Keeping Regular Hours and Sticking To Them

When I first retired from my day job to take on the Dot Com Lifestyle, I thought that I’d do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. This proved to be a disaster as the irregular work hours and my well documented short attention span didn’t mesh too well. As a result, I got burnt out for a while and had to refocus. One of the things that I’ve come to employ to assist me with staying focused on the task at hand is to keep regular business hours. 

Hours Of Operation Are…

During the week, Monday to Friday, I start my day at around 10:00am (unless Ed Lau is bugging me to play RockBand2 till wee hours of the morning), and am pretty much done by 6:00PM. I do make the exception when I’m feeling the groove though, and will go till I’m not feeling it anymore. When I’m not feeling it, I’ve learned to shut’er down because I just end up trying to get water out of an empty well. My best work is done when I’m engaged and focused. I do make exceptions when we have an article that needs to launch the next day that needs the final edit, but that’s something that will be eliminated moving forward with scheduling changes. I’ve also found that these late night rushed to finish reviews end up having more mistakes and just don’t reflect the care and quality that Futurelooks is known for.

It’s really important to structure those business hours as well. My days start off with the usual flurry of emails and returning phone calls. It’s my only time to talk real people usually and I tend to get a lot covered in those conversations, versus trying to construct a coherent email. I also touch base with the writers and check on work in progress to try to make sure that we can keep to our promised deadlines. Keeping people focused, keeps me focused. Next comes lunch and then my other duties, but I’m sure this could be better elaborated in its own post of my typical day.

Everybody’s Working For the Weekend…Except Me…

Weekends are always off no matter what. This also sort of makes up for those Stat Holidays I no longer get. Although it’s easy to just write off Friday when no one is cracking the whip on you, I do try to stay engaged till the final hour, as long as I’m feeling the groove. Having the weekend to look forward to further engages me to keep driving through the week. When I was working at all hours of the day in the beginning, picking up work whenever I wanted, I was really unfocused and found it really hard to finish something I started. Having a real end to the week, and a beginning and completion of each day has really helped me maintain consistent focus, while having the option to disengage when I’m not “pushable” has allowed me to recharge for the next day.

If you’re working for yourself, and finding that you’re just not as productive or as focused as you used to be when you were runnng the 9-5 gauntlet, maybe it’s time to take a page out of that play book and run it for a while. Try setting your hours and sticking to them and get more done within them. When it’s time to quit, don’t keep working. Quit and rest for the next day. It’s worked for me. It might work for you.

The Elbow Room Cafe – Breakfast for Ladies Only…

On the corner of Davie and Richards, near the trendy Yaletown area of Downtown Vancouver, there’s a little breakfast joint hidden away amongst a million coffee shops and boutique stores. Stores that range from places that sell mens only skin care products, to places that only wash and blow dry your hair…no cutting. You’ll also find tons of women wearing Lululemon and men that didn’t get the memo about dudes being forbidden from wearing it (Hi Tyler!).

The Elbow Room Cafe is a well worn local eatery that specializes in breakfast all day and is home to clientelle ranging from your typical Yuppies to Movie Stars, and of course everyone in between. Strangely, it’s the product of an insurance adjuster and an ex-teacher. However, no matter who you are, you are not exempt from their unique style of abuse. Everyone is greeted at the door as a couple of ladies, though I’m pretty sure they mean it more when they are talking about Ed Lau, connoisseur of such things as the said mens skin care products in the previous paragraph. Want coffee? Get it yourself. Need service? They’ll be right with you…when they are done talking. If this offends you, Denny’s is on the other side of Burrard. I guess after all those years of abuse in insurance and teaching, this is pay back.

After partially recovering from a coma induced by Cleaning and Jerking for four hours, the previous day, I was in need of sustanance and ordered up the comforts of something called “The New Yorker” which consisted of two large poached eggs served over a mixture of mushrooms, onion, tomato, bacon and pepperoni in a spicy tomato-BBQ sauce. All of this is tossed on top of a couple of toasted croissants, with a nice ladel of hollandaise sauce to finish it off. Not only is it messy and sloppy, but it’s also a great cure for a hangover and wonderfully delicious in the most non-nutritious way.

Kelly had the “Hillary Swank” Omelet aka the “Don’t Make Me Cry”. I have no clue why but if you had to finish it, you’d cry because it’s absolutely enormous. Made of cream cheese, avocado, sauteed spinach and tomato, it destroys anything health beneficial by being absolutely gargantuan. This is followed by a side of generously buttered toast. If you toss in a few chocolate chip pancakes and three fried egg sandwhiches and they could call this the “Michael Phelps Breakfast“. There was enough stuff inside this one omelet to make two regular ones. Stingy on the service but not stingy on the food.

If you don’t finish your dish, not only do you get called a lady again and verbally abused, but you’ll also get charged a couple of extra dollars on your bill that goes directly to feeding the less fortunate that are afflicted with AIDS. Mean to you. Good to the people that need it.

If you’re looking for someone to suck ass for a tip, then turn around and leave. This ain’t no IHOP. But if you’re looking for a place that’s different, that has some great comfort food plus some very charismatic servers, and you don’t mind getting your own coffee, then check out the Elbow Room Cafe next time you’re in the Vancouver area.

Cleaning and Jerking in Vancouver – The Video

Set to the soothing sounds of Kanye West’s “Stronger”, this video highlighs the cleaning and jerkng activities of the Vancouver Clean and Jerk Clinic hosted by Kelly Frankson at the CrossFit Vancouver gym this past weekend. Enjoy!

I think this weekend I’m going to take it easy and do some Dot Com Pho complete with greasy spring rolls, crack coffee, and various animal parts. Need to put back what this clinic took out of me