applied mint rubbing: escape from routine
ok, so you're at the office. bored as hell, or perhaps working your ass off
on some god forsaken project that never seems to get done. the weekend is only days
away, but that's not necessarily something to look forward to.
because the weekend is the
only time when you can take care of the million little chores that need to be done
around the house; visit all those friends that have been bugging you for months and who if
you don't get to see will turn from friends into people you know; visit relatives or go to weddings (worse); work on millions of little projects that for some reason seem important but never really are; get involved in boring little hobbies with people you don't necessarily want to see on a regular basis; do things for other people; plan activities with loved ones (worse); do the shopping for next week; generally go to places, see people and do things you don't really want to.
weekends are planned weeks in advance; with all the things that need to be done, saturdays and sunday become regular working days - the only thing that's different is you're supposed to relax.
and so weeks pass. months pass. the annual vacation or some major holiday is fastly approaching. but that's not
necessarily a reason to jump for joy either. annual vacations are planned months in advance. and instead of the blissful time you've been waiting for all year, all the vacation turns up to be is a prolonged weekend: a time to take care of chores - but these chores take days, not hours; a time to visit relatives, but stay for days instead of hours; to visit friends; to negotiate with loved ones where and when you can go and "relax", and what you can do once you get there; a time to go to places, see people and do things that you may or may not really want to. and then it's back to work.
and so years pass. entire lives pass. and the more you want to escape, the stronger the routine becomes.
if you've been looking for a way to escape, look no more. from time to time you can change all of this, and it's not that hard either. actually it can be done in three easy steps:
1. finish reading this article
2. go to your boss and tell him that you're taking an unscheduled day off tomorrow
3. tomorrow stay at home and do nothing.
it's that simple. but it doesn't work if you don't do it now; the more you think about it, the more reasons you'll find to postpone the entire thing and ultimately not do it. it doesn't work if you plan things for your day off; the more you plan, the more your day off will become a shitty half-weekend with all the chores you will end up doing.
in case you're wondering about what happens to projects you're working on, who will take care of things that need to be done at the office, or maybe about the fate of the universe while you're taking a break, allow me to present a number of things that did or did not happen while i took an unscheduled day off myself:
1. the company i work for did not tumble and fall, or go bankrupt while i was away;
2. urgent projects and tasks that were of vital importance found a way to get delayed and/or get done without my presence at the office;
3. ultimately, the earth did not cease its regularly scheduled rotation around the sun and life as we know it generally did not change.
if you're thinking whether you'll be allowed to take a day off at all, consider this: if you become very sick, get hit by a car, have your house broken into or have something similarly bad happen, taking a day off is understandable and even recommended. why, then, if the reason is your own well-being, should anyone object? no one needs to know the real reason by the way - just think of a crisis while you're reading this article.
in case you're wondering what to do with an entire unscheduled day off, a situation you might not have experienced since you were five, here are a couple of suggestions based on my personal experience:
1. sleep late
2. have a long breakfast and enjoy yourself instead of rushing it for fear of being late for work
3. stay at home instead of going insane due to traffic conditions and/or the public transportation system
4. do nothing
5. turn off all phones and go to sleep in the middle of the day
6. take a long and relaxing bath
7. do nothing
8. listen to loud music
9. have a good lunch all by yourself instead of the crappy junk food sorry excuse for a lunch at the office
10. do nothing
10. watch tv without any particular show or movie in mind
11. do nothing
12. write an article on how cool it is to do nothing and post it on mintrubbing.org.
13. go to sleep late.
well, you've reached the end of this article and thus completed step one of your escape from routine. the second step is to go to your boss and tell him you're taking a day off tomorrow.
now go.
wfoster
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