The Siesta Work Lifestyle
Last week was the first week of me working remotely . On my first remote day, I just did the regular 8-5. It felt weird to do anything else. After all, that's what I'm used to for most of my working life.
But on the second day, I felt exhausted and unproductive at 3pm. I just couldn't do anything else even if I wanted to. The truth is, 3pm is around the time I get exhausted during the day in the office. But, in the office, you can just stick out for an hour or two at that point and "look productive" and it's all good.
Working remotely is different. If you're not doing your work, it's pretty obvious. So, instead of doing nothing and "pretending to work" with nobody to give me credit for pretending, I just messaged my team that I'll be out for a bit and will finish up in the evening.
I ran an errand, got back to my room, took a break, and then around 6pm, I was fully refreshed and I could work again! I was now super focused and productive. I continued more or less this type of routine for the rest of the week and really loved it.
I'm not surprised. I recently went to Spain, where Siesta is a real thing - between 4pm and 8pm everything is closed. My friend recently told me that the reason for this is that it gets so hot there at those times during the summer, that you can't do anything even if you wanted to!
I was in Spain for at a professional event where I had to work remotely with a team in San Francisco. So my schedule consisted of waking up early, working a few hours, going to the professional event and socializing in the early afternoon, taking a nap around 3pm, and then working again around 6pm. I LOVED that schedule.
While I'm still new to being remote and experimenting with the ideal schedule for myself, I love the productivity and freedom that comes with being able to work when you're in the right mindset to work and take a break when you need it.