photo credit: Old Sarge

From the Wikipedia entry on Labor Day:

The holiday originated in Canada out of labor disputes (”Nine-Hour Movement”) first in Hamilton, then in Toronto, Canada in the 1870s, which resulted in a Trade Union Act which legalized and protected union activity in 1872 in Canada. The parades held in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers’ strike led to an annual celebration in Canada. In 1882, American labor leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labor festivals in Toronto. Inspired from Canadian events in Toronto, he returned to New York and organized the first American “labor day” on September 5 of the same year.

People have fought for workers’ rights for many years now so that people who worked in factories and farms and stores and everywhere else wouldn’t have to work overly long days.

Isn’t it a little funny, then, how many of us in offices go right on working overly long days?

If today is a holiday for you, as it is for most of our readers, use this day as you choose. You can even choose to work a bit, to get a leg up on your workload and your competition.

But do remember to take some time for yourself, too. And remember that work is about supporting ourselves and providing for our passions. It’s wonderful when our work happens to be our passion, but it can make it hard to escape and get some much-needed time away and perspective. This is a day perfectly suited for that time and perspective.

Happy Labor Day! Enjoy it. We’ll see you back at work tomorrow.

That means that you have a full day on Monday to get things done. Sure – carve out time to grill out, go to the lake, sing a song – but just imagine what you could do in four hours that morning with no one sending you emails. And none that you have to send.

Most people will probably leave the office tomorrow after lunch, too. If you stay until five, you’ll have five more hours to do (nearly) uninterrupted work. Combine that with Monday morning and you get an extra day. One entire day that your competition, your co-workers and your colleagues may ignore. What can you do to get ahead, be remarkable and mark off your list?

This is definitely in my plans. I have every intention of getting some relaxation in, but the extra few hours of organizing what has gotten a bit chaotic, of catching up on projects at a high level, of checking off just one or two extra tasks — all of that will ultimately reduce stress and anxiety and make my work life calmer, so it be as good for me as any R&R could ever be.

What about you? Are you regarding this long weekend as strictly an opportunity to relax, or will you be sneaking some work in? Lay it down for us in the comments.

photo credit: MeaganJean

The weekend is here at last! Time to take it easy, put your feet up, maybe do some yard work, and hang out with friends. Or is it?

For many busy professionals (perhaps you!), the weekends are often overtaken with catch-up tasks from the previous week, and in perhaps fewer cases, planning for the week ahead.

We all know we need a break, but the specter of possible layoffs, the increased workload from laid-off coworkers, and the crazy-fast-paced workplaces many of us are in means more and more to do, and a great deal of anxiety about how to get it done.

May we make a suggestion? It isn’t rocket science or anything, but sometimes we need the truth pointed out to us before we can recognize it. You will probably encounter distractions, you won’t get it all done, and you will probably close out the weekend feeling disappointed that you didn’t get to relax more. Instead, why not take the Weekend Idealist approach to Getting Relaxation Done:

1. Decide the two work-related things (no more than that!) that you could do in under an hour this weekend that would make you feel more caught up and allow you to feel less anxious.
2. Pick the best time to do them: if your focus is better in the mornings, get them over with right away.
3. Get them done! Don’t let them turn into an ordeal. Just power through them and knock them out.
   
4. Permit yourself the blissful freedom to do whatever you want with the rest of your weekend.

See? It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing it this way all along.

We hope you’ll be able to find balance this weekend. We’re all for productivity and achievement, but everyone needs to unwind now and then.

Got a process for balancing your productive time with your relaxing time on the weekends? Share it in the comments.

And have a great weekend!