Enjoy some down time 🏝️

This is the 6th petal snapshot of spring 2024. And today I'm going to be talking about downtime. So on Friday, I actually took the day off work. My wife had finished her school holidays. She suggested we take a bit of a spa weekend or night away or something like that. So we booked a spa break just for the one night locally as well. I took the day off work and had the best day. It was so relaxing, it was so enjoyable. Hence the e in petals. Enjoying. I was really content. It was lovely just to kind of turn off for a day, go and enjoy myself. We went for a bit of brunch, went for a bit of shopping, had a spa and all that good stuff and a few meals. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed myself. And it was a reminder we do need to look after ourselves at work as well. The petals framework, as much as it's more about work, it's also about life and balance. Making sure you've got everything in a good place. I knew with my teams that I would not gonna be missed for a day. I knew that all the people that needed to be around to do what needs to be done. And I felt comfortable in the fact that I was just gonna be away for a day. And the other thing I've realized is there are a lot of people that just don't take enough holiday. We've got a few projects up against the wire at the moment. We are getting to that critical point, even to the point where some people were working over weekends recently. So we've provided time off in loo for when they need it and when we can actually use it. But I will be holding them accountable to make sure they're using that time off in lieu. You know, timeout is good for you. It's good to mentally rejuvenate. It clears the cobwebs of all those, you know, muddled thoughts. In fact, it might even spark some eureka, bigger thinking moments as well. It's good for the body and soul and, you know, the general feeling stress builds up. I had a massage while I was at the spa and I felt so much better when they're asking at the start, what are you doing this for? It was generally to unwind. I felt so good after half an hour massage. If you get the opportunity to have a massage through work or however take it, it's really good for you. And honestly, with quite stressful jobs nowadays and careers, it's really worth planning around that, you know, half an hour in the whole, know, week of grand scheme of things. It's not much time at all. So, yeah, today was all about enjoyment. Friday was. Anyway, today is Monday. I'm back into it. I'm gonna have a great week, don't get me wrong. And I'm hoping there's gonna be a lot more little eureka moments like Friday that I can share with you all on these petals snapshots. I'll be back again tomorrow with another thought about the petals framework.