I am entering my first day as a furloughed government worker. I've been suiting up and going to work each day for almost two months. I spend each day going from meeting to meeting, working to carve out 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there to get actual work done.
Today is the first day I didn't suit up and go anywhere. I rolled out of bed, made coffee and got to work reading my feeds, sorting through emails and working through my Evernote notes and tasks. Then I got to work tackling some of the low hanging fruit on my to do list.
While it will probably take me a few days to get back into my old rhythm of productivity, i'm already finding some mojo to get things done. I'm struggling with shedding some of the framework of the employee framework that I've been subjected to, for even just two short months. I can see how people have difficulty in going from having a job to being freelance. Luckily I have the skills, discipline and mindset to pull from, so it shouldn't take me long to get back to normal.
This small glimpse gives me some insight into the damage our current employee framework does to people's creativity and productivity. The rituals of the commute, lunch breaks, meetings, coffee from Starbucks and other items not only take up our days, they drain our energy making us much more exhausted each evening.
I don't think freelance and / or working from home is for everyone. The employee role is not going anywhere, but I really think as businesses, we have to consider how we structure "work" for our workers, and as individuals we have to really consider how we find balance, happiness and productivity in our careers.
Each day I spend back in the world of "open work", the chances of me going back to being an employee gets slimmer and slimmer.
