When I was in elementary school, I'd get what I called "Sunday headaches". Nine out of 10 Sunday afternoons I'd have a headache that was more often than not accompanied by an upset stomach. My parents had a weekly ritual of going for a Sunday drive with us after lunch, and I assumed my Sunday ailment was carsickness, even though I never got carsick during any other car ride. I'd sprawl out in the back seat, kick the seat, and whine about wanting to go home.

Finally, someone had a brainwave and deduced that my Sunday headaches were stress-related, caused by me freaking out about having to go back to school on Monday morning after the weekend. The prospect of the weekend ending was so devastating to me that I'd get physically ill, week after week. I didn't even particularly dislike school. I just enjoyed the weekends so much that the idea of them coming to an end was enough to make me sick.

Lately I've been experiencing Sunday sickness again, and I'm not talking about hangovers. By the time I've shifted out of work mode, it's generally Sunday morning and I'm thinking, Oh shit. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Then the symptoms start. A little headache. A little indigestion. I start watching the clock...ten more hours until I need to go to bed...nine hours...eight hours...

I add more and more items to my Sunday to-do list. Gotta get one more thing done! Need to clean the bathroom! Should take advantage of the nice weather!

I'm working, cleaning, doing errands and basically panicking for the latter half of Sunday until I fall into bed feeling more exhausted and less rested than I did at the end of the work week, and totally unprepared for Monday morning's craziness. Don't get me wrong--I'm not a 9-to-5er and I'm completely OK with getting work stuff done in evenings and on weekends; in fact, that's when I am often most productive. And what sucks more than coming home from a full workday and having to get groceries, clean the bathroom, or do a mountain of laundry? At the same time, I can recognize when I need a time-out.

For example, yesterday started off splendidly...brunch with Peter, kickboxing class...but quickly went apeshit when I spent six hours working on a strategic plan for a client, doing laundry, and trying to plan my upcoming work week, all the while doing that annoying clock-watching and trying to cram in one more task. At 10:00 p.m. I collapsed into bed totally zonked and sad about how I'd spent the latter part of my day. I got a lot done, sure, and I was happy about my progress. But I felt like I needed another day to recover.

This has got to stop! From now on, I'm taking back Sunday. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, after all. It shouldn't be a day of stressing and rushing around and to-do lists WITH ALLOTTED TIMES FOR EACH TASK (have I mentioned I'm anal?) That's disgusting.

New Sunday Rules:

1. I will not do anything work-related on the laptop on Sunday between the hours of 12 noon and 9:00 p.m. If I want to work on something in the morning or do a last-minute email check later in the evening, that's OK...but that's it.
2. I will not venture into a mall or grocery store on Sunday.
3. I will spend a maximum of two hours on chores--be it housecleaning, baking, or errands.

This coming weekend is going to be deemed Weekend of Fun and Frolic. I'm making zero plans and I don't even care if I get out of my sweatpants for two whole days. I might even boycott showers. The point of a weekend is to relax, refresh, and above all, not work. This weekend, I will be enjoying a full day of not working. Sunday is going to be my new favourite day of the week.

Browsing Chapters with H2B yesterday, I came across this book on the $20 table:


The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

The title definitely got my attention, and while working four hours a week and making a comfortable living sounds a little far-fetched, I figured there would be some tips and tricks to make working life a little more efficient, so I had a gander at the book.

There were some useful things that popped out at me...how to scan an article really quickly while still getting the gist of it, learning to say 'no' when you have enough on your plate, and so on. Common sense stuff, sure, but who doesn't hedge a little when asked to take on one more thing or waste half an hour reading an article that should have taken two minutes?

I didn't end up buying the book, but a few things jumped out at me from the introductory pages:

"If you've picked up this book, chances are you don't want to sit behind a desk until you are 62."

"What does an igloo-dwelling millionaire do that a cubicle-dweller doesn't? Follow an uncommon set of rules."

"Gold is getting old. The New Rich are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility."

Time and mobility...freedom to do as you please. Means to travel, see the world, come and go. Isn't that really the ultimate wish, even more so than having a boatload of cash? People say if they won the lottery they'd quit their jobs and travel...so doesn't that mean that freedom, flexibility, and mobility are truly the desired aspects, more so than money itself?

When I was little, I'd whine at LEAST five times a day, "I can't wait to be grown up so I can do what I want!" My parents would laugh at me and tell me I better buck up, because I was never going to be able to just do what I want 100% of the time. I'd argue to the point of tears. To my six-year-old self, it didn't seem conceivable that as an adult I wouldn't be able to do what I wanted at any given time. It seemed apparent that as a grown-up I wouldn't ask anyone's permission to do anything, ever. If I felt like going to Disneyland, I'd go. If I wanted chocolate dinner (read: Jello pudding, Fudgee-o's, and chocolate milk, FYI) I'd eat it. I'd have ponies and dogs and ride my bike on the road and NOT wear a helmet, and that was that. Money wasn't really a question. Working wasn't a problem. In my mind, it was my life, and I got to choose what I did, plain and simple.

Fast forward a couple decades (!!!) and I can hear my parents' "I told you so's" loud and clear. Obviously life is nothing like what I had imagined when I was a first grader. But isn't it amazing to think about working four, eight, hell, even 20 hours a week...really productive, full-on hours...and having the rest of the time free? Think about a day where you get to leave the office at noon or even right on time. Isn't that the best feeling? Imagine getting to do that every day! What would you do with all that free time?

I love my career almost 100% of the time, something I don't think a lot of people can say with any degree of honesty. The work is super challenging and there's never a dull moment, but it's engaging, it's interesting, and it's fulfilling. Going from 40+ hours to 4 per week sounds ridiculous and I don't know how I could do it.

I do know that there are a lot of time sucks at work that I'd gladly eliminate if I could, and I know productivity would probably explode like crazy: e-mail, for example. Every time I get an e-mail alert I check it right away. ALWAYS. I can't wait. Then I respond to it, right away. I think a good thing for me to try is checking e-mail once an hour only, then sit back and observe how the world keep turning when a message sits unread in my inbox for 52 minutes. I also have a tendency to stay at my desk during lunch hour, eat a Lean Cuisine and barely look up from my monitor. I don't think the office is going to fall apart if I leave for some fresh air for 45 minutes, yet I have the perception that it's going to.

I'd like to read The 4-Hour Workweek. Am I expecting to cut my billable hours to 4 per week? No way. However, I'm interested in some of the book's messages--learning to ignore the unimportant, offloading unnecessary tasks, and cultivating "selective ignorance". I'm also curious about some of the 4-hour case studies online and will probably check out a couple of examples.

Has anybody read this book? What did you think? How many hours do you work, and what would you do with the extra time if you had a four-hour workweek?