anyone who owns a house will tell you is pretty much endless.
Then of course there is the blogging, which I usually combine with breakfast.
This is not something that is confined to Fridays, because my blogging is a big part of my marketing program, especially since the devil worshipers who formerly ran this country outlawed the practice of introducing yourself to prospects by email. (Many of us are praying for an end to this asinine crap with the new government. But so far, nada.)

But there is still real work to do.

I’m currently creating a couple of followup pieces for my associate Robert Wright to send out to prospects for the Sell To Buyer Personas course we recently created  and branded together.
I’m also working with another associate, John McLachlan, on a couple of new business pitches and some direct marketing for a large private energy company.
And for my RCMBT clients, I'm working with Rahul Pereira to finalize as vertical microsite and also to update a Linkedin profile page for the CEO.
Then there is the less frequent but nonetheless necessary chore of billing. And there always seems to be something to bill or someone to remind that they have, (quite innocently I’m sure), neglected to pay me for something.
Finally there is coffee, either directly or via Skype. I have made it a part of my marketing to try and have coffee with an associate or former or prospective client at least twice a month, preferably on Fridays.
So as you can see, the 4-day work week I alluded to in the beginning of this post is really a myth. It’s really four days of the usual slogging and blogging and one day that has a bit more of a free-form structure to it.

Everybody has their own approach to the week.

Those of us who work for ourselves at home have to be especially mindful of several things including:
1. Not allowing yourself to drift into a 24/7 work pattern, because that’s easier to do than you might think.
2. Making sure that your day consists of keeping yourself nourished, hydrated and feeling like you are on top of things domestically.
3. Getting out out the office/house for a period of time each day, even if only for the actual movement.
4. Mixing work with exercise of some sort. I have a stationery bike I ride when I am on the phone and a real one I ride almost everywhere else.
5. Staying out of the kitchen, except for getting fresh coffee or making a shopping list.
6. Resisting the temptation to turn on the TV or radio and just veg out when you should be working.
Feel free to add to this list in the comment section.
So that’s my Friday Files for this week. Hope everybody has a great weekend and if you live in the US…just know that we’re praying for you up here, because we sincerely do not need a wave of US immigrants arriving here in the winter.
As usual, comments cheerfully accepted. Sharing of this post sincerely appreciated.

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