Motivation Monday: The beach takes on the office

By Loralyn Mears PhD Loralyn Mears PhD has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on July 1, 2019

Need some Monday motivation?

Is that fabulous weather tempting you? This is for those of you who slog through your Monday mornings. If you lament the end of the weekend and dread returning to the office, you may need our Motivation Monday quick tips. Grit Daily offers an avenue to connect with others like you. We’re here to help get your work week off to a good start. Pump your fists – it’s time for Motivation Monday!

Making choices

Hooray! It finally feels like summer around most of the country. Of course, many regions are now in the triple digits so that’s a bit hotter than most of us like it, but hey. At least we’ve finally strung together a few 90° sunny days in a row. And there’s hope that we’ll have a sunny 4th around the country later this week but that’s still TBD.

Canada, who is celebrating their Independence Day today, didn’t luck out with fabulous weather for the long weekend. So, we’ll send some sunshine up their way in order for summer to finally begin up there! Happy Canada Day to all my peeps north of the 49th! Stay tuned, I’ll be doing an ode to Canada with its glorious poutine, maple syrup pie and other delectables in an upcoming Wine Down and Chill column, which I also write for Grit Daily each Friday…

I’d rather be …

…anywhere but here. Yup. So would I.

Lucky for me that the recent burst of wonderful weather and respite from the daily monsoons has afforded me with the opportunity to work outside on my patio. Ahhh. My patio is peaceful and inspirational. But, as the days get warmer, the lure of the beach gets stronger.

The kids are only in half-day camps, which means they are home for a big chunk of the day. Translation? They will WEAR. YOU. DOWN. Until you drive them to wherever it is they want to go. Which is usually the beach. Hence, precisely the time that you need a Motivation Monday column at your fingertips to keep you on track!

Is your work flexible?

Although most employers relax dress codes and many even reduce working hours during the summer, it’s still hard to fight the pull of the sun. We’re really not much different than cats and dogs in this regard: we seek out that elusive sunbeam. You know, the one that we see for less than a month or two per year? After, of course, slogging through five or six months of dull, grey winters.

The sun compels us to take notice. Its warmth tantalizes us and invites us to pause and embrace it. Those sun rays are glorious! The energy emitted by the sun is absorbed and we harness that energy to use it for functions other than keeping our bodies warm, just as cats and dogs do.

But, insert crushing reality, we have work to do. Monday Motivation is desperately needed on Tues, Wed and so on, particularly during those much anticipated two months of summer. So how do you keep on track with your To Do list and deadlines?

Tips to stay productive during the summer

#1 – honor your employer/client

You’ve been tasked with an assignment which requires your attention to complete it. Whether it’s a small project or a full-time salaried job, whoever is paying you to do that work expects it to be done. Don’t short-change your employer or client. Honor them by doing the work.

#2 – indulge just a little

Okay, literally ten words ago, I said to honor your employer. Now, here I’m stating, “indulge yourself.” Indeed, you can do both. It’s all about balance. Give yourself a little break, but only AFTER you’ve done the work. Consider it a reward for a quality job done. Talk about Monday Motivation to dangle a beach run upon hitting the milestone or deadline!

#3 – remember why you’re doing it in the first place

Perspective is something that is easily lost. That all-consuming and uber powerful sunbeam is a formidable foe when it comes to Monday motivation and doing your work versus skipping out on it. In fact, in just one hour, the sun sends more energy down to Earth than the entire world consumes in one year: for my science geek readers, that’s 430 quintillion Joules. As in 18 zeros. As in LOTS! So, it’s going to be tough to fight. Dig in, dig deep and remember why you’re doing the work in the first place.

Inspired today by Jack Nilles

Admittedly, I had to look him up, too. I didn’t know who Jack Nilles was but I knew that I had to honor him here today. Jack is largely regarded as the Father of Telecommunicating. In short, he enabled people to work from home. His provocative manifesto on the subject inspired tremendous advances and inventions in telecommunications. Many of which we take for granted today but these advances have been pivotal in enabling us to work where and when we please.

There is a comprehensive article on the history of working from home which highlights how creatives, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s found outlets to avoid going into the office. Creativity strikes at all hours and the confines of smoke-filled offices 9-5 just weren’t cutting it. So the creatives retreated with their sketchpads and other media. But the non-creatives took notice and began challenging the status quo.

Working from home the beach

Mr. Nilles and his co-authors, in their 1973 publication, “The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff: Options for Tomorrow,” were significantly more advanced in their thinking that than their contemporaries. Spurred by the oil crisis, a recent Clean Air Act and other influences, the authors scripted how advances in communications technology could revolutionize the American workplace. Little did they know how much it would influence us. So much, in fact, that they enabled us to have first-world problems like deciding if we should risk getting some sand in our electronics by “working from the beach” today or choosing to head into the office.

Either the jobs of the employees must be redesigned so that they can still be self-contained at each individual location, or a sufficiently sophisticated telecommunications and information-storage system must be developed to allow the information transfer to occur as effectively as if the employees were centrally collocated.” ~Jack Nilles

 

By Loralyn Mears PhD Loralyn Mears PhD has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Journalist verified by Muck Rack verified

Dr. Loralyn Mears is a Columnist at Grit Daily and a podcast host (The Grit Files, which aims to shine the spotlight on female founders). She is a content marketer, founder of the WORKtech startup, STEERus, specializing in personal and professional development to address gaps in soft skills - communication in particular. In her consultancy practice, she helps clients with content and strategy. Loralyn spent over a decade playing with mosquito DNA, got her PhD, decided she would rather market science than be at the bench and has never looked back. Along the way, she’s wined and dined her way around the globe. She's authored two books, including the 2018 Gold Medal Indie Book award-winning, One Sip At a Time: a Memoir and the hard science thriller, "The Battle for Humanity: How Science Saved Us." 

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