This is what we call a “home office week” in the biz. It means I’m going to spend the week at home trying to leave home. A week at home can be a treat. Two weeks at home can be a nice respite. Three weeks and I’m climbing the walls.
This winter was a rough one weather-wise and I was supposed to go to Chicago in late January after being home for two weeks. Turns out it was minus 40 in Chi-town and the trip got cancelled. I didn’t know what to do with myself so I started making lists of all the things everyone else in my family could do: “Have you _______(fill in the blank: called the accountant, bought more rock salt, enrolled in tennis, scheduled car service appointment, changed the cat box)?”
One of my strengths is delegating and I’m particularly good at keeping track of the progress others are making on projects that I could easily assume, but opt not to. My family eventually asked me, “Isn’t there somewhere you could go today?” During home office weeks, you can pace yourself, get caught up with all the emails you didn’t want to read on your phone, and mostly reach out to anyone and everyone to see when you can get on the next plane out of town.
Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t do one thing at a time. Even two things at once bores me. Three things at once is my comfort zone and four can be euphoric. So, for home office weeks I simultaneously: 1. Read the Journal; 2. Do laundry; 3. Listen on conference calls; 4. Plan the next trip; 5. Update Salesforce; and 6. Play words with friends. Booking the next trip should be listed first – it has my undivided attention today.
I’m Denver bound in three weeks so I’m trying to round out that trip with some extra meetings. The conversations go like this, “I’m in Denver anyway, so won’t you please, please, please meet with me while I’m there?” I’m also working on DC, Raleigh, and Philadelphia. I know, Philadelphia doesn’t sound like it should be that hard since I live right outside the city. But, apparently, I’ve been ignoring my own back yard for years. I learned this that time I was in Philadelphia and the train got into a car accident. The fellow I was dining with is a real networking whiz and he rattled off four firms he had seen just that morning in Philadelphia. I hadn’t even heard of three of them! Turns out I had to eat some humble pie with that lobster vinaigrette salad!
So, wish me well on home office week and let’s hope someone agrees to see me, somewhere! Write and tell me how you manage home office week.
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