In June, my fiancée and I went to Bordeaux for a wedding. Our flight was early, so we had to wake up at 4:45 AM. We didn’t get enough sleep, but when we were sitting in a café right next to a beautiful bell tower at lunch time, having a chicken salad and an amazing flan pâtissier, aka custard tart, I was amazed: “It’s 1 PM, and we’ve basically put in a whole workday’s worth of work.”
On vacation, the term “work” is relative, of course. But going to the station, taking a train, boarding a flight, navigating into a new city, settling into a temporary home, venturing out to find food—all of these can be considered work, and we did deal with all of them over the course of eight hours, an average workday.
Besides highlighting the benefits of waking up early, however, the event also made me reflect on the relative nature of “a day’s work” overall. On some days, I work overtime yet still feel behind. If all I’m doing is reacting to immediate and seemingly urgent but ultimately unimportant requests, I won’t feel satisfied no matter how much I do. On other days, I might feel down or slow, but if I can wrap up one meaningful milestone or help someone really lighten their workload, I can rest assured I’ve done my part for the day.
A committed traveler can switch locations and make it to their next stop before someone else makes it to lunch. A great coder in flow can do “a day’s work” in two hours. Don’t look back on how much time has passed. Consider how you feel when you look back. In your heart, you’ll always know when you’ve done enough.
