Full disclosure ... The point of this experiment was to be kinder to my friends who tend to be the most frequent victims of my late tendencies.
Except the night before this game started I realized that, if I'm going all in, I should included being to the office at or before 8.
Hands down that was the toughest part of the experiment.
Being a PR girl means working lots of nights and weekends and being a morning person means I've usually drug the laptop out by 5:30 or 6 as I like working when it's quiet. I also don't know what leaving the office before 6 (or 7 or 8) looks like without a happy hour date.
All of the stacks up to me not being an 8 a.m. at my desk kind of person. Which only really bothers people who are strict "I'm in at 8, out at 5 and take my 60 minutes for lunch every day, so help me God" folks.
But I thought I'd try it.
I sold myself on the idea that perhaps if I was in early I really would get to run during lunch and leave the office at a sane hour.
Perhaps this experiment would help in the oft-discussed "quest for work life balance."
Right. And perhaps hell will freeze over too.
What I learned is that there is something to be said for coming in early. I kinda liked it. And I learned that it was doable if I pared down my to-do list and didn't start working at the house first.
That last part means I'm not sure being in early actually meant I was getting more done at all. It just meant I was getting a comparable amount of work done with more time in an office a setting. Which means little to me, but perhaps it's worth something to someone else.
The reality was that I still rarely took a normal lunch break and was usually still the last one out for the day.
Then again, it was June and, with several massive events coming up, the notion of getting out at 5 (or even 6) is laughable at best. Perhaps I should try again on that notion in August when things are less crazy.
As far as socially, I did ok.
I got to surprise my friends by being on time frequently, though I wasn't perfect by any stretch.
And I realized that my biggest issue is having a tendency to want to do "just one more thing" on my way out the door which is always the kiss of death.
I also have a tendency to make time guesstimates based on highly ideal circumstances rather than reality.
As in ...
"Oh, it will take me 10 minutes to get there."
Sure. If you don't hit any stoplights and there's no traffic and you get rock star parking.
Otherwise it's 20 and you should just accept that up front.
I was pleased to find that time itself was my biggest problem rather than the notion others have thrown out in the blogosphere that late people are uncaring assholes who make conscious decisions that other people can wait.
Quite the contrary. Usually whatever I was trying to cram in was for someone else or I didn't want to appear rude and cut someone off and say "sorry, gotta go or else I'm going to be late."
The question of whether I'll stick with it has yet to be answered as the past few weeks have been spent in the concrete box where there are few appointments or concepts of time beyond "get there before things start" and "music is playing, must run to medals."
But we shall see ...
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