At thoughtbot, we occasionally get to expense a meal when we have certain team-wide or company-wide meetings. I look forward to these events, and each time they happen I get really excited at the idea of having free lunch that day. It’s not a practical thing, I eat lunch every day, but this lunch will be a memorable one. I can get a treat out of the ordinary… my teammates know, my go-to will be in 99.9% of the cases sushi.
I started thinking about this in a more symbolic way, and tried to conceive it as a moment when I allow myself to get a special treat. And this is when something I do at work pours into my life, and it’s an unexpected, positive and refreshing feeling.
I extended this habit to nominate two days a month, when I treat myself with something different: maybe it’s sushi (again). Or it’s stopping by the seaside on my bike ride and taking a few minutes to stare at the horizon, instead of rushing and focusing on the watts and the workout. Or when it’s past the end of the workday, and I realize there’s a piece of code that is not working quite right, is tomorrow’s problem, and it’s time for a break.
I want to allow myself to hit the brakes, stop scrambling left and right, and relax for a little while.
