The title seems contradictory, right? Yet, it does illustrate how two truths can exist at once, based on perception and a both/and worldview. More specifically, how you interpret that statement depends on your definition of work. And that may have changed as a result of the work-from-home dynamic, which was one of the most significant labor shifts we will see in our lifetime.
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” -Francois Auguste De Chateaubriand
For me, work is creating. Which allows me more latitude in how I define work, and that I do a lot. I tend to bring my brain most places (although, my family would sometimes disagree), as well as pen and paper to catch those fleeting moments of insight.
I have written scripts waiting for my son’s baseball game to start, got the seed of this idea on a ski lift (and quickly called my partner to grow it), and developed this while watching kids riding their bikes, with one running behind. I got this from looking at an old sears catalog in a Ventura thrift store around Movember time.
To create, I don’t feel the need to be tethered to technology. In fact, how can you expect people to think, remix life, when they are simply staring at a screen and all its infinite distractions? To reflect life, you must live it. Breathe it. Absorb and witness all that it offers. Creative is not developed in an incubator, and if it is (hello ai), it will lack the humanity and insight only humans can deliver.
This is not to say I am never at my desk. Hardly. There is a responsibility to working remotely. You must be accountable to the work and deadlines. What hours are included really should be up to you.
Are you better working in the evening or early morning? If so, do it. And don’t feel like you need to be at your desk during normal business hours (by the way, is normal business hours even a thing these days?) My desk is home to busy work, my editing setup, meetings and taking the ideas developed elsewhere to other places.
My remote, remote work is my laptop, and a series of pens and paper, strategically located on my bedside table, car, and kitchen (The tempered busy mind allows for creativity by watching water boil).
I guess for some who are holding on to the ideals of the past (and by past I mean before 2020), they still require their remote employees to clock in and clock out through Zoom. Yet, if you are a manager, give yourself space to rethink that strategy. Your job is to hire people you trust to do a job, and not micromanage their time. You will reduce will, trust, and worth when that exists, even implicitly. And when those foundational elements are gone, so is efficiency, purpose and work ethic. So by doing these things, you are actually hurting morale, and ultimately the company.
Now, I get it. I work in a business where I deliver insight and ideas. That does allow me flexibility in my work. But I have done this long enough to know where I produce best. And being able to absorb and create outside of a walled, distracted environment, allows me to see the world, and how the work will fit in.
And however you get there, it is important that you do.
